OPEN AN ACCOUNT

OPEN AN ACCOUNT
Personal Banking Services

Business Banking Services

Commercial Banking Services

Explore Our Approach to Wealth

About Us

Insights Articles

5 Critical Cybersecurity Questions to Ask Your IT Team or Service Provider

Learn five critical cybersecurity questions business owners should ask their IT team or service provider about patching, access, backups, incident response and cyber insurance.

2 min read

Brian Mayeur

Brian Mayeur

September 9, 2026 | Share This

Thanks in large part to artificial intelligence, business cybersecurity risks are reaching unprecedented levels.

As a business owner or financial manager, you’ve likely had to defend against traditional phishing email attacks and scams such as ransomware for years. But the explosion of AI capabilities is creating new cybersecurity challenges and making existing threats more sophisticated.

AI allows threat actors to automate, scale and refine cyberattacks with unprecedented speed and precision. Tools such as generative AI platforms and automated malware builders can lower the barrier to entry for cybercriminals. As a result, even less-skilled actors can carry out increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks.

What does this mean for you and your business? It’s simple: Managing cybersecurity risks should be a high priority. That starts with communicating effectively with your information technology (IT) team or outside IT service provider and understanding the steps they’re taking to protect your business, systems and data.

Here are five critical cybersecurity questions every business should ask its IT team or service provider.

1. How quickly does your IT provider apply software patches and updates?

Unpatched software can leave businesses vulnerable to data breaches and cyberattacks. Industry best practice is for critical patches to be applied within three days and sooner, if possible, for actively exploited vulnerabilities.

Timely software patching is one of the most important defenses against cyberattacks. You need to know how your IT resource is performing in this regard.

2. Who has administrative access to our systems?

Administrative or privileged access is a major risk when it is unlimited or not regularly reviewed, whether the threat comes from outside or inside the organization. Access should be granted on a least-privilege basis and reviewed regularly, at least quarterly.

Operating on a least-privilege basis means that users are granted the minimum level of access or permissions necessary to perform their specific job functions, and nothing more. This is a core cybersecurity principle designed to limit damage from accidental errors and malicious attacks.

3. How are our data backups performed, stored, and tested?

Backups are your last line of defense against a cyberattack, hardware failure or disaster. Data must be stored offline or offsite, and backup processes must be verified through restoration tests, not just assumed to work.

An IT restoration test verifies that an organization’s backed-up data can be successfully recovered and brought back online. It ensures business continuity by testing the completeness, accuracy and speed of system recovery.

4. Do we have an incident response plan for data breaches or cyberattacks?

A documented, practiced incident response plan reduces recovery time and limits damage. In the event of a data breach or cyberattack, you should know exactly who will call whom and what steps will be taken in the first 24 hours.

5. Are we meeting our cyber insurance’s security requirements?

Cyber insurance policies increasingly require specific controls to be in place. A gap between your security practices and what your policy requires could affect coverage in the event of a claim.

Why Cybersecurity Should Be a Business Priority

With cyber dangers on the rise, many business leaders need to rethink how they view their IT team or outside provider. In the past, you might have viewed IT primarily as the people who can get you out of a computer jam, such as helping you access your email or troubleshoot a problem you’re having printing a document. Today, beyond providing these traditional support services, your IT resource also plays an important role in protecting your business from fraud and other cybersecurity threats.

With the success and even survival of your business at stake, make sure you’re communicating with your IT team or service provider regularly and asking these critical cybersecurity questions.

To learn more about the latest cybersecurity challenges and solutions, contact your banker. You can also visit Hancock Whitney’s Cybersecurity for Business resources to access helpful white papers, a fraud prevention checklist and a Managing Cyberfraud webinar.

Explore more Insights

Get financial insights delivered to your inbox

Sign up to receive regular updates from our team of experts.