Houston Tech Brief: Construction Tops Security Index

Houston construction firms just did something nobody expected: they outscored lawyers, CPAs, and manufacturers on cybersecurity. CinchOps scanned 648 commercial construction and trades firms across the Houston metro from the outside - the same view an attacker has - as the fourth industry in our Houston Area Security Index. Construction leads at a 1.71 GPA, the best of the four industries we've measured. But the win comes with a catch: the trades aren't defending better, they're just showing attackers less. And 41.7% of construction firms still fail, with half running services with no encryption and nearly half unable to prove an email from their own domain is real - the exact gap that turns a spoofed invoice into a wire fraud claim. In this episode: the full four-industry rankings, why a smaller footprint beats a bigger budget, where attackers are already hitting the trades, and the four fixes most firms can knock out in days. Read the full analysis at https://cinchops.com/houston-construction-security-index-2026/ and see the complete dataset at https://cinchops.com/houston-area-security-scorecard/ Want your own letter grade? The external security assessment is free for Houston-area businesses: https://cinchops.com/contact/ or call 281-269-6506. The Houston Tech Brief is produced by CinchOps, a managed IT services provider in Katy, Texas, serving small and mid-sized businesses across the Houston metro area. Read more: Houston Construction Cybersecurity Leads the CinchOps Security Index Connect with us: Website link: https://cinchops.com/ Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/CinchOps/ LinkedIn link: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cinchops/ Instagram link: https://www.instagram.com/cinchopsit/ X: https://x.com/cinchopsit YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/@CinchOps Have Questions? Want to discuss further? Reach out to Shane Stevens, CEO\Founder, CinchOps Technology Solutions: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanewstevens/