HTS Voice & Data Systems Leverages Advanced Business Email Compromise Technology to Protect Customers from Cyberattacks
October 16th, 2026
Leading MTSP Helps Block Email-Based Attacks, the Preferred Vector for Hackers
HTS Voice & Data Systems, a leading managed technology services provider (MTSP), announced today that the company is deploying the latest in advanced email and account protection technology to help small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) defend against Business Email Compromise (BEC), phishing, and other increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks that reach employees through their inboxes.
For years, employees were told to look for obvious warning signs in a suspicious email: misspelled words, poor grammar, strange formatting, or awkward language. That advice is becoming far less effective. Cybercriminals now use artificial intelligence (AI) to create polished, professional emails in seconds. Attackers research a company, identify its executives and vendors, learn how employees communicate, and then write messages that look remarkably similar to legitimate business correspondence. In advanced cases, they build deepfake videos or audio recordings to impersonate managers.
“Most people still picture a scam email as something obviously fake,” said Troy Salinas, President of HTS Voice & Data Systems. “But those easy clues are disappearing. Today, a fraudulent message can use your employee’s real name, reference an actual vendor, sound like your CEO and look almost identical to the messages your team receives every day. Historically, awkward phrasing or spelling mistakes were dead giveaways, but as AI has become more sophisticated, so too have hackers’ methods. That is what makes this new generation of attacks so dangerous.”
Email remains the preferred attack vector for the majority of social engineering breaches, according to Verizon’s 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report. One of the most common forms of email-based fraud is Business Email Compromise. A BEC attack occurs when a criminal impersonates someone the employee trusts, such as an executive, coworker, customer, or vendor. In some cases, the criminal simply creates a convincing fake email. In more advanced attacks, the criminal gains access to a legitimate employee’s email account.
Once inside, the attacker is significantly more difficult to detect. They study existing conversations, learn which vendors the company works with, and wait for the right moment to insert themselves into a real transaction. From a hijacked mailbox, a cybercriminal can send a fake request to change payment instructions, redirect an invoice, ask an employee to purchase gift cards, or send additional phishing messages from an account the company already trusts.
“If somebody breaks into an employee’s real mailbox, they do not have to pretend to be that employee anymore,” Salinas said. “They are that employee as far as everyone receiving the email is concerned. They can see the conversations, understand the relationships, and send something at exactly the right moment. That is why protecting the inbox alone is no longer enough.”
To address that problem, HTS Voice & Data Systems recommends a layered approach designed to protect organizations both before and after an attempted account compromise. The first layer works like an intelligent security checkpoint for email. Instead of simply searching messages for known viruses or suspicious words, the technology analyzes the email itself and the context surrounding it. It examines whether the sender appears legitimate, whether a domain is attempting to imitate a trusted company, whether a link or attachment appears dangerous, and whether the message resembles known phishing or impersonation techniques. Suspicious emails can then be blocked or quarantined before the employee ever has an opportunity to interact with them.
But no security system can assume that every attack will be stopped at the front door. That is why another layer continuously looks for signs that someone may have successfully gained access to an employee’s Microsoft 365 account. It can identify unusual login behavior, suspicious activity inside a mailbox, unauthorized forwarding rules, stolen sessions, and other behaviors that may indicate the person operating the account is not actually the employee. When suspicious account activity is discovered, technology can help contain the incident quickly by ending unauthorized sessions, disabling methods attackers use to maintain access, removing malicious email rules, and retracting phishing messages that may have already been sent to other employees. That speed matters, because a compromised employee account can quickly become a company-wide problem: an attacker who takes over one mailbox can use that trusted identity to target coworkers, customers, and vendors.
“The goal is not to make everyone afraid of email,” Salinas concluded. “It is too valuable of a tool and it is not going anywhere. The goal is to give employees the freedom to do their jobs while our technology protects them. Cybercriminals are using AI, so businesses have to respond with better technology as well. Our job is to make sure our clients are not fighting today’s attacks with yesterday’s defenses.”
About HTS Voice & Data Systems
Trusted technology that connects, protects, and empowers your business - with integrity since 1986. For nearly four decades, HTS Voice & Data Systems has been a trusted provider of business technology solutions throughout Central and South Texas. Founded on the values of integrity, reliability, and service, we specialize in delivering integrated communication, IT, and security systems that help businesses operate smarter, safer, and more efficiently. As a locally owned company with deep roots in the community, we take pride in building lasting partnerships through transparency, personalized support, and a commitment to doing what's right - every time.
Talk to HTS About Email Security
Every business inbox is a target, and the attacks arriving today rarely look like the scams your team was trained to spot. HTS Voice & Data Systems pairs managed IT services with cybersecurity to layer email filtering, account monitoring, and fast incident response around your Microsoft 365 environment, so a single compromised password does not turn into a company-wide problem. Call (210) 495-5520 or contact us to review how well your email and accounts are protected.
Posted in: Company News, Cybersecurity