Monday Morning Impact – April 20

SonicWall, a Milpitas, California-based cybersecurity company, has outlined a series of preventable security gaps that are placing SMBs at serious risk.

The SonicWall 2026 Cyber Protect Report, which draws on data from the company’s global network of more than one million security sensors, claims that high and medium severity attacks surged 20.8% to 13+ billion hits, meaning that attackers aren’t striking more often, they’re striking smarter. Automated bots now generate more than 36,000 vulnerability scans per second, accounting for more than half of all internet traffic. Bad bot traffic alone has surged to 37% of all global internet traffic.

IoT attacks climbed 11% to 610 million hits; Log4j alone generated 824.9 million (intrusion prevention system) IPS hits in 2025, four years after disclosure. Identity, cloud and credential compromise account for 85% of actionable security alerts, meaning that the stolen password, not the zero-day, is the attacker’s weapon of choice.

SMBs bear a disproportionate ransomware burden: 88% of their breaches involved ransomware in 2025, more than double the rate seen at large enterprises.

“SonicWall data reveals attacks are getting faster, and in some instances, they’re getting a little more sophisticated,” said Michael Crean, SVP and GM of Managed Security Services at SonicWall. “But the vast majority of the attacks that we’re seeing and investigating are basic fundamentals that continue to be missed. The danger isn’t that AI isn’t working; it’s that we’re using it as an excuse not to do the things we already know we should.”

The report also says that key exposures include weak authentication, unpatched systems, excessive admin privileges, inadequate testing/monitoring, permissive rules, flat networks, inadequate security investment, and faulty security deployments.

“The organizations that suffer the most are not failing because of sophisticated attacks, they’re failing because of predictable, preventable gaps,” Crean added.

Channel Impact^®
The report is designed to equip MSPs and MSSPs with the data and language needed for strategic conversations with SMB decision-makers, translating technical threat intelligence into business risk that leaders can act on.

The unevenness that has characterized the technology employment market for several months continued in March, according to analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data by CompTIA.

The suburban Chicago-based industry association reports that tech industry employment decreased by estimated 15,000 jobs last month. The largest share of staffing reductions were in the IT and custom software services and systems design occupation category, which lost 13,200 jobs, after adding 7,100 jobs in February.

Tech occupation employment, which includes technology professionals working in all industry sectors, decreased by 118,000 jobs last month. The unemployment rate for tech occupations edged up to 3.9%.

At the same time employers reduced tech staffing, they increased the volume of tech occupation job postings for the third consecutive month to begin 2026. There were more than 537,000 job postings for tech positions in March, including 254,000 new postings added during the month. Last month’s job postings total was 9.7% more than February 2026 and 8.9% higher than the March 2025 figure.

Several industry sectors recorded double-digit percentage increases in tech job postings last month, including real estate (+ 56.2%), retail trade (+ 27.1%), finance and insurance (+ 19%) and manufacturing (+ 15.7%).

Tech job postings were widely dispersed geographically. New York City, Washington and Dallas had the highest volumes, while San Francisco, Chicago and Washington saw the biggest increases in postings from February to March.

As AI skills continue to be a focus area across a wide range of job roles, employers are searching for a mix of technology positions to support AI adoption and ongoing digital transformation.

CompTIA’s analysis reveals that 17% of March job postings targeted workers with eight years or more experience; 27% specified workers with four to seven years’ experience; and 20%, zero to three years.

Channel Impact^®
Partners should note that when unemployment rises, companies often continue to post jobs for several key reasons, including the need for specialized help, the desire to maintain a “warm bench” of potential candidates, the desire to signal to investors the likelihood of continued growth, or the need to publicly post roles due to internal policy or regulations, even if they plan to hire internally.