Sep 30, 2026
Summary: Most IT problems don't appear out of nowhere. Backups quietly stop running, updates sit unfinished for weeks, and old staff accounts stay switched on for months. A short check once a month catches these while they're still cheap to fix. This post covers the six things to look at.
Most owners only look at their IT when something has already gone wrong. A file won't open, a laptop won't start, or an invoice gets paid into a scammer's account. Fixing it at that point costs more than preventing it would have.
Almost none of it happens without warning. The backup that fails when you finally need it had been failing for weeks. The account a scammer used belonged to someone who left last year. Thirty minutes a month is usually enough to catch that kind of thing.
Why a monthly look is worth the time
Verizon's 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report found that 31% of breaches started with attackers exploiting software that hadn't been patched. That makes unpatched software the most common way in, ahead of stolen passwords. The same report found the median time to fully fix a known problem has risen to 43 days.
Most attacks use a problem that was already known, with a fix already available. Nobody had installed it yet.
The check
1. Updates
Check whether Windows updates are installing on your computers, or sitting at "restart required" week after week. Do the same for phones and for the software you use most, like your browser and your accounting app. If people keep clicking "remind me later," that's something to fix.
2. Backups
Open your backup tool and look at the last few runs. You want recent successful backups, not a list of errors. Then check when anyone last restored a file from it. If it's never been tested, you don't know whether it works.
3. Who has access
Pull up the list of user accounts in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace and read through it. Every name should be someone who still works for you. Look for people who left, contractors who finished months ago, and shared logins like "office" or "admin" that several people use. Switch off anything you don't need.
4. Multi-factor authentication
Check that MFA is switched on, and that it's on for everyone, not just the people who set it up first. Pay closest attention to admin accounts and anyone who handles money. Microsoft's research shows MFA blocks more than 99.2% of account compromise attacks.
5. Devices
Look at what's connected to your systems. If there's a laptop or phone you don't recognize, find out whose it is. While you're there, check that laptops are encrypted and that any phone with company email on it has a passcode or fingerprint lock.
6. Subscriptions and licenses
Open your billing page and read what you're paying for. Businesses regularly pay for licenses belonging to people who left, or for two tools that do the same job. It's also how you find software somebody signed up for without telling anyone.
Make it a routine
Put it in the calendar on a fixed day, like the first Monday of the month, and give it to the same person each time. That's you or whoever handles the admin side.
Keep a running note of what you checked and what you found. After a few months you'll see whether the same problem keeps coming back. If it does, it needs fixing properly instead of clearing each time.
Thirty minutes only works if you don't stop to fix things along the way. Write down what you find and deal with it afterward.
Who fixes what
Most of it is small, like a laptop that needs restarting, a license to cancel, or an account to switch off. Handle those yourself.
Send the rest to your IT provider: backups that keep failing, MFA that won't turn on for someone, a device nobody recognizes, or updates that fail on the same machine every month. Those usually mean there's a bigger problem behind them.
What this check doesn't do
It isn't monitoring. A good IT provider has tools watching your systems all day and flagging things you'd never spot from a monthly glance.
The check covers what those tools can't know. You know who left, which subscriptions you approved, and whose laptop is whose.
Frequently asked questions
How often should a small business check its IT?
Once a month is enough for this list. Backups are worth a quick look more often if losing a day's work would seriously hurt, since that's the item most likely to fail quietly.
Who should do it?
You or whoever runs the admin side of the business. Most of the list needs no technical skill, just someone who knows who works there and what the business pays for.
What if I don't know where to find any of this?
Ask your IT provider to walk you through it once and write down where each thing lives. Many will also send you a monthly summary covering most of it.
Isn't this my IT provider's job?
They handle the monitoring, the patching, and the fixing. The check is the part that depends on knowing your business, like who left last month or which subscription nobody approved.
If I only have ten minutes, what matters most?
Backups and updates. Without working backups you can lose everything you've stored, and unpatched software is now the most common way attackers get in.
Does this apply if everything we use is in the cloud?
Yes. Cloud tools still need updated devices, working backups, MFA switched on, and access lists that match who actually works for you.
Sources and further reading
If you'd like a hand setting this up, your IT provider can show you where each of these lives in your systems and take the fixing off your plate. And if you don't have an IT provider, feel free to reach out to us and we'll help you sort it.
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This Article has been Republished with Permission from The Technology Press.
Sep 25, 2026
Summary: The tools that run your business, like Microsoft 365, your accounting app, or your booking system, are reliable most of the time, but they do go down. When one does, work can stop for hours, and you often can't do anything but wait for the provider to fix it. A simple plan keeps your team working and your customers informed while you wait.
Most of your business probably runs in the cloud now. Email, files, accounting, bookings, payments, it's all online. Then one day a service goes down, and nobody can send an email, open a file, or take a payment.
It doesn't take a hacker for this to happen. In July 2024, a faulty software update from the security company CrowdStrike crashed millions of Windows computers around the world in a few hours. Microsoft estimated it hit 8.5 million devices, grounding flights and stopping work at banks and hospitals.
Outages happen, even to the big names
Microsoft 365 itself has had days where email or Teams stopped working for hours. Internet providers have bad days too, and when yours does, everything online goes with it. Any tool you depend on can go down.
So much of a small business runs on a handful of online services now, and if one goes down, the work that depends on it stops until it's back. Being with a big, well-known provider doesn't protect you from this.
What an outage does to a small business
When a key service goes down, your team can't get to email or files, so work stops. If your payment or booking system is offline, you can't take money or appointments. Customers try to reach you and can't, and you can't reach them either. Staff end up sitting around waiting.
You usually can't fix it yourself. When a big provider has an outage, all you can do is wait for them to sort it out. The goal of a plan is to keep working, and keep customers informed, until they do.
What a simple plan covers
A good plan answers these questions:
- Which tools are critical? List the handful of services that would stop the business if they're down, like email, your payment system, or your booking tool. Ignore the ones you could live without for a day, and focus on the few that would halt the work.
- How will people keep in touch? Have a backup way to reach staff and customers that doesn't depend on the tool that's down. That might be phone numbers, a group chat on a different app, or text messages.
- What do you need reachable offline? Keep a copy of the essentials, like your customer contact list, key phone numbers, and important documents, somewhere you can open if the main system is down. A printout or a copy on a phone is enough.
- Who's in charge? Decide who makes the decisions during an outage and who keeps customers updated. When it's clear in advance, people act instead of waiting to be told.
- Where do you check, and who do you call? Know where to see whether it's a wider outage, which is usually the provider's status page, and who to call for help, which is usually your IT provider.
What to do the moment an outage hits
- Check whether it's just you. Look at the provider's status page, or ask whether anyone else is having the same problem. If it's a wider outage, there's nothing to fix on your end, so stop trying.
- Tell your team. Let people know what's down and what to use instead, so nobody wastes an hour rebooting a laptop that was never the problem.
- Switch to your backup way to communicate. Move to the phone, text, or another app so the team can still coordinate.
- Tell customers if it affects them. If you can't take bookings or payments, say so and tell them when to try again.
- Note when it started and what's affected. A couple of lines is enough. It helps you follow up afterward and spot anything that needs fixing once things are back.
A few things that make outages hurt less
- Keep key files available offline. With OneDrive or SharePoint, recent files can sync to the device so you can still open them when the service is down. Ask your IT provider to make sure this is set up.
- Have a backup way to get online. A mobile hotspot from a phone can get a few key people working again if your main internet drops.
- Know your status pages. Bookmark the status page for Microsoft 365 and your other main tools. It's the fastest way to tell whether the problem is them or you.
- Keep contacts off the cloud. Have your important phone numbers and contacts somewhere that doesn't need the internet, like a printout or your phone's own contact list.
- Ask your IT provider about alerts. Many can set up a warning that tells you about an outage before your customers do.
Keep your plan on one page
Keep this to a single page, somewhere you can reach without your main systems, whether that's printed or in a separate app. Write down your critical tools, your backup way to communicate, where the essentials live, who's in charge, and who to call. Review it once or twice a year so the names and numbers stay current.
Frequently asked questions
Isn't the cloud always available?
No. Cloud services are reliable, but they still have outages, and even the biggest providers go down sometimes. The CrowdStrike outage in 2024 took millions of computers offline in a few hours. It's safer to assume an outage will happen eventually and have a plan for it.
What should a continuity plan include?
The basics: which tools are critical, a backup way to reach staff and customers, where to find essential information if the main system is down, who's in charge during an outage, and who to call for help. One page is enough for most small businesses.
What if the internet itself goes down, not just one app?
Plan for that too. A mobile hotspot from a phone can get key people back online, and a phone call still works when your systems don't. Keep important numbers and contacts somewhere that doesn't need the internet.
How can my team keep working if Microsoft 365 is down?
It depends on the work, but options include using files already saved on a synced device, switching to phone or text to stay in touch, and handling anything urgent on paper until service returns.
How long do outages usually last?
There's no set answer. Some are fixed in minutes, others take most of a day. That's the reason to plan around them, since you can't count on a quick fix and you can't speed it up from your end.
Whose job is this?
Yours, with help from your IT provider. They can tell you which of your tools are most at risk, set up things like synced files and a status-page alert, and help you write a simple plan.
Sources and further reading
If you're not sure which of your tools would hurt most if they went down, or you'd like help putting a simple plan together, your IT provider can work through it with you. And if you don't have an IT provider, feel free to reach out to us and we'll help you sort it.
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This Article has been Republished with Permission from The Technology Press.
Sep 20, 2026
Summary: If your business uses Microsoft 365, you have both OneDrive and SharePoint, and files usually end up scattered across them with no clear rule. OneDrive is for your own work, and SharePoint is for files the team shares. Getting this right makes files easier to find, safer when someone leaves, and easier to recover if something goes wrong.
If your business runs on Microsoft 365, you've got two places to store files: OneDrive and SharePoint. Most people are never told the difference, so files end up wherever is easiest, spread across OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams, and the desktop.
That's how you end up with the everyday headaches: a file nobody can find, a document only one person can open, and a scramble to recover someone's work after they leave. The rule for where things should go is simple once you know what each one is for.
What each one is for
OneDrive is your own space. Think of it as the cloud version of the My Documents folder on your computer: your work files, private to you unless you choose to share them. It's the right place for drafts and anything only you need.
SharePoint is the team's space. It's built for files with shared ownership, the documents your team, department, or the whole business works on together. Microsoft's own advice is straightforward: if you're working on something by yourself, save it to OneDrive; if you're working as a team, save it where the team works.
Where Teams fits in
Microsoft Teams confuses this for a lot of people, because it looks like a third place to keep files. In reality, when you upload a file to a Teams channel, it's stored in that team's SharePoint site. The Files tab in Teams is just a view into SharePoint.
So if your team works in Teams, your shared files are already in SharePoint, whether you realized it or not. That's a good thing. It means the files have shared ownership and don't belong to one person's account.
So where should your files live?
Here's the rule that keeps things simple:
- If it's your own draft or something only you need, keep it in OneDrive.
- If the team needs it, more than one person works on it, or it's a client or project file, put it in SharePoint (or the Teams channel for that work, which is the same thing).
- Don't leave important shared files sitting only on someone's desktop or only in their personal OneDrive.
Sharing files the right way
Where a file lives also changes how you share it.
When you share a file from your OneDrive, you're sending people into your personal space, usually with a link tied to your account. That works, but the link depends on you. If you leave, or the file moves, those links can stop working, and whoever relied on them is stuck.
In SharePoint or a Teams channel, the right people already have access, because the files belong to the team rather than to you. You can point a colleague to the folder and they're in, with no one-off links to manage.
It's also worth sharing a link instead of emailing a copy. When everyone opens the same file in OneDrive or SharePoint, they're all looking at the current version, and you avoid ending up with five slightly different copies attached to five different emails.
Why this matters
Putting files in the right place saves you real trouble later.
Take what happens when someone leaves. Their personal OneDrive isn't shared by default, so any important work kept only there can be hard to reach. Microsoft holds a deleted user's OneDrive for 30 days by default and gives their manager access, but that turns into a rush against the clock. Files kept in SharePoint stay with the team no matter who comes or goes.
It also makes files easier to find. When the team's documents live in one shared SharePoint library, people know where to look, instead of hunting through inboxes and personal drives.
And it helps you recover from mistakes. Both OneDrive and SharePoint keep older versions of your files and a recycle bin, so if a document gets overwritten or ransomware scrambles your files, you can roll back to a clean copy instead of starting over.
How to get it right
- Put shared work in SharePoint or Teams. Anything the team works on together belongs in a shared library. Keep it out of one person's OneDrive.
- Keep OneDrive for your own files. Drafts and personal work are fine there. Just don't let it become the only home for something the team needs.
- Get files off local desktops. A file saved only on a laptop isn't backed up, isn't shared, and is gone if the laptop is lost. Move important files into OneDrive or SharePoint. You can still work from your computer the way you always have: the OneDrive app keeps a copy on the device for offline use and saves your changes to the cloud automatically.
- Agree where things go. A simple, shared rule, like "client files live in the client's SharePoint folder," saves endless confusion later.
- Use version history when you need it. If a file gets changed or deleted by mistake, you or your IT provider can restore an earlier version rather than redoing the work.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between OneDrive and SharePoint in one line?
OneDrive is for your own work files. SharePoint is for files your team shares.
Where do files in a Teams channel get stored?
In SharePoint. Every team has a SharePoint site behind it, and the Files tab in a channel is a view into that site. Uploading a file to Teams is the same as putting it in SharePoint.
Should I keep work files on my computer's desktop?
Try not to, for anything important. A file only on your desktop isn't shared or backed up, and it's gone if the device is lost or breaks. Save it to OneDrive or SharePoint instead, where it's protected and reachable.
What happens to files in someone's OneDrive when they leave?
By default, Microsoft keeps a deleted user's OneDrive for 30 days and gives their manager access, and that window can be extended if it's set up in advance. It's recoverable, but it's far easier if shared work was in SharePoint to begin with.
Can I get back a file that was deleted or changed by mistake?
Usually, yes. OneDrive and SharePoint both keep a recycle bin and older versions of files, so you can restore a deleted file or roll back to an earlier version. Your IT provider can help if you can't find it.
Sources and further reading
If your files are scattered and you're not sure what should sit where, your IT provider can set up a simple structure in SharePoint and move things into the right place, so files are easy to find and safe when people come and go. And if you don't have an IT provider, feel free to reach out to us and we'll help you sort it.
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This Article has been Republished with Permission from The Technology Press.
Sep 10, 2026
Summary: Scammers buy ads on Google and other search engines using the names of trusted brands and software, so their fake site shows up at the very top, above the real one. Click it and you can land on a fake page that steals your login or installs malware. You can avoid nearly all of it by skipping the sponsored results and going to the real website yourself.
When you search Google for a program to download or a website to log into, the first thing you see is usually an ad. It sits at the top, marked "Sponsored," and most people click it without a second thought, because the top result is normally what you wanted.
Scammers count on that. They buy ads on the names of trusted companies and popular software, so their fake site appears right at the top, above the real one, and you click it thinking it's the official page.
How the scam works
The trick is called malvertising, short for malicious advertising. A scammer buys a search ad for a term people trust, like the name of your bank, a Microsoft login, or a common program such as a PDF reader or a video player. The ad looks normal, with the real brand name and a web address that looks right.
When someone clicks it, they land on a page built to look exactly like the real one. Sometimes that page asks you to log in and hands your username and password straight to the scammer. Other times it offers the software you were after, and the download installs malware instead of the real program.
Why these ads are so easy to fall for
These ads are convincing. They sit above the real result, so they're the first thing you see. They use the real company's name and a web address that looks right. And they show up on a search you started yourself, so they don't feel as suspicious as a random email or text would.
Attackers have also gotten good at hiding from the checks meant to stop them. They show a clean, harmless page to the ad reviewers and the real, malicious page to everyone else, so the ad can pass review and still do damage.
How common is this?
Very. In its 2025 Ads Safety Report, Google said it blocked or removed more than 8.3 billion ads that broke its rules, suspended 24.9 million advertiser accounts, and took down 602 million ads tied to scams. Google also noted that criminals are now using AI to make fake ads faster.
Security researchers have found scam search ads pretending to be well-known programs like VLC, 7-Zip, and CCleaner, and even Google's own apps, with downloads that installed password-stealing malware. These show up on the everyday searches your team runs.
What this means for your business
For a business, the risk comes up in two everyday situations: downloading software, and logging in.
When someone downloads software, they search for a tool, click the top ad, and install something that steals the passwords and logins saved in their browser.
When someone logs in, they search for "Microsoft 365 login" or their bank, click the ad rather than the official link, and type their username and password straight into a fake page.
In both cases, the problem is info-stealing malware. Once it's on a machine, it can steal saved passwords, browser cookies, and session tokens, which can get an attacker into accounts even when multi-factor authentication is switched on.
How to protect your team
- Scroll past the sponsored results. The ads sit at the top, marked "Sponsored" or "Ad." The real website is usually just below, in the normal results.
- Don't download software from an ad. Type the maker's web address yourself, or search and use the normal result, then download from the official site.
- Bookmark the sites you log into. For your bank, Microsoft 365, and other important accounts, use a saved bookmark instead of searching each time.
- Keep devices and browsers updated. Turn on automatic updates so a bad download is less likely to work.
- Tell your team this is a thing. Most people have no idea the top result can be a trap, and once they know, they stop clicking it.
Frequently asked questions
Aren't ads at the top of Google checked and safe?
Google reviews ads and removes billions that break its rules, but scammers still slip through by showing reviewers a clean page and everyone else the malicious one. A "Sponsored" label doesn't mean the site is safe.
What is malvertising?
Malvertising is short for malicious advertising: scammers buy online ads, often on trusted brand names, to send people to fake sites that steal logins or install malware.
How do I download software safely?
Go to the maker's official website by typing the address yourself, or search and use the normal (non-ad) result. Don't download from a sponsored ad, and don't trust a download that arrives through one.
What should I do if someone clicked a scam ad?
If they only visited the page, close it and don't enter anything. If they typed a password, change it and turn on MFA. If they downloaded and ran a file, disconnect the device and have your IT provider check it for info-stealing malware.
Does an ad blocker help?
It can. A reputable ad blocker hides many sponsored results, which takes the fake links off the page before anyone can click them. It isn't a complete fix, so keep the habits above too.
Sources and further reading
If you'd like to give your team a plain rundown of what a scam ad looks like, or tighten how software gets installed on your computers, your IT provider can help with both. And if you don't have an IT provider, feel free to reach out to us and we'll help you sort it.
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Sep 5, 2026
Summary: Scammers now use AI to write their phishing emails, so the spelling and grammar mistakes that used to give them away are gone. The UK's National Cyber Security Centre and the FBI both warn that AI makes these messages cleaner, more personal, and harder to spot. The way to catch them now is to look at what an email is asking you to do, because the writing no longer gives anything away.
For years, the advice for spotting a scam email was simple: look for bad spelling and clumsy grammar. A real bank or supplier writes properly, the thinking went, so a message full of mistakes was probably fake. It was easy to teach, and for a long time it worked.
It doesn't anymore. Scammers now use AI to write their emails, and AI writes cleanly. The typos and awkward phrasing that used to give phishing away are gone, and the messages landing in your team's inbox read as well as anything from a real company. Worse, they can be written to sound like they came from someone you already know.
Why the old advice stopped working
The spelling-and-grammar tell worked because a lot of scammers were writing in a language that wasn't their own, and the mistakes showed. AI took that away.
The UK's National Cyber Security Centre says generative AI can now create convincing phishing lures "without the translation, spelling and grammatical mistakes that often reveal phishing." The FBI says the same: criminals use AI to limit the grammar and spelling errors that used to mark a message as fake, so it reads as believable. That means the one thing most people were trained to look for no longer tells you much.
Why these emails are so convincing now
- The writing is clean. A scam email reads like a normal business email, because a machine wrote it in seconds, in whatever tone the attacker asked for.
- It's personal. Attackers can feed public details about your company into an AI tool, pulled from your website, your team's LinkedIn profiles, or a press release, and get a message tailored to you: the right names, the right job titles, and a believable reason to be in touch.
- There's more of it. AI makes each message faster to produce, so attackers send far more. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center added a section on AI to its annual report for the first time, tied to more than 22,000 complaints and nearly $893 million in reported losses.
These days, the scam email isn't the obvious one anymore. Instead of "Dear customer, your account is suspended," someone in your finance team gets a message that looks like it's from a supplier they really deal with, mentions a real project, and asks to update the bank details for the next invoice. It reads exactly like a real supplier email. The only thing wrong is that the supplier never sent it.
Your spam filter won't catch them all
It's tempting to assume your email security will handle this. It catches a lot, and you should keep it switched on. But a well-written, personalized email that asks a normal-sounding question doesn't always look dangerous to a filter, especially when it carries no obvious bad link or attachment. Both the NCSC and the FBI expect AI to push more of these messages through, which is why the last line of defense is a person who knows what to check.
It's not just email anymore
AI has done the same thing to phone calls and texts. The FBI warns that criminals can clone a voice from a short audio clip, enough to leave a voicemail that sounds like your boss or a family member asking for an urgent payment. The same thing that makes AI emails so convincing makes AI phone scams convincing too. The defense is the same: if a call or voicemail asks for money or logins, hang up and call the person back on a number you already have.
Here are the signs you should still pay attention to
If you can't trust how an email is written, look at what it's asking you to do. That's where the real warning signs are, and AI hasn't changed them:
- It asks for money, gift cards, or a payment to a new account.
- It asks for a login, a verification code, or personal details.
- It creates pressure: a deadline, a threat, or a "do this now."
- It asks you to change the bank details for an invoice or a supplier.
- It comes with a link or attachment you weren't expecting.
- The display name looks right, but the actual email address doesn't match it.
Every one of these is about what the email is asking for. So the rule to teach your team is simple: when a message is about money, logins, or how you pay someone, slow down before you act.
How to protect your team
- Check money and login requests another way. If an email asks you to pay a new account or change a supplier's bank details, call the person on a number you already have. Don't reply to the email or use a number it gives you.
- Stop telling staff to watch for bad spelling. Tell them to look at what the email is asking for, and to slow down when it's about money or logins.
- Make one rule for payment changes: confirm every change to bank details by phone, even when it's urgent.
- Turn on phishing-resistant MFA or passkeys, so a stolen password is harder to use even if someone gets tricked.
- Make it easy to report a suspicious email and make sure nobody feels silly for checking.
- Remind the team now and then that scam emails look perfect these days. A quick five-minute chat beats a poster nobody reads.
Frequently asked questions
Can you still spot a phishing email by bad spelling and grammar?
Not reliably. Attackers use AI to write clean, correct emails now, so a message with perfect spelling can still be a scam. Judge it by what it asks you to do.
What are the warning signs that still work?
The request itself: paying money, changing bank details, sharing a login or code, or being pushed to act urgently. Those signs don't depend on how the email reads.
Is AI-generated phishing really more effective?
Yes. The NCSC and the FBI have both warned that AI makes phishing more convincing and more personal, and the FBI has tied AI to tens of thousands of fraud complaints and hundreds of millions in losses. Cleaner, tailored messages get opened and clicked more often.
Will my spam filter stop AI phishing?
It will catch a lot, and you should keep it on. But a well-written, personalized email with no obvious bad link can still look legitimate to a filter, so don't rely on it alone. A trained person is the backstop.
What should staff do if they aren't sure about a message?
Slow down and check through a channel they trust, like calling a known number or asking the person directly. And report it, even if it turns out to be genuine.
Sources and further reading
• NCSC: The near-term impact of AI on the cyber threat — the UK cyber agency on AI producing phishing lures without the usual spelling and grammar mistakes.
• FBI IC3: Criminals Use Generative AI to Facilitate Financial Fraud — how criminals use AI-generated text and cloned voices, and how it removes the usual signs of fraud.
If you'd like help teaching your team what to watch for, or turning on phishing-resistant logins so a fooled password doesn't turn into a break-in, your IT provider can set both up. And if you don't have an IT provider, feel free to reach out to us and we'll help you sort it.
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This Article has been Republished with Permission from The Technology Press.
