5.0 on Google & Clutch 96%LIVE of calls answered in under 60 seconds by our local Huntington Beach team

Email Security for Orange County Businesses

Email is still the front door for phishing, invoice fraud and ransomware. Managed Care includes email security that stops most attacks before they reach an inbox, the domain records that stop criminals sending as you, and a help desk your team can call when a message looks wrong.

96%LIVE of calls answered in under 60 seconds by our local Huntington Beach team 24×7 NOC & SOC monitoring SOC 2 Type II all five Trust Services Criteria On-site support, included 5.0 on Google & Clutch

A laptop on an office table with a padlock and “Secured” on the screen

Email security · layered on Microsoft 365

Phishing and spoofing stopped before the inbox.

Advanced filtering catches malicious links, impersonation and look-alike domains on top of Microsoft’s own filtering, and SPF, DKIM and DMARC at enforcement stop criminals sending email as you. Real mail from real customers goes straight through.

  • Advanced filtering on top of Microsoft 365
  • SPF, DKIM and DMARC moved to enforcement safely
  • Alerts on risky sign-ins and new inbox rules
  • Training and phishing tests for the rest
Bad email stopped, real email delivered A phishing email and a spoofed sender are stopped at the email security filter, with SPF, DKIM and DMARC checked, while a real customer’s email goes straight through to the inbox — and Zero-hour Auto Purge pulls any threat found after delivery back out of every inbox to the email security service, where it’s deleted. Phishing link Spoofed sender Real customer Email securitylinks, attachmentsand senders checked Inboxclean mail only SPF DKIM DMARC Zero-hour auto purge pulled from inboxes after delivery Only clean mail gets through ✓

Technology partners

The platforms behind Email Security

See our partners →
  • Proofpoint logo
  • Microsoft logo
  • KnowBe4 logo
  • Cisco Duo logo

Layers that stop email attacks

  • 01 · Filter

    Advanced email filtering

    Malicious links and attachments, impersonation and look-alike domains are caught before they reach an inbox, on top of Microsoft 365’s own filtering.

    Inbound filtering
  • 02 · Prove it’s you

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC

    Your domain’s records set up correctly and moved to DMARC enforcement safely, so criminals can’t send email as you.

    DMARC p=reject
  • 03 · Protect accounts

    MFA and sign-in alerts

    MFA and conditional access on every mailbox, with alerts on risky sign-ins and new forwarding or inbox rules — a common sign of a hijacked account.

    Conditional access
  • 04 · Train

    A team that spots the rest

    Annual security awareness training and quarterly simulated phishing for every user.

    Phishing tests
  • 05 · Ask us

    Report it, we check it

    Not sure about a message? One click on the Phish Alert button in Outlook sends it to our team to check and takes it out of the inbox — and a real engineer is a phone call away: 96%LIVE of calls are answered in under 60 seconds.

    Phish Alert button · call us
  • Start here

    Check your domain

    Our free Email & DNS Security Check reads your domain’s SPF, DKIM and DMARC records and grades them, with plain-English fixes.

    Email & DNS Security Check

Check your domain now

Our free email security check reads your public DNS records and grades your SPF, DKIM and DMARC setup in seconds — nothing is sent or stored. If your grade isn’t an A, that’s something Managed Care fixes for you.

Business email compromise: one of the costliest email crimes

The most expensive attacks don’t carry malware at all. A criminal takes over a vendor’s mailbox — or registers a look-alike domain — and sends a perfectly normal-looking email: “our bank details have changed.” Filtering helps, but the real fix is a rule your team follows every time: verify any change to payment details by calling a number you already have. See a real example in Spot the Phish, and the scams that peak at year-end in Holiday Season Cybersecurity: What Orange County Businesses Should Do Before the Break.

Email security is one layer of our managed cybersecurity services, alongside dark web monitoring, a managed Keeper password manager, SentinelOne MxDR and our 24×7 SOC. Moving to Microsoft 365? See Microsoft 365 migration and management.

Run the free email security check Talk to us about email security

What sets us apart

Fast response, deep security, senior expertise and engineers on-site.

<60 sec to a live engineer

Response time you can measure

96%LIVE of calls are answered by an engineer in under 60 seconds, every ticket is assigned in under 10 minutes, and every email or portal ticket gets a real engineer within 20 minutes (Mon–Fri, 5 AM–6 PM). Calls never go to voicemail during service desk hours, and the same team is on call 24×7.

See the live numbers →

24×7 NOC & SOC MSSP-grade security

A security provider, not just an IT provider

We operate as a managed security service provider (MSSP): SentinelOne MxDR, a 24×7 NOC & SOC, managed SIEM, DefensX browser security, security awareness training, vulnerability management, penetration testing and CMMC support — run by a team audited for SOC 2 Type II across all five Trust Services Criteria.

Our security services →

55+ years of combined experience

Senior technical expertise behind every ticket

Led by hands-on co-founders Kevin Nichols and Joe Kemp, with 55+ years of combined IT experience. Every engineer passes a technical assessment, we staff above our workload, and nobody works on something they’ve never seen before without an experienced engineer alongside — no call center, no offshore tier.

Meet the founders →

On-site included, no trip fees

Engineers who come to you

When hands-on work is needed, a local engineer is dispatched from our Huntington Beach office. On-site support is included in Managed Care — no dispatch fees, trip charges or hourly on-site rates — from the same team that knows your environment.

Areas we serve →

We re-earn your business on every ticket. No contract ever replaces doing the work well. Every user who opens a ticket gets a satisfaction survey when it closes, and every score is visible to our whole team and leadership — the averages are published live for anyone to see.

See our survey results →

Best-of-breed, by design

Industry-leading tools, chosen and run by engineers

We’re technology agnostic: we don’t resell a single vendor’s bundle or push the platform with the best margin. Every tool we recommend is a best-of-breed industry leader — selected, tested and configured by our own engineers because it’s right for your business.

Our leadership team is highly technical. Our co-founders, Kevin Nichols and Joe Kemp, are hands-on engineers, not just managers, and they constantly re-evaluate our tools and service offering — retiring what falls behind and adding what keeps clients ahead. You get enterprise-class technology that keeps improving, without lifting a finger.

  • SentinelOneMxDR endpoint protection
  • Microsoft DefenderPlan 2 & Intune device management
  • QualysVulnerability management
  • LiongardConfiguration & change monitoring
  • NinjaOneRemote monitoring & patching
  • 24×7 NOC & SOCManaged SIEM & threat hunting
  • Veeam + AzureBackup & off-site replication
  • Azure Site RecoveryCloud disaster recovery

Just some of the technologies we use.

Email Security FAQs

Isn’t Microsoft 365’s built-in filtering enough?

It catches a lot of spam and known malware. A dedicated email security layer adds deeper checks on links and attachments, impersonation and look-alike domain detection, and alerts on suspicious inbox rules — the things business email compromise relies on.

What are SPF, DKIM and DMARC?

Three DNS records that prove your email is really from you. SPF lists the servers allowed to send for your domain, DKIM signs each message, and DMARC tells receiving servers what to do with mail that fails — ideally reject it.

Will DMARC block our own email?

Not if it’s done carefully. We start by monitoring DMARC reports, find every service that sends as you — your CRM, invoicing system, newsletter tool — and move to full enforcement in stages.

Is email security included in Managed Care?

Yes. Email security, SPF, DKIM and DMARC setup and monitoring, and security awareness training are part of every Managed Care plan.

How can I check my domain today?

Run our free email security check. It reads your public DNS records and grades your SPF, DKIM and DMARC setup in seconds.

Success stories

Rated 5.0 on Google and Clutch.

Real reviews from the businesses we support — not a curated quote wall.

★★★★★Google
“Knowledgeable and proactive group that partners with you to assure your objectives are met, along with planning for future needs. All balanced with supporting your business day in and day out with a friendly, responsive and competent help desk. Recommend and would select them again!”
Tom G
★★★★★Google
“CAL IT has been a game changer for us. They tackle issues quickly and efficiently for us. So grateful their expertise. I highly recommend their services.”
Kelli Foudy
★★★★★Google
“We have worked with Cal It for several years now, They are very responsive and professional. We would highly recommend them.”
Cathy Goff

Customer service first · we re-earn your business on every ticket

Obsessive about service. Relentless about the details.

CAL IT Group brings enterprise-class IT, cybersecurity and SOC 2 Type II–audited operational excellence to small and midsize businesses across Southern California — a customer service organization first and foremost, proven day in and day out for over 10 years.

Call 866.24.CALIT