“Inventory every Windows system you manage right now and begin staged patching for CVE-2026-81963 starting with servers, then critical clients — don't wait for your Tuesday patch cycle.”
Azure Reported Down for Some Asia-Pacific Users — September 18, 2026
User reports of Azure availability issues surfaced around September 18, with DownDetector spikes beginning at approximately 8:29 PM Eastern on September 17. The incident followed Microsoft's confirmation that the service was operational as of September 17 at 3:28 PM UTC, suggesting a new or rolling degradation. Admins with APAC-region Azure workloads should validate connectivity and check the Azure Service Health portal for active advisories.
Read more →CVE-2026-81963: Windows Update Stack Zero-Day Under Active Exploitation — Patch Now
CVE-2026-81963 is a locally exploitable link-following flaw in the Windows Update Stack (CVSS 7.8) confirmed by Microsoft as actively exploited in the wild, allowing a low-privileged attacker to escalate to SYSTEM without user interaction. Because the Update Stack runs on every supported Windows client and server, the attack surface is effectively the entire Windows fleet and the flaw is an ideal post-compromise escalation primitive. No workaround is available; apply the September 2026 Patch Tuesday update immediately across all endpoints.
Read more →ConnectWise Sidekick and SuperOps Monica Drive Service Desk AI Adoption for MSPs
ConnectWise Sidekick — built natively into the ConnectWise ecosystem — is being widely adopted to summarise tickets, draft responses, and surface relevant runbook information, with MSPs reporting up to 40% faster ticket resolution and 80% less dispatcher time. SuperOps has shipped an agentic AI named Monica into its PSA for triage and resolution drafting, alongside an agentic marketplace for multi-step automations. MSPs are cautioned that AI answer tools are only as effective as their underlying documentation — outdated or sparse runbooks produce confidently wrong responses.
Read more →ACSC Warns of Global CMS Exploitation Campaign Hitting Australian SMBs
The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) issued an alert regarding a large-scale global exploitation campaign actively targeting vulnerabilities in content management systems (CMS) and their plugins, with many Australian small-to-medium businesses already impacted by webshell deployments. Webshells provide persistent access enabling credential theft, service disruption, malware planting, and lateral movement deeper into networks. MSPs managing client websites on WordPress, Joomla, or similar platforms should audit installed plugins for known-vulnerable versions and review web server logs for webshell indicators immediately.
Read more →Integris IT Acquires First Focus to Create World's Largest SMB-Focused MSP
In April 2026, US-based Integris IT announced its intention to acquire First Focus — widely regarded as Australia's largest MSP with over 350 staff across Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Ireland, and South Africa — to create what would be the world's largest SMB-focused MSP with approximately 1,200 employees. First Focus has won the #1 MSP in Australia award from cloudtango for nine consecutive years. Australian MSPs should monitor how this consolidation affects vendor relationships, pricing, and competitive positioning in the local market.
Read more →CRN Channel Awards Australia 2026: Winners Announced — Otto IT Takes MSP of the Year
The inaugural CRN Channel Awards Australia were held on September 17, 2026, at the Hyatt Regency in Sydney, recognising outstanding vendors, distributors, MSPs and solution providers across the Australian IT channel. MSP Otto IT took home two awards: MSP of the Year (0-49 employees) and Woman of the Year (partner), awarded to Megan Visser. The awards mark a milestone for the Australian channel community, with CRN Australia's parent company The Channel Company expanding its global awards program into the ANZ market for the first time.
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