best cybersecurity practices for small businesses 2026

We Need to Talk. 2025 is ending, and the cybersecurity industry is patting itself on the back for another year of "innovation." More tools. More frameworks. More three-letter acronyms that sound important but mean nothing to the business owner trying to protect their company with a $500/month IT budget. Meanwhile, 68% of data breaches involve a human element—meaning your people, not just your technology, are the target (Verizon 2024 Data Breach Investigations Report). And when attackers succeed? The median loss from a ransomware or extortion attack is $46,000 (FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, cited in Verizon 2024 DBIR)—an amount that