The Houston Tech Brief

Outdated IT costs Houston small businesses money in ways that rarely show up as a line item. In this episode of The Houston Tech Brief from CinchOps, we walk through seven dated costs: Windows 10 security extensions at $61 per PC in year one and doubling each year, the Windows Server 2016 support deadline on January 13, 2027, Microsoft 365 price increases that land at renewal, slow patching, business email compromise, cyber insurance answers that no longer hold up, and the Texas SB 2610 safe harbor. Then we cover the order to fix them in.   Built on the CinchOps Houston Area Patch Index: across 375 confirmed cases, 71% of exploited flaws were under attack within 30 days of the fix becoming available.   Read more: 7 Ways Outdated IT Is Costing Money for Houston Small Businesses (2026)   Connect with us: Website link: https://cinchops.com/ Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/CinchOps/ LinkedIn link: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cinchops/ Instagram link: https://www.instagram.com/cinchopsit/ X: https://x.com/cinchopsit YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/@CinchOps   Have Questions? Want to discuss further? Reach out to Shane Stevens, CEO | Founder, CinchOps Technology Solutions: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanewstevens/

A smashed truck window and a missing laptop bag doesn’t have to become a data breach. In this episode of The Houston Tech Brief from CinchOps, we cover the three questions to ask your IT provider in the first hour, why encryption decides whether Texas law treats a stolen laptop as a breach, and the 60-day and 30-day notice deadlines if it is one. General information, not legal advice.   Read more: Company Laptop Stolen in Houston? 8 Steps Before a Breach   Connect with us: Website link: https://cinchops.com/ Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/CinchOps/ LinkedIn link: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cinchops/ Instagram link: https://www.instagram.com/cinchopsit/ X: https://x.com/cinchopsit YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/@CinchOps   Have Questions? Want to discuss further? Reach out to Shane Stevens, CEO\Founder, CinchOps Technology Solutions: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanewstevens/ If you run a water system in the Houston area, take

Bank of America’s CEO told CNBC the bank put 1,000 contractors on patching work, on top of about 3,000 staff, to fix software flaws exposed by Anthropic’s Mythos. A Houston business with 10 to 200 people cannot hire its way across the same backlog, so this episode of The Houston Tech Brief lays out the five-step order CinchOps uses instead: count what you run, queue by confirmed attack rather than severity score, put a 30-day clock on every fix (14 days for attacked flaws), push your vertical software vendors with three written questions, and rescan to verify.   Built on the CinchOps Houston Area Patch Index: of 7,442 advisories published in 2026, only 57 were confirmed under attack by CISA, and 72% of exploited flaws are hit within 30 days of the fix shipping.   Read more: Bank of America Hired 1,000 for Mythos Patches. Houston Businesses Need a Plan   Connect with us: Website link: https://cinchops.com/ Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/CinchOps/ LinkedIn link: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cinchops/ Instagram link: https://www.instagram.com/cinchopsit/ X: https://x.com/cinchopsit YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/@CinchOps   Have Questions? Want to discuss further? Reach out to Shane Stevens, CEO\Founder, CinchOps Technology Solutions: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanewstevens/ If you run a water system in the Houston area, take

The Texas Attorney General’s breach listing shows 1,062,060 Texans affected by the CenterPoint Energy data breach. Names, addresses, Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers were taken, and as of October 13, 2026 the listing showed no notice sent to customers. This episode of The Houston Tech Brief from CinchOps explains why the public record arrived before the letters, how the Texas 30-day and 60-day notice clocks work, and what Houston businesses should do this week: credit freezes, E-Verify, a staff briefing on CenterPoint-themed scams and an accounts payable callback rule.   Read more: CenterPoint Energy Data Breach: What Houston Businesses Should Do Now   Connect with us: Website link: https://cinchops.com/ Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/CinchOps/ LinkedIn link: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cinchops/ Instagram link: https://www.instagram.com/cinchopsit/ X: https://x.com/cinchopsit YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/@CinchOps   Have Questions? Want to discuss further? Reach out to Shane Stevens, CEO\Founder, CinchOps Technology Solutions: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanewstevens/ If you run a water system in the Houston area, take the free help. If you run a business, copy the playbook.

  Tesla’s proposed $10.1 billion Project Crystal Sun cleared a Lamar CISD vote on September 15, 2026, but the state and Tesla still have to decide. This episode of The Houston Tech Brief from CinchOps looks at what a plant with 9,712 projected permanent jobs would mean for small businesses in Rosenberg, Richmond, Sugar Land and the rest of Fort Bend County. It covers why Texas Senate Bill 6 protects the grid but not the office next door, and the eight-point IT and power checklist to work through before anyone breaks ground.   Read more: Tesla Fort Bend County Plant: An IT Checklist for Local Businesses   Connect with us: Website link: https://cinchops.com/ Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/CinchOps/ LinkedIn link: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cinchops/ Instagram link: https://www.instagram.com/cinchopsit/ X: https://x.com/cinchopsit YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/@CinchOps   Have Questions? Want to discuss further? Reach out to Shane Stevens, CEO\Founder, CinchOps Technology Solutions: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanewstevens/ If you run a water system in the Houston area, take the free help. If you run a business, copy the playbook.