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Every January, people and businesses promise to “take security more seriously,” but that kind of vague resolution rarely turns into action. Security only improves when specific behaviors change
In 2026, threat actors are leaning harder than ever on social engineering, credential theft, and data they collect from your online footprint. Security tools help, but they are most effective when paired with clear, practical habits anyone on your team can follow.
Instead of another abstract “be more secure” goal, here are three concrete security resolutions that will actually move the needle this year.
3 Concrete Security Resolutions for 2026
Map Your Digital Footprint
You cannot protect what you do not know exists. Over the last decade, most organizations have quietly accumulated dozens, sometimes hundreds, of public touchpoints and third‑party tools, such as social channels, SaaS platforms, newsletter providers, payment systems, marketing tools, and more. Each one represents a slice of your identity and a potential attack surface.
Attackers love this complexity because it creates blind spots. An abandoned X (Twitter) account, a test subdomain that was never turned off, or a stale SaaS integration with elevated permissions can all become easy entry points. Even on the personal side, old accounts tied to your primary email address can be used for credential‑stuffing attacks or password resets.
Make 2026 the year you build a simple, living map of your footprint. At a minimum, list:
Once you see everything in one place, you can:
This does not need to be complicated. Start with a spreadsheet, assign owners, and review it quarterly. The value is in visibility, not perfection.
Turn On Layered Protection for Your People and Brand
Security incidents in 2026 are just as likely to start on social media or a messaging platform as they are in a network log. Attackers lean on publicly available information, such as executive profiles, employee posts, customer interactions, and brand mentions, to craft believable scams, impersonations, and narratives that erode trust in your organization.
Layered protection in this context is about combining policy, training, and external insight so your people and brand are harder to exploit. Instead of thinking only about firewalls and antivirus, focus on how your identity appears and behaves across digital channels.
Practical steps include:
This kind of layered protection accepts that people and brands are now primary attack surfaces and focuses on helping them operate safely in public.
Add External Threat & Exposure Monitoring
Even if you do not manage infrastructure or endpoint security, you can dramatically reduce risk by watching how your organization, key individuals, and assets appear across the surface, deep, and dark web. Many incidents begin with data or chatter that is visible long before any “attack” formally starts.
External threat and exposure monitoring focuses on signals such as:
By consolidating these signals into a single view and tying them back to real‑world identities and entities, you move to the more successful, anticipatory approach. That means you can warn stakeholders, coordinate with internal security or law‑enforcement partners, and shape your response before an issue becomes a headline.
The Wrap-up
Turning these resolutions into reality is less about firewalls and malware alerts and more about how your organization shows up across the digital world. Each step you take to map your footprint, guide how your people and brand operate online, and monitor external threats directly reduces the chance that a narrative, impersonation, or exposed asset catches you by surprise.
Treat this as an ongoing digital risk practice, not a one‑time project. Build a simple inventory of where your identity lives, put clear guardrails and training around public‑facing activity, and invest in continuous monitoring of the surface, deep, and dark web for early signs of targeting or misuse.
When your team can confidently say, “We know where we’re exposed, we understand how we’re being talked about and imitated, and we see threats forming before they hit the news,” you are doing exactly what matters most for real‑world safety and resilience—without needing to be a traditional cybersecurity provider.