This Week in IT: Ransomware, Microsoft 365 Resilience and the PSTN Deadline
This week’s IT news gives UK SMEs a clear message: the basics still matter. Attackers are becoming more targeted, cloud services still need resilience planning, AI tools are becoming more embedded in everyday work, and the countdown to the UK’s legacy phone network switch-off is getting harder to ignore.
For smaller businesses, the practical takeaway is not to panic. It is to review the areas where day-to-day operations depend on technology that may be out of date, poorly protected, or too reliant on a single service.
1. Cyber criminals are targeting smaller businesses more precisely
A recent ITPro report, based on SonicWall research, says cyber criminals are moving away from high-volume “spray and pray” campaigns and towards more targeted attacks. The report says UK compromises rose by 20% in 2025 even as overall ransomware volume fell, and that ransomware was involved in 88% of SMB breaches. It also highlighted the ongoing risk of “zombie tech”, with a decade-old Hikvision IP camera vulnerability linked to 67 million UK attack attempts.
For UK SMEs, this matters because attackers are not only chasing large enterprises. Smaller organisations can be attractive targets when they have older equipment, unmanaged devices, weak passwords, missing updates, or poor visibility across their network.
The risk is that a business thinks it is “too small to be targeted”, while attackers are actually scanning for easy entry points. Old cameras, unsupported software, forgotten remote access tools and unpatched servers can all become routes into the wider network.
What to do now: review ageing hardware, check patching status, remove systems that are no longer needed, and make sure backups are tested rather than simply assumed to work.
How Comtek can help: Comtek can help customers review their security posture, identify outdated or exposed technology, and prioritise practical improvements such as patching, endpoint protection, backup checks and access control.
2. Microsoft 365 disruption shows why cloud resilience still matters
Microsoft 365 and Outlook experienced disruption around 27 to 28 April 2026, with reports of access problems affecting services such as Outlook, Teams and other Microsoft web experiences. Microsoft later confirmed service health had returned to normal, according to coverage tracking the company’s status updates.
For SMEs, the point is not that cloud services are unreliable. Microsoft 365 remains central to many businesses for email, files, meetings and collaboration. The point is that any cloud platform can experience disruption, and businesses need a plan for what happens when a key service is temporarily unavailable.
If staff cannot access email, Teams, shared files or admin tools, even a short outage can affect sales, customer service, finance and operations.
What to do now: make sure staff know what to do during a Microsoft 365 incident. Review backup access methods, document key contacts outside email, check admin access, and consider how critical files and communications would be handled during an outage.
How Comtek can help: Comtek can help review Microsoft 365 resilience, backup, user access, admin controls and business continuity processes so disruption does not become confusion.
3. Copilot is becoming more visible inside Teams
Microsoft’s April 2026 Copilot release notes show Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat becoming available across Teams chats, channels, calling and meetings on Windows, Mac and web. Microsoft says the aim is to make Copilot Chat available where users collaborate, improving consistency and access.
For SMEs, this creates an opportunity and a governance question. AI tools can help staff summarise information, prepare notes, ask questions and speed up routine work. But the value depends on permissions, data quality, user training and clear internal rules.
The risk is not simply that staff use AI. The bigger risk is that businesses adopt AI without understanding where data is coming from, what users can access, and how outputs should be checked.
What to do now: decide who should use Copilot, what data it can access, which teams should pilot it first, and what guidance staff need before using AI in real workflows.
How Comtek can help: Comtek can support Microsoft 365 reviews, permissions checks, AI readiness discussions and practical planning around Copilot adoption.
4. The PSTN and ISDN deadline is becoming a cost issue now
Openreach has confirmed that BT Group will retire the UK PSTN by 31 January 2027. Openreach has also warned that more than half a million business lines still need to upgrade, and that businesses failing to migrate risk higher costs and eventual service loss.
Openreach previously announced price rises on copper-based Wholesale Line Rental products, with WLR basic rental increasing by 20% from 1 April 2026, then rising by 40% of the current price in July and again in October.
For SMEs, this is not only about desk phones. Traditional lines can support alarms, EPOS terminals, lift phones, fax machines, door entry systems, CCTV and other equipment. BT Business also notes that PSTN, ISDN, ADSL and related analogue services will be switched off by 31 January 2027, and that businesses using these networks need to move to IP-based technology before then.
What to do now: audit every line and device that may still depend on analogue phone services. Do not leave migration until the final months of 2026, when supplier demand and engineer availability may become tighter.
How Comtek can help: Comtek can help identify legacy lines, plan migrations and move customers to suitable digital voice services, including VoIPlex where appropriate.
What UK SMEs should do next
This week’s practical actions are straightforward:
Review old equipment and unpatched systems. Check whether your Microsoft 365 setup has resilience and recovery plans. Start an AI governance conversation before Copilot use spreads informally. Audit any PSTN, ISDN or analogue-dependent services now, rather than waiting until the 2027 deadline is urgent.
How Comtek can help
Comtek can help customers turn these updates into practical action, from security reviews and Microsoft 365 planning to backup checks, AI readiness and VoIPlex migration planning.
Need advice on how this affects your business? Contact Comtek.