Blue Ridge Technology

genAI Tools ​Let’s face it: your team is using AI, whether you want them to or not. If you have any kind of office operations, then chances are almost 100% that someone on your team is using generative AI tools at work. We think that can be a great thing — genAI tools can summarize meetings, help team members brainstorm and organize their thoughts, do light research, and much more. We’ve even explained how some of the new genAI features in Microsoft Copilot can help businesses like yours, right here on the blog. Using AI can be a good thing. But do you know how your team is using it? Which tools they’re using? And most important of all: do you know what business data they’re feeding to those AI tools? Most small business owners don’t. And because AI tools are developing and launching so quickly, most small businesses don’t have clear AI governance in place yet. What Is Governance? “Governance” refers to how a business controls and manages its IT resources. It’s why your employees can’t...

​Popular mobile web browsers collect more data than you think. Mobile browsers — especially the phone and tablet versions of Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge — collect a surprising amount of data from users. Depending on the phone OS you use, the browser you choose, and the settings on your device, you might be giving the browser maker an uncomfortable level of access to your life and your business. As usual, staying informed is key: once you know what’s happening behind the scenes, you can make informed decisions about your risk comfort level. What Do Mobile Browsers Collect? There’s the usual suspects: browsing history, saved passwords, and probably some form of payment details. No surprise here — you expect mobile browsers to retain details like these for convenience’s sake and to power capabilities we all rely on. But recent research found that some browsers collect a lot more than that. Your phone likely already knows everywhere you’ve been, and some browsers happil...

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...