Your January Cybersecurity Checklist

A practical, high-impact guide to starting the year with a clean security baseline

January is one of the most important months for cybersecurity, yet it is often underestimated.

After Q4 pressure, year-end freezes, and holiday slowdowns, most organisations begin the new year carrying risks they did not consciously choose. Unfinished tasks, temporary decisions, and overlooked changes quietly become part of the new baseline.

Many Q1 incidents do not start with new attacks. They start with last year’s leftovers.

This January checklist is designed to help organisations regain visibility, reduce inherited risk, and set a stronger foundation for the year ahead, without requiring massive new projects or tools.

1. Review Access Rights

Why it matters: Access creep is one of the most common and most damaging security issues. Over time, users accumulate permissions through role changes, temporary projects, and emergency fixes. January is the cleanest moment to reset.

What to review:

• Privileged and administrative accounts

• Users with access across multiple systems

• Accounts that have not been used recently

• Shared or generic accounts

• Service accounts with unclear ownership

What good looks like: Every access right has a clear business reason, an owner, and a review cadence.

2. Remove Excessive or Outdated Permissions

Why it matters: Excess permissions turn minor incidents into major ones. A single compromised account becomes far more dangerous when access is broader than necessary.

Focus areas:

• Former employees and contractors

• Users who changed roles in Q4

• Temporary permissions granted for closed projects

• SaaS tools where access reviews are often skipped

Practical tip: If removing access feels risky, that is often a sign the access should be reviewed more closely.

3. Audit Cloud Exposure and Configurations

Why it mattersMost cloud incidents are caused by misconfiguration, not advanced attacks. Q4 deployments and quick fixes often leave environments more exposed than intended.

What to check:

• Publicly accessible services and storage

• Open ports and overly permissive security groups

• API keys, tokens, and credentials

• Test or development environments still active

• Default settings that were never hardened

Practical tip: Assume anything created “temporarily” in Q4 is still there in January.

4. Patch Critical Systems

Why it matters: Change freezes often delay patching. January is when attackers actively scan for known vulnerabilities that remained open during the holidays.

What to prioritise:

• Internet-facing systems

• VPNs, identity systems, and gateways

• High-severity vulnerabilities with known exploits

• Systems supporting finance, HR, and core operations

Practical tip: You do not need to patch everything at once. Focus on what is exposed and critical first.

5. Validate Incident Response Readiness

Why it matters: An incident response plan that has not been tested is only a document. January is ideal for validation while pressure is still relatively low.

What to test:

• How incidents are detected and reported

• Escalation paths and decision ownership

• Accuracy of contact details

• Coordination between IT, security, legal, and leadership

• Backup and recovery assumptions

Practical tip: A short tabletop exercise often reveals gaps faster than a full technical test.

6. Review Vendor and Third-Party Access

Why it matters: Third-party risk is often inherited silently. Vendor access granted last year may no longer be necessary or monitored.

What to review:

• Vendors with direct system access

• Support accounts and integrations

• Contracted access levels versus actual access

• Vendors that reduced support coverage over the holidays

Practical tip: If you rely on a vendor in an incident, confirm now how and when they can support you.

7. Brief Teams and Reset Awareness

Why it matters: Human behaviour early in the year often predicts risk for the months ahead. Awareness sets habits.

What to cover:

• Current phishing and social engineering patterns

• How and when to report suspicious activity

• Approval and verification expectations

• Reminder that urgency is often a red flag

Practical tip: Short, focused reminders outperform long annual trainings.

8. Align Security Priorities With Business Goals

Why it matters: Security that is disconnected from business priorities quickly loses support and effectiveness.

Questions to ask:

• What are the most critical systems this year

• Which business changes introduce new risk

• Where would an incident hurt most

• Which controls matter most now

Practical tip: A clear top-five priority list beats an overloaded roadmap.

Start Small, Reduce Risk Early

You do not need to solve everything in January. But these steps help you understand what you inherited, what matters most, and where to focus first.

A small effort at the start of the year often prevents costly incidents later.

If you would like support reviewing inherited risks, validating readiness, or translating this checklist into a structured plan, our team at Spirity Enterprise is happy to help.

Start the year with visibility. Strong security is built early.