Blue Ridge Technology

AI Shopping ​Microsoft keeps on iterating and innovating with AI, and this time you might not exactly love what they’re offering. But you need to know so you can keep your team on track. Here’s what you need to know about Copilot Checkout, coming soon to…well, everything Microsoft makes, it seems. What Is Copilot Checkout? Copilot Checkout is a new AI-driven feature coming to Copilot, Microsoft’s AI assistant that’s already built into Bing, Edge, and Microsoft 365. It does what it sounds like it does: sells you stuff. We know, not exactly revolutionary. But the difference is that Copilot Checkout wants to sell you (and your team members) stuff directly within an AI chat window. No shopping cart, no procurement process, and — some fear — no accountability. Microsoft isn’t coming out of nowhere with this. ChatGPT already rolled out a similar feature, called Instant Checkout. Different from ChatGPT’s recent addition of ads, Instant Checkout can show product recommendations when users ask ...

MFA ​Your business’s cybersecurity could be haunted by ghosts of the past that put you at risk in surprising ways. Even if you’re doing all the right things to keep your business digitally safe today, poor security hygiene from years back could still threaten your digital security if you haven’t made certain specific changes. The Threat: Old, Stale Passwords with Weak Authentication Let me paint you a picture: there’s a business about your size that seems to be doing everything right. New employees are required to create long, complex passwords managed by a business-grade password manager. All employees receive regular training on scam and phishing awareness. Every system is kept up to date with the latest security updates across software and operating systems. But they still fall victim to a cyberattack. How did the bad guys get in? Well, it wasn’t through a new employee with a weak password or poor training. It was through an account belonging to a long-time employee (or maybe even a...