Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

Author: Umair Ahmed, Product Marketing Manager, Security Microsoft 365 attacks do not always start with a dramatic zero-day. Many begin with something simpler: a stolen password, a malicious Office file, a user approving the wrong application, or a tenant setting that was left too permissive. For an MSP technician, the urgent question is: Even if Microsoft patched the vulnerabilities inside the platform, are my tenant configurations still exposing my clients to risk?

AI-enabled systems are becoming more common in operational technology (OT) environments. What many industry analysts call “Physical AI” refers to AI systems embedded in physical environments — such as industrial cameras, robots and edge systems — that can perceive, interpret and act on real-world conditions. In industrial settings, this includes machine vision systems, predictive maintenance models, robotics optimization and edge analytics operating close to production assets.

Anthropic’s announcement of Claude Mythos Preview may end up being remembered as the moment the cybersecurity industry had to stop talking about agentic AI as a future concept and start treating it as a present security variable. The reported results are serious. Anthropic says Mythos Preview identified and exploited zero-day vulnerabilities across major operating systems and browsers during testing.

Modern cyberattacks rarely arrive in a simple, obvious form. Attackers hide malicious code inside files that look legitimate, chain multiple tactics together and use techniques designed to bypass traditional endpoint defenses. For businesses, that makes independent security testing especially valuable.

Microsoft 365 is great for sharing, creating and collaborating on data. Protecting data, however, is something else altogether. It’s not so easy. Many organizations assume Microsoft fully protects their information, only to discover gaps when something goes wrong. That’s why data retention, backup and archiving are so important. The three concepts have some similarities, but they serve very different purposes. More importantly, you can’t substitute one for another.

Generative AI is no longer emerging. It is already embedded in how businesses work. From content creation and research to customer support and internal productivity, AI tools are rapidly becoming part of everyday workflows across SMBs and the MSPs that serve them. But this shift comes with a hard reality: As GenAI adoption accelerates, so do the risks.

While it is not technically required, the Cyber Essentials 3.3 set of standards is quickly becoming a necessity for organizations that need to ensure public sector contract, insurance and supplier assurance in the U.K. That’s good news for managed service providers (MSPs), who now have an opportunity to build both trust and revenue by guiding clients toward Cyber Essentials certification. Acronis recently surveyed U.K. partners about Cyber Essentials.

QR code phishing is a social engineering attack that embeds malicious URLs inside QR code images delivered through email. Because the payload lives inside an image — not in a clickable link or plain text — legacy secure email gateways (SEGs) never see it. The email passes inspection. The user scans the code with their phone. And the attack moves from a protected corporate desktop to an unmanaged mobile device outside your security perimeter.

Generative AI and sophisticated social engineering have reshaped the cybersecurity landscape in 2026. Traditional "castle-and-moat" defenses centered on the Secure Email Gateway (SEG) are increasingly pressured by machine-scale attacks designed to bypass static filters. As organizations shift toward Integrated Cloud Email Security (ICES) models, a new technical and psychological barrier appears: the "black box" problem of defensive AI.