Most successful attacks don't rely on anything clever. They exploit known security flaws that already have a fix — on machines that never got it. Patch management is the routine that closes those gaps: knowing what needs updating, installing updates on a predictable schedule, and confirming they actually worked. It isn't glamorous, but it's one of the most effective security habits a small business can have.

Windows 10 support ended in October 2025. Since then, many businesses have kept their Windows 10 PCs patched through Microsoft's paid Extended Security Updates (ESU) program. Year One of that coverage ended on October 13, 2026. Business PCs without Year Two coverage no longer receive security fixes. They still turn on and run normally, but every month without updates adds risk. You can still buy Year Two — you'll pay for Year One too — or use this as the push to finish moving to Windows 11.

Cyber insurance used to be a simple application and a check. Today, insurers require documented proof of specific security controls — multi-factor authentication, endpoint detection and response, tested backups, and a written incident response plan — before they’ll write or renew a policy.

Disaster recovery is about getting your systems and data back — restoring servers, files, and applications after something goes wrong. Business continuity is bigger: it’s how your entire business keeps functioning while that recovery happens — who talks to customers, where staff work from, how payroll gets processed, which vendors step in.

Shadow IT is any app, tool, or service employees use for work without IT’s knowledge or approval — a personal Dropbox account, a free project management app, an AI chatbot used to summarize a client contract. It usually starts with good intentions: someone wants to work faster and doesn’t want to wait on an approval process. But every unapproved tool is a blind spot — data your IT team can’t secure, back up, or even see.

Cybercriminals don’t take vacation — and they know when your team does. The FBI and CISA have specifically warned that attackers time major ransomware attacks to coincide with holidays and long weekends, precisely because network defenders and IT support are running at limited capacity. Summer vacation schedules create those same conditions for weeks at a time: slower detection, easier impersonation, and more time to move through your systems before anyone notices.

The only way to know if your incident response plan will actually work is to test it before a real attack forces you to find out. A tabletop exercise — a structured walkthrough where your team responds to a simulated cyberattack scenario — exposes the gaps, unclear roles, and outdated contact info that live inside every untested plan. Businesses that skip this step often discover their plan fails at the exact moment they need it most.

A cyber incident response plan (sometimes called an IRP) is a written playbook your business follows when something goes wrong — ransomware locks your files, an employee clicks a phishing link, a vendor gets breached and takes your data with them. It tells you who to call, what to shut down, what to document, and how to communicate with clients and staff.

Most business owners think about cybersecurity the wrong way. They picture it as a single moment — the day they buy the software, hire the IT guy, or sign off on the policy. Box checked. Done. Back to running the business.

January feels like a reset. Everyone’s fresh off the holidays, systems are being cleaned up, and new staff are coming on board. But behind the scenes, Q1 is one of the riskiest times of the year for cyber incidents—especially for small and mid-sized businesses here in Albuquerque.