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 […]
Massachusetts Data Breach Notification Law: What Boston Businesses Must Do When It Happens
Massachusetts Chapter 93H, the state’s data breach notification law, requires any business holding personal information on a Massachusetts resident to notify that resident, the Attorney General, and the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation (OCABR) as soon as practicable after discovering a breach. There is no employee count or revenue threshold. If you have […]
SonicWall SMA1000 Vulnerability: What Boston Businesses Need to Know
SonicWall confirmed on September 1, 2026 that two vulnerabilities in its SMA1000 series remote access appliances are being actively exploited, and one of them needs no username or password at all. If your business uses an SMA1000 to give employees VPN access into the office network, check your firmware version today. The CISA Known Exploited […]
Microsoft 365 Copilot’s Usage-Based Billing Default: What Boston Businesses Should Know
Starting November 2, 2026, every new Microsoft 365 Copilot Business license purchased through a Cloud Solution Provider comes with Copilot usage-based billing turned on automatically, according to Microsoft’s own Partner Center announcement. That means once your team uses Copilot Cowork, the Work IQ API, or apps built on Cowork beyond what’s included in your plan, […]
Massachusetts Small Business Cybersecurity Grant: What Boston Companies Need to Know
Massachusetts is now paying for part of your cybersecurity monitoring bill. The Cyber Resilient Massachusetts grant program reimburses up to one-third of the cost of Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services for up to three years, and small businesses across the state, Boston included, can apply now. If the price tag has kept you from […]
What the Boston Scientific Cyberattack Teaches Local Businesses About Business Continuity
Boston Scientific, the Marlborough-based medical device maker, needed roughly two weeks to fully restore manufacturing, order fulfillment and shipping after a cyberattack on August 25, 2026, even with a full internal security team and outside incident response firms on the job. If a company that size needed that long, a 20-person accounting firm or a […]
September 2026 Patch Tuesday: What Boston Businesses Need to Patch Now
Microsoft’s September 2026 Patch Tuesday fixed close to 970 vulnerabilities, the largest single release of the year, and two of them were already being exploited before the fix shipped. If your business runs Windows machines that haven’t updated since early September, treat this month’s patch as urgent rather than routine. Microsoft patched roughly 966 to […]
Windows 11 24H2 End of Support: What Boston Businesses Need to Do Before October 13
Windows 11 24H2 end of support arrives on October 13, 2026, according to Microsoft’s own release health page. Home and Pro edition PCs, which cover most small business laptops and desktops, will no longer get security patches, bug fixes, or technical support after that date. If your office runs Windows 11 Pro, and most do, […]