(Spoiler: Your Business Is on Their List)
Somewhere right now, cybercriminals are planning their year ahead.
They are not setting goals about self improvement or work life balance. They are reviewing what worked last year and figuring out how to steal more money in the next one.
And small businesses remain their favorite target. Not because you are careless. Because you are busy.
Busy businesses move fast, trust their people, and rarely expect trouble. Criminals love that.
Here is what their 2026 game plan looks like, and how to quietly ruin it.
Smarter Phishing That Looks Legitimate
The days of obvious scam emails are mostly gone. Modern phishing emails sound normal. They reference real vendors. They use familiar language. They arrive at just the right moment when everyone is distracted.
A typical message today looks harmless. A question about an invoice. A file that “did not go through.” A quick request that sounds routine and familiar. It works because it does not feel urgent or alarming. It feels normal.
The fix is not paranoia. It is verification. Any request involving money, passwords, or sensitive data should be confirmed through a second channel. Good email filtering helps too, especially tools that flag impersonation attempts. Most important is culture. When employees double check before acting, that should be encouraged, not questioned.
Impersonating Vendors and Leadership
One of the most effective scams right now is impersonation. A vendor “updates” their bank details. A text shows up from “the CEO” asking for a quick wire transfer. Sometimes it is not even text anymore. Voice cloning scams now sound convincing enough to fool experienced staff. This works because it exploits trust and authority, not technology.
Clear policies stop these attacks cold. Bank changes always get verified using known contact information. Payment requests never move forward without confirmation through established channels. Multi factor authentication on finance and admin accounts adds another layer of protection if credentials are stolen.
Targeting Small Businesses on Purpose
Cybercriminals used to chase big companies. That changed. Large organizations hardened their defenses and made attacks expensive and difficult. Smaller businesses became the better option. Same data. Same money. Less resistance. Being small does not mean being unimportant. It just means attacks are quieter.
Basic security measures make a huge difference here. Regular updates, strong authentication, and tested backups usually make attackers move on to the next target. “We are too small to matter” is one of the most expensive assumptions a business can make.
Exploiting New Employees and Tax Season
January brings new hires, and new hires want to help. Attackers know this. They impersonate leadership or HR and send urgent requests to whoever is least likely to question authority. Payroll scams and W-2 requests ramp up quickly as tax season approaches. One successful email can expose every employee’s personal information and create months of cleanup and frustration.
The solution is simple and unglamorous. Security training starts during onboarding. Clear rules are written down and followed. No W-2s sent by email. No payment requests without verification. Employees are praised for checking first.
Prevention Beats Recovery Every Time
There are two ways to handle cybersecurity. You can react after an incident, paying for emergency help, downtime, cleanup, notifications, and reputational damage. Or you can prevent the incident by closing the doors before someone tries them. Prevention is quieter. It is less dramatic. And it costs far less.
You do not buy a fire extinguisher after the building burns. You buy it so nothing happens at all.
How to Ruin Their Year
A good IT partner keeps your business off the easy target list by monitoring systems, tightening access, training employees on modern scams, enforcing verification policies, maintaining backups, and keeping systems patched. This is not about fear. It is about making your business slightly harder to attack than the one next door.
Cybercriminals are optimistic about the year ahead. They are counting on businesses being understaffed, distracted, and unprepared.
Let’s disappoint them.
If you want a clear picture of where your business stands, start with a short security reality check. No scare tactics. No jargon. Just a practical look at where you are exposed and what actually matters. Schedule time with JR.
Because the best New Year’s resolution is making sure your business is not on someone else’s list of goals.