When the cost of something goes up, it’s only natural to stop and ask whether you’re still getting your money’s worth. Microsoft 365 is about to prompt exactly that question. From 1 July 2026, commercial Microsoft 365 pricing is changing, with existing customers seeing the new prices at their next renewal after that date.
It’s tempting to treat a renewal as a cost conversation and little else. But a higher bill is a good reason to look harder at value – and for most businesses, the real value of Microsoft 365 isn’t just in the licence itself. It lies in whether or not your email and accounts are genuinely protected. Before you commit to another term, it’s worth a quick Microsoft 365 security review to check you’re actually getting the Office 365 protection you already pay for.
More Cost Should Mean More Clarity
When a renewal lands, the cost line gets all the attention, and the security line is quietly assumed to be handled. Microsoft sets the defaults, the thinking goes, and those defaults cover the basics. Five years ago, that assumption mostly held, but less so now.
The problem is that few businesses can say with any confidence what their current setup actually catches and where it stops. That uncertainty is the real gap, and it tends to widen quietly across a couple of renewal cycles as staff, suppliers, and threats all change around a configuration that hasn’t.
If you’re paying more, you should understand more. A Microsoft 365 security review turns the renewal into a moment of clarity rather than guesswork: a short exercise that tells you exactly what you’re covered for and, just as importantly, what you’re not.
Email Security Is More Than Spam Filtering
Ask most people what their email security does and they’ll describe a spam filter. That’s part of it, and for bulk junk and known malware the built-in tools do a reasonable job. The trouble is that the attacks causing real damage no longer look like spam. They look entirely ordinary.
The messages that do the most harm tend to take a few familiar forms:
- Impersonation: A supplier confirms new bank details, or an urgent request appears to come from a director
- Credential theft: Fake Microsoft 365 login pages are built to capture a password and the code behind it
- Malicious links and attachments: These route staff to a convincing but fraudulent page
- Business email compromise: An attacker uses a trusted identity to redirect a payment
Each of these is designed specifically to slip past a filter tuned to catch the obvious.
The scale is hard to ignore. The latest Government Cyber Security Breaches Survey found phishing was the most common attack type, experienced by 38% of businesses, and the most disruptive for 69% of those it affected. Proper email security services are built for exactly these messages: the ones that look entirely legitimate.
Account Takeover Can Disrupt the Whole Business
The most damaging email attacks can start quietly. Rather than impersonating someone from the outside, an attacker uses stolen credentials to get inside a real mailbox and waits. They read how payments are approved, learn which suppliers are due to be paid, and study how people talk to one another. By the time they act, every message they send carries the authority of a genuine, trusted account.
That’s what makes account takeover so disruptive. One compromised inbox can be turned against the business in three ways:
- Financial — payments redirected or fraudulent invoices approved, often difficult to recover once the money has moved
- Data exposure — confidential client and supplier information is read or stolen, which can bring obligations under UK GDPR
- Reputational — the loss of trust when customers receive scam messages from your genuine account, which, for smaller firms, often outlasts the financial hit
The numbers bear it out. The FBI’s most recent Annual Internet Crime Report put business email compromise losses at $3.04 billion in 2025, up from $2.77 billion the year before. Strong account takeover protection is what stops a stolen password from becoming one of those cases.
Backup and Recovery Still Matter for Email
There’s a common assumption that because email lives in Microsoft’s cloud, Microsoft is keeping a copy of it. It isn’t, at least not in the way most people imagine. Under the shared responsibility model, Microsoft provides the availability and durability of the service, while customers are responsible for managing and protecting their own data.
That distinction matters most on the worst day. The recycle bin and retention settings are time-limited, and replication is not a backup: deleted or corrupted data simply replicates in the same state, so if a mailbox is hit by ransomware, the cloud copy is affected too. Without a separate copy, there may be nothing to restore from.
This is why cloud-to-cloud email backup belongs in any serious conversation about Office 365 protection. Being able to recover a clean mailbox quickly is often the difference between a contained incident and days of disruption – and it’s part of what our email security services are built to provide.
The Right Partner Helps You Get the Protection You’re Paying For
In most cases, the solution for strengthening your protection comes down to something simple: someone sitting down with your specific setup, working out where your current cover ends, and being clear about where the real risk sits.
That’s the value a good IT partner brings to a renewal. Rather than guessing whether the bundled tools are enough, you get a straight answer on what you’re protected against and what’s worth strengthening, from account security and user behaviour through to backup and recovery. The aim is better Office 365 protection without unnecessary complexity or cost.
MT Services has spent decades helping businesses get practical, proportionate value from their IT. If you’d like a second opinion on your current setup ahead of renewal, we’ll take a look and tell you what we find.
Rather than letting assumptions decide how well your Microsoft 365 email is protected. Talk to us about your current setup before your next renewal. We’ll look at where the gaps are and what’s worth strengthening.
Get in touch with us today to discuss your email security and next steps.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Microsoft 365 security in Birmingham actually involve?
Microsoft 365 security in Birmingham involves protecting your accounts, email, and data with multi-factor authentication (MFA), threat protection, and monitoring for suspicious activity. Strong Microsoft 365 protection in Birmingham pairs the right licence settings with ongoing oversight.
Will the Microsoft 365 price change affect my security features?
Microsoft 365 pricing changes from 1 July 2026, with existing customers seeing new prices at their next renewal. Use the renewal to confirm which email security features your licence includes and whether you need added protection.
How does business email compromise protection work?
Business email compromise protection works by combining email filtering, MFA, and impersonation detection with monitoring and a clear response plan. It stops fraudulent payments and account takeover before they cause a loss.
