The MSP Minute ⏱ Friday 1 May 2026
For Managed Service Providers worldwide. Today... 9 in 10 of your clients have a compromised user right now... Microsoft E7 is live... and Cisco just proved the channel has the power
🔴 9 in 10 of your clients have at least one compromised user right now
Guardz published their 2026 State of MSP Threat Report this week and the numbers are uncomfortable reading.
89% of monitored SMBs had at least one user with confirmed credential compromise at any given time
Nearly a third of all users are exposed to compromised passwords every single month
Ransomware behavioural detections surged 190% over a 50-day window
And session hijacking, where attackers bypass MFA entirely by stealing active login sessions rather than passwords, is now the fastest growing attack vector, up 23%. Guardz
The number that should stop you cold: RMM tool abuse was the single largest endpoint threat category, accounting for 26% of all detections. ScreenConnect, AteraAgent, and MeshAgent were all observed being used for unauthorised persistent access.
🟡 Microsoft E7 is live today. Here's your 12 second brief
It’s here. Microsoft 365 E7 and Agent 365 go generally available today.
E7 is Microsoft’s new premium licence tier bundling E5, Copilot, the Entra identity suite, and Agent 365. A single dashboard for managing and securing AI agents across a client’s environment, at $99 per user per month.
Buying those components separately comes to $105 under current pricing. Simple maths for any client already on E5 and trialling Copilot. Channel Dive
Paid Copilot seats passed 20 million this quarter with Microsoft highlighting strong growth specifically in small and medium business.
🟢 Cisco just reversed a decision that was hurting its partners… after they pushed back
Good news if you’ve ever wondered whether vendors actually listen to feedback.
In February, Cisco cut deal registration benefits for its UCS compute partners, reducing partner margins by as much as 8%. Blame memory prices. Partners were furious, and some sales reps began moving Cisco compute deals to Lenovo, Dell, and HPE in response. On April 14, Cisco reversed course entirely, restoring the discounts from April 15. ChannelE2E
The principle is worth remembering. Vendors do respond to organised, sustained pushback, especially when partners start voting with their feet. The channel has more leverage than it sometimes realises.
Hooray, it’s the weekend! No email on Monday as it’s a public holiday here in the UK, so we’ll be back in your inbox on Tuesday morning. Whatever you’re doing, make sure it’s fun 😃