The 5-minute security win to start with

Welcome to The Brainstorm Brief. I'm Shane Metzler. My family has run Brainstorm Innovative Technologies here in the Tampa Bay area since 2006, and I started this to give small businesses something that's hard to find: a plain-English, no-hype read on the AI and security stuff that matters this week, and exactly what to do about it. No jargon, no scare tactics, no 40-page reports. That's the whole idea behind Tech Tuesday. A few things worth five minutes, every Tuesday morning. Let's start with the one change that stops the most attacks for the least effort.

Get it in your inbox →

The easiest break-in to stop is the one that starts with a stolen password

Stolen and reused passwords are still one of the top ways attackers get into a business, and they're the easiest door to close. Verizon 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report

Why it matters: You don't have to be “targeted.” Leaked passwords get sprayed against businesses of every size automatically, small ones included.

Brainstorm's Take (what to do): Turn on multi-factor authentication (MFA) everywhere it's offered. Email first, then banking, then any admin logins. Microsoft's own research found MFA blocks more than 99.2% of account-compromise attacks. It's free, it takes about five minutes per account, and nothing else you can do this week stops more attacks.

The safe way to let your team use AI

The big AI assistants now sell business and team tiers that, by default, don't train on your data. The free consumer versions are where accidental leaks happen.

Why it matters: Your staff is already using AI. The risk isn't AI itself. It's someone pasting a customer list, a contract, or a password into a free tool that may reuse that text.

Brainstorm's Take (what to do): If your team uses AI for real work, put them on a paid business or team tier and turn on the setting that keeps your data out of training. It costs a few dollars a seat and keeps your business's information out of a public model. (More on this next Tuesday.)

Your insurance probably already expects MFA

Many cyber-insurance carriers now expect MFA as a baseline. If your application said you had it and you didn't, a claim can get harder to pay out. NIST Small Business Cybersecurity Corner

Why it matters: A lot of owners assume they're covered. If the application asked about MFA, backups, or endpoint protection, it's worth making sure your answers are still true.

Brainstorm's Take (what to do): Pull your cyber-insurance application or renewal and read the security questions. Whatever it says you have (MFA, backups, endpoint protection), confirm it's genuinely turned on. That five-minute check protects your data and your coverage.

Tool / Tip of the Week

A business password manager

Our default pick is 1Password (Proton Pass if you want the privacy-first bundle). A password manager is what makes MFA and strong, unique passwords livable. Your team stops reusing “Summer2026!” everywhere and stops emailing logins around.

Start this week: create the account, install the browser extension, and move your five most important logins into it first (email, bank, domain/host, payroll, accounting). Then turn on MFA for each one as you go.

→ 1Password  ·  Proton Pass

Want the whole checklist, not just this week's three?

I put together a free SMB Cybersecurity Checklist, the 15 things every small business should have locked down, in plain English. No signup wall, no pitch.