2026 Planning / 2026 Essentials
Keep the Security Basics in Your 2026 IT Plan
New AI projects should sit on top of maintained accounts, devices, and recovery controls.
Environment and inputs: An asset inventory and a control sheet recording each control’s owner, evidence source, status and review date.
NIST describes cybersecurity as continuous improvement because business systems and threats keep changing. Its small-business basics include MFA, strong passwords, protected backups, updates, and staff awareness. These foundations remain relevant when an organisation adopts AI; a new tool does not maintain the underlying environment for you.
What matters
- Assign owners to essential controls instead of treating them as one-off setup tasks.
- Review unsupported software, missing updates, and default credentials.
- Include staff education and recovery checks in the same recurring plan as technical maintenance.
Practical example: An office pairs a new AI pilot with a review of account protection and workstation updates before broad rollout.
One action today: Create a monthly review list with an owner and evidence for each essential control.