Office 2021 End of Support: What Boston Businesses Need to Do Now
Office 2021 end of support hit on October 13, 2026, and Microsoft has stopped shipping security patches, bug fixes, and technical support for it. Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint 2021 still open and still save files normally. What’s gone is the safety net: any flaw discovered in that software from now on stays open, permanently, […]
Cybersecurity Awareness Month 2026: What Boston Businesses Should Actually Do
Cybersecurity Awareness Month means pick three things and fix them this month: how fast you patch known vulnerabilities, how closely you watch the vendors who touch your network, and whether your team can spot a phishing attempt that arrives by text or phone instead of email. Those three areas line up with where breaches actually […]
A Simple IT Health Check for Boston Businesses: 10 Questions to Ask Yourself
Most IT problems at a 10–75 person company are not discovered. They are announced. The backup that hadn’t worked since June announces itself on the day you need it. The laptop with no encryption announces itself when it’s left on the commuter rail. The former employee’s account announces itself when someone logs in from an […]
October 2026 Patch Tuesday: Boston Businesses Face a Record 1,411 Fixes
Microsoft’s October 2026 Patch Tuesday fixed roughly 1,411 vulnerabilities on October 13, the largest single security release the company has ever shipped, and one of those flaws was already being exploited before the fix went out. If your business runs Windows and hasn’t applied this month’s update yet, treat it as urgent rather than something […]
MFA Fatigue Attacks: Why One Approved Prompt Can Open the Door
An MFA fatigue attack, also called push bombing, happens when someone who already has your password floods your phone with login approval requests until you tap “Approve” just to make the notifications stop. It works because a second factor only protects an account if it’s answered correctly, and a tired employee getting hit with ten […]
How to Talk to Your IT Provider About Cyber Insurance and Security Requirements
Cyber insurance applications used to be one page. Name, revenue, industry, do you have antivirus, sign here. They are not one page anymore. The applications crossing my desk now ask whether multi-factor authentication is enforced on remote access and on email and on privileged accounts, as three separate questions. They ask how often backups are […]
Exchange Web Services Retirement: What Boston Businesses Need to Know
Microsoft began switching off Exchange Web Services (EWS) in Exchange Online on October 1, 2026, and any copier, CRM sync tool, backup product, or custom script your business uses to touch email, calendars, or contacts automatically could be affected. The permanent shutdown, with no exceptions, lands April 1, 2027, so this is the window to […]
Third-Party Vendor Risk Is Driving Nearly Half of All Data Breaches
Third-party vendor risk, the exposure created by outside companies and software tools with access to your systems, now plays a role in roughly half of all data breaches. That is not a typo and not a rare worst case. It means the IT contractor, payroll processor, or SaaS app you trust with a login is […]
What a Boston Managed IT Partner Should Actually Be Doing for a 20–50 Person Business
Here is the conversation I have most often with a business owner in Greater Boston. They tell me their IT is “fine.” Then, about four minutes later, they tell me the server room gets hot in the summer, nobody is quite sure who has admin rights to the accounting system, and the last time they […]
Windows Server 2022 End of Mainstream Support: What It Means for Boston Businesses
Windows Server 2022 reaches end of mainstream support on October 13, 2026, according to Microsoft’s own product lifecycle page. That date does not mean the operating system stops working or stops getting security patches. It means Microsoft moves Server 2022 into extended support, where it still gets critical security fixes through October 2031, but new […]