tectronIQ

The first 24 hours after a suspected breach decide whether the next six months are manageable or catastrophic.

Most of the damage in those hours comes from actions that feel productive but cost you later. The order that works:

1. Stop. Don't touch infected machines or systems. The forensic evidence on them is what determines whether your insurer covers you and whether you can prosecute later.
2. Call your cyber insurance broker. They will assign you an incident response firm and a breach attorney, often within the hour. Both fees are usually covered by your policy.
3. Call your breach attorney before you call your IT person. The attorney creates legal privilege over everything that follows, which protects you if the incident ends up in court.
4. Let the incident response firm lead. They contain the attack, collect evidence, and advise on ransom decisions. Your job is to authorize the work, not perform it.
5. Notify law enforcement. FBI IC3 at ic3.gov, or your state's cyber unit. Required in some states, helpful in all of them.
6. Don't tell your team, customers, or social media anything until your attorney clears the message.

The first call you make matters more than every action that follows.

If you’ve ever set up a new PC, you’ll know this moment…

You think you’re nearly done, then Windows says it’s “just getting things ready”.

And you’re stuck waiting 😅

Sometimes for quite a while.

But now there’s a small change coming to Windows 11 that could make that a lot less painful.

Microsoft is adding an option to skip updates during the initial setup.

That means you can get straight to your desktop faster, instead of sitting through all the extra downloads and installs.

There’ll be a simple “Update later” option.

Click that, and you’re in.

Depending on your internet speed, that could save you 20 to 30 minutes ⏱️

In some situations, that’s genuinely useful.

Think slow Wi-Fi or setting up multiple devices.

Or just wanting to get up and running quickly so you can carry on with your day.

But of course, there is a catch.

Those updates you’re skipping… they include security fixes 🔐

The bits that protect your device from known threats.

If you skip them and jump straight online, you’re more exposed than you should be.

So, while it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use this feature, you should use it sensibly.

And only when you really need to.

A good approach would be:

⭐️ Get to the desktop quickly �
⭐️ Start the updates straight away �
⭐️ Let them run while you set things up in the background

That way you’re not stuck watching a loading screen, but you’re still getting protected as soon as possible.

What I like about this is the choice.

You’re not forced to wait. You can decide what works best in that moment.

And it’s another example of Microsoft smoothing out the little frustrations that people deal with every day.

🧐 Would you skip the updates to save time, or would you wait it out and let everything install first?

If an email asks you to download a tool to "view a document," stop and verify before clicking.

A growing attack pattern is tricking employees into installing real IT software on their own machines.

The software is called RMM (Remote Monitoring and Management), and it lets IT companies remotely control computers for support purposes.

Tools like ConnectWise ScreenConnect, Datto RMM, SimpleHelp, N-able, and LogMeIn are all legitimate and digitally signed by reputable vendors.

That's exactly why attackers love them. Antivirus software doesn't flag them as malicious because they aren't malicious. They're just being installed by the wrong person.

In February 2026, Microsoft documented a campaign that hit 29,000 users across 10,000 organizations.

The lure was a fake "IRS Transcript Viewer" email. The download was actually a repackaged ScreenConnect installer.

Once an employee ran it, the attacker had full remote control of their machine.

The same trick is being used with fake Zoom invites, fake Teams calls, and fake DocuSign emails.

A few things you can do:

▶️ Ask your IT provider to maintain an allow-list of approved RMM tools. Anything outside that list gets blocked from installing automatically.

▶️ Train your team that "download this viewer to see your document" is almost always a phishing attempt. Real documents don't require a new program.

▶️ Audit your endpoints for RMM software your IT provider didn't install. If you see something unfamiliar, flag it.

If you're not sure what RMM tools are running on your team's computers right now, that's the first thing to check this week.