How Pentagon Freight Services Strengthened Phishing Detection and Response Across Global Logistics Operations

The Client

Pentagon Freight Services is a global freight forwarding and logistics company founded in the UK in 1974. The company specialises in working with the oil and gas industry, and operates in 35 countries with 72 branch locations and around 1,400 staff. They provide a door-to-door service for clients around the world, coordinating shipments via air, sea, and land.

Customer Challenges

• Phishing and email-based fraud presented a high business risk, with attackers targeting human error and trusted communication channels.
• Existing preventative controls, including email filtering, antivirus, multi-factor authentication, and user training, could not provide full visibility across suspicious activity.
• The lean internal IT team had limited capacity to build and operate a dedicated cyber security function.

ThreatDefence Solution

• Delivered a cost-effective, end-to-end SecOps platform, including SIEM, 24x7 SOC, threat detection, investigation, and response capability.
• Provided deep visibility across security telemetry to help detect suspicious activity earlier and support timely investigation and response.
• Extended Pentagon Freight Service’s internal IT capability with specialist cyber security expertise and hands-on support.

Phishing and email-based fraud remain among the hardest risks for IT teams to control. Even when strong preventative measures are in place, attackers can still exploit trusted relationships, compromised accounts, and normal business communication channels.

For Pentagon Freight Services, this was a serious business risk. The organisation already had email security, antivirus, multi-factor authentication, and user training in place. However, the team recognised that phishing remained a high-risk area and that prevention alone was not enough. They needed to improve how quickly suspicious activity could be detected, investigated, and contained.

Jeremy Smith, Global IT Director at Pentagon Freight, explains:

“We had security measures in place, including email security, antivirus, two-factor authentication, and user training. But phishing remained a high-risk area for the business. We needed to act before suspicious activity could turn into a serious financial or operational impact.”

Without the capacity to build a dedicated internal cyber security team, Pentagon Freight Services knew it needed specialist support and better operational visibility. The priority was clear: strengthen protection against phishing-driven threats, detect suspicious activity earlier, and respond quickly when something required action. Jeremy says:

“We had this gap and we couldn’t ignore it any further. We realised we needed to add to our existing measures.”

Selecting a SecOps Partner

Pentagon Freight began evaluating cyber security providers that could help improve its resilience against phishing, email compromise, and other cyber threats. While Jeremy was not specifically looking for a local provider, ThreatDefence stood out because of its all-inclusive pricing model and end-to-end security operations capability.

“We were looking at larger competitors, but everything was an add-on. It was frustrating to make my way through these packages to try to figure out how much everything would cost. Whereas ThreatDefence’s pricing model was a flat fee per month. You either get everything, or get nothing. That was really attractive.”

Conversations with Zlatko Hristov, ThreatDefence’s CEO, also built trust and confidence in the partnership. These conversations allowed Jeremy to overcome his initial reservations that a company on a growth journey couldn’t detect the threats a global provider could.

“I felt like they were someone I could deal with face-to-face, which is really important to me. Zlatko was a technical guy who knew what he was talking about. He was able to speak to my concerns that ThreatDefence had the technology, telemetry, and skills to identify and remediate threats that I assumed would only be available from a larger provider. I also didn’t want to be on the end of a phone queue in the event of an incident which I felt was a real risk with global providers.”

Other strong factors differentiating ThreatDefence were their ability to keep logs for a year (this is typically an add-on for competitors), and their willingness to go onto the business’ network, jump onto systems, and deliver hands on support in an incident response situation. The latter contrasted with other providers who could only offer phone assistance to deliver guidance. Jeremy says:

“In that situation we needed a company that would be on our network with us, with specialist tools and skills. With a small team, it didn’t make sense for us to develop and maintain these very specific skills and tools that may only be required on an infrequent basis.”

Quick Response for Peace of Mind

Since partnering with ThreatDefence and implementing the end-to-end SecOps suite, Pentagon Freight have built cyber resilience with deep visibility, continuous monitoring, 24x7 threat detection, and responsive support from seasoned professionals. Each of these is critical to prevent the impact of a security breach and protect the organisation against increasingly faster and smarter threats. Jeremy says:

“*The ThreatDefence team are so easy to deal with. When there is an issue, they quickly send us an escalation which we promptly address. It used to be that you had 24 hours before an initial compromise was passed to the second more nefarious ‘exploit’ team. Now, this window can be down to only 60 minutes. ThreatDefence operate easily within these timings.

Detection wise, we’re not an easy customer, with our global network and sales guys on the road. ThreatDefence have all the smarts in place to wade through a lot of telemetry to find the genuine issues.*”

A True Partnership

For Pentagon Freight, the value of ThreatDefence is not limited to technology. The partnership gives the internal IT team access to dedicated security expertise, faster investigation support, and the confidence that suspicious activity will be reviewed and acted on quickly.

With ThreatDefence in place, Pentagon Freight has strengthened its ability to detect threats, investigate security events, and respond before issues escalate. Just as importantly, the service gives the IT team a trusted partner they can work with directly when something needs attention. Jeremy reflects:

“They’re one of my favourite vendors. They have the backend technology, telemetry, and capability to identify threats quickly. The biggest compliment I can give is that it feels like a true partnership. I’ve been impressed by how quickly ThreatDefence can respond and provide hands-on support when it matters.”