Blue Ridge Technology

New Threat to Microsoft Teams We’re constantly warning about the threats of phishing schemes and other similar attacks, and for good reason — they still remain the most common way that cyberattacks and other digital threats originate. Well, we wish this post were different, but instead it’s just a little bit worse: now the threat could be coming from inside the house. Here’s what we mean, and what to watch out for. New Threat: Attackers Sending Messages Within Microsoft Teams The new threat, first identified by Sophos and reported on in Security Week , is an attack that uses Microsoft Teams. The threat actors who got caught using this attack exploited a vulnerability in Microsoft Teams — more specifically, in one of its default configurations. Millions of companies rely on these default configurations, so we’d say it’s a pretty big vulnerability! The Scam’s Architecture Here’s how the scam played out. First, the bad guys sent a ton of spammy messages through Microsoft Teams. These wer...

Great news: Microsoft Teams is getting even better! What may already be your favorite office productivity and collaboration tool is getting some new AI-powered features that could really make a difference in your workflows. Here’s what you need to know so you can get the maximum productivity out of this powerful tool you’re already using. Copilot Meeting Transcripts First up is a feature that you may have seen elsewhere, but now it’s built straight into Teams: AI-powered meeting transcripts. Teams users can now use Copilot to automatically transcribe the conversation that’s happening in any Teams meeting. This could be a video chat, an audio call, an all-hands meeting, or just about anything else you can do in Microsoft Teams. Admittedly, this capability has been around for a little while in other tools. There were even workarounds that would let you use other software services to do this in Teams, but what’s great here is tighter integration with Microsoft. In short, you get a better ...

Are you losing hours each week setting up video calls? Video calls are the new norm throughout most of the business world. Certainly during the first months of the pandemic they were a life-saver: business couldn’t have happened without them. Now, as we shift to a more long-term remote and hybrid work environment, video calls are here to stay. They unlock all sorts of good for your business: Saves money on unnecessary travel Enables participation when people can’t be in the office (isolation, family care, recovery, etc.) Powers long-distance collaboration that wouldn’t otherwise be feasible Can be recorded and viewed later Allows users to share screen content, ensuring everyone’s on the same page We could go on, but today’s focus is actually on a hidden cost associated with every video call, one that adds up over the year. We’re talking about lost time. The Time Loss Problem Video calls enable so much, but they aren’t free. Every single time an employee gets on the video call, there’s ...

Microsoft 365 continues to innovate throughout its suite of products, and one of its newest tools is a big win for inclusivity. The little-known tool is called Immersive Reader, and it’s already baked into some of the most popular Microsoft 365 apps, including Word, Outlook, and Teams. It’s a powerful tool in all three applications, but its uses in Teams are what takes the tool to an entirely new level. We shared a little about Immersive Reader in a recent tech tip to our email subscribers, but we wanted to take a closer look in today’s blog post. Here’s what this tool can do, plus how to enable it. Immersive Reader: What It Is Immersive Reader is a free tool built by Microsoft Education that’s designed to make content more accessible to all kinds of people. The tool was designed with students in mind, but many of its functions translate into business use cases as well. Immersive reader is already built into many Microsoft apps, including at least these: Word OneNote Outlook Teams Form...