Late-September planning note focuses on phishing, strong passwords, MFA, software updates, backups and recovery readiness.
TCS, a Jefferson City-based business technology and communications provider, is urging Central Missouri organizations to use the final days of September to review basic cyber protections before Cybersecurity Awareness Month begins in October.
The most useful cybersecurity work is often consistent, routine and measurable: protect important accounts, keep systems current, make reporting easy and confirm that recovery steps work.”
— Tim Petty, VP of Sales and Marketing, TCS
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s 2026 Cybersecurity Awareness Month theme is “Securing the Next 250.” CISA’s public campaign materials identify four core steps for individuals: avoid and report phishing scams, use strong passwords, use multifactor authentication and a password manager, and update software. The agency also advises organizations to back up data, prepare for system disruptions and maintain an incident response plan.
TCS recommends turning those themes into a short, documented business review. Leaders can confirm how employees report suspicious messages, which important accounts still lack multifactor authentication, whether company devices and applications are receiving updates, when backups last completed successfully, and whether anyone has recently tested the restoration process.
Also Read: CIO Influence Interview with John Elliott, Cybersecurity Author Fellow at Pluralsight
“The most useful cybersecurity work is often consistent, routine and measurable: protect important accounts, keep systems current, make reporting easy and confirm that recovery steps work,” said Tim Petty, VP of Sales and Marketing at TCS. “A late-September review gives businesses a clear starting point for October and helps move cybersecurity from general awareness to repeatable operating habits.”
Phishing preparedness should include a simple reporting path and practical employee education tied to the messages staff encounter in their daily work. Password reviews should address reused credentials, default device passwords and the use of a password manager, while multifactor authentication should be prioritized for email, cloud applications, financial tools and remote-access systems.
Software and device updates are another basic control. Organizations can identify unsupported equipment, verify that automatic updates are enabled where appropriate and assign responsibility for systems that require manual maintenance. Backup reviews should go beyond confirming that a job is scheduled; businesses should know what information is protected, where copies are stored, who can access them and whether restoration has been tested.
TCS’s managed-services offerings include phishing testing, Microsoft 365 email and applications, antivirus, remote helpdesk support, cloud file backups, device updates, cloud backup and local backup. TCS also publishes practical guidance for small businesses on passwords, multifactor authentication, updates, employee training, backups and incident-response planning.
This announcement is an independent TCS planning note based on publicly available cybersecurity guidance and does not represent a partnership with or endorsement by CISA. It is not a product launch.
Catch more CIO Insights: How Are CIOs Aligning Technology with Workforce Agility?
[To share your insights with us, please write to psen@itechseries.com ]
