Blue Ridge Technology

In today's digital age, structured wiring is crucial for new constructions aiming to establish a robust and seamless network infrastructure. At Blue Ridge Technology, we understand the importance of integrating network, camera, and security systems effectively. This article delves into how structured wiring can set the foundation for a reliable and scalable IT environment for your business in the Western North Carolina area. Understanding structured wiring Structured wiring is a comprehensive telecom infrastructure that facilitates communication devices and systems within a building. It encompasses network cabling, audio/video distribution, and security systems wiring. This organized approach ensures connectivity, reduces clutter, and enhances operational reliability. Having a solid wiring foundation makes it easier to expand or upgrade systems later without extensive rewiring. This facilitates scalability and ensures your investment in technology infrastructure remains future-proo...

In today's fast-paced technological world, the foundation of an efficient and robust IT infrastructure often lies in effective network and low-voltage structured wiring. For businesses in Asheville and Hendersonville, NC, a well-planned wiring system not only ensures seamless communication but also supports scalable growth and operational reliability. At Blue Ridge Technology, our focus encompasses these essentials to empower businesses through proactive and responsive managed services. Understanding the importance of structured wiring Structured wiring forms the backbone of any IT network. It includes network cables, modems, switches, and routers configured to optimize performance and reliability. Investing in structured wiring ensures that your business can handle increased data loads, enabling smooth operation without interruptions. Seamless communication : Effective wiring supports technologies like VoIP and video conferencing. Scalability : A well-planned infrastructure allows...

Have you updated to the latest version of Windows 11 yet? If not, it’s time to act – Microsoft has announced when it will end support for older versions (and it’s soon!). Usually when people talk about digital threats to businesses, they focus on certain types of threats, like credential theft, ransomware, business email compromise, and malware. Those are all important threats that businesses need to defend against, but there’s another related type that doesn’t get enough coverage: cyber extortion. What Is Cyber Extortion? Cyber extortion is a malicious practice where criminals gain access to your organization’s data and then extort you with it, threatening to release it publicly or take some other action with it that will compromise your business or harm your reputation (or both). Usually this type of attack includes a request for ransom in exchange for not releasing your data or harming your organization. How Is Cyber Extortion Different Than Ransomware? Compromising your business an...

More businesses are proactively investing in cyber security defenses Despite how serious the threats are, one recent study found that 50% of SMBs have no cybersecurity plan in place whatsoever . That’s fully half of all the companies out there like yours, with no plan, no coherent defense. Are you one of them? If so, it’s time to make a change — and we can help. More Businesses Investing, But Progress Is Slow-Going A large survey of small business owners in early pandemic days revealed that it used to be worse: as many as 60% of businesses had no cybersecurity plan going into the pandemic. If we got that number down to 50% by 2022, that’s progress. It means that more businesses are getting proactive about investing in cyber security defenses. But 50% is still frightfully far away from zero. That progress is taking place slowly. Comprehensive Cybersecurity Is an Investment One reason SMBs shy away from implementing robust cybersecurity measures is that doing so isn’t easy or cheap: it’...

Do you ever get tired of passwords? It seems like even in the best-case scenario where you’re doing everything you can to practice good password hygiene, it’s always frustrating. You’re constantly juggling tons of usernames and passwords, struggling to memorize them, failing to type them in quite right, or getting confused about which passwords all belong with which sites. Or you might be secretly operating in a much worse scenario: you know you can’t keep that many passwords, memorized, so you reuse one password across many of your accounts. No judgment here: the data is clear that lots and lots of people do this, even if they know they shouldn’t. Most People Struggle One of Two Ways The truth is, if you fall into either of these categories, you’re far from alone. Most people struggle with password use, falling into one of these two ditches. Either they’re struggling with password overload — because it is legitimately impossible to memorize hundreds of unique username and password com...

Don’t think your business is a target? Think again Botnet attacks are on the rise in a serious way. And whether you know all about them or think they sound vaguely reminiscent of the Terminator movies, they could threaten your business — not just the big global corporations. Here’s what you need to know about this technology and the latest developments in how cybercriminals are using them to do damage. What Is a Botnet? A botnet is a group of compromised computers (and/or other connected electronic devices) that an attacker controls as a unit, using some small amount of processing power on each device to function as a “bot” that can network with other compromised bots to do damage online. Think of it like those armies of synchronized drones that sometimes get used in place of fireworks to create dynamic art in the sky: each drone by itself isn’t very powerful and can’t do much, but a whole army of them can work together to accomplish quite a lot. Why Are Botnets a Problem? Essentially ...

Microsoft and Samsung team up to boost work phone security If the way your team members access work resources from their smartphones keeps you up at night, we’ve got good news: Microsoft and Samsung are teaming up to give a massive security boost to the smartphones people use at work. But of course there’s a catch: you have to use the right phones. Here’s what you need to know about this smarter way to secure your company’s data and digital assets. The Breakthrough: On-Device Attestation We won’t get too technical here, don’t worry— but the technology breakthrough underlying this change is something called on-device attestation. We’ve talked about passkeys and other advanced authentication methods before, and this is sort of like those, only even more intense. Basically, with on-device attestation, companies can see more deeply into the software and firmware on a phone to identify possible compromises, hacks, or other threats. There are other attestation tools out there, but they all r...

Criminals are exploiting AI to create more convincing scams We wrote a couple of months ago about the dark side of generative AI . In that post we showed you a few ways that these new chatbots and other AI-powered generative technologies could do harm. Some of the things we talked about — like damaging your search engine optimization (SEO) or how generative AI generally has a loose relationship with telling the truth — aren’t exactly malicious or nefarious. They’re just things you need to know before you jump into using these tools. But other concerns do have some potential for malicious use and could be abused by criminals and bad actors. A few months ago, “could” was the operative word — but not anymore. Now it’s happening pretty much like we predicted. Here’s what you need to know about 3 new tactics criminals are already using to weaponize generative AI. 1. Phishing Emails Are Getting Harder to Spot In the past, most phishing emails had some tell-tale signs, like questionable gram...

3 essential security tools for every business Cybersecurity never stops moving — because neither do the attackers and digital threats that could hamper or even bring down your business. It’s easy for cybersecurity policies, procedures, and technology to get complicated in a hurry. And it can be enough to cause small business leaders to throw their hands up in frustration. If you need advanced cybersecurity protections, we’re here to help. But sometimes it’s smart to get back to basics, and that’s what we’re doing in this week’s post. Below are three basic security tools that every digitally connected small business must have in place. Do you have all three of these, and are they working the way you’d like? 1. A Firewall (or a Secure Web Gateway, or Both) The first line of defense for most businesses is a firewall. A firewall is a piece of hardware that sits as a gatekeeper of sorts between your network and the broader internet. The name comes from the analog equivalent: a thick, firepr...

Microsoft 365 makes Multi-Factor Authentication easier We wrote just last week about how crucial it is to implement multifactor authentication (MFA) wherever possible in your business. If you missed that post, check it out now (Have You Implemented MFA Yet? ) — we won’t rehash all of that news here. Still, we figure there’s a sizable group of businesses that fall into one of these categories: Still on the fence about MFA Convinced MFA is important but unsure how to get started In the middle of implementing MFA, and it’s not going well Already implemented MFA, but people are complaining or bypassing it If any of those sound familiar, we have great news: if you’re using Microsoft 365, things are about to get a lot easier. Here’s what you need to know. MFA Already Available Throughout Microsoft 365 First, it’s worth mentioning that MFA isn’t brand-new for M365 users. Microsoft already supported a few different kinds of next-gen authentication, including MFA. Maybe you never got around to ...

All businesses should adopt MFA. Now Have you implemented MFA yet on your business’s digital accounts? If not, you can’t afford to wait any longer. Here’s what you need to know about this crucial security tactic. What Is MFA? MFA stands for multifactor authentication. It’s a category of authentication methods that offer far greater security than the internet’s standard “username + password” system. If you’re not sure exactly what authentication means in this context, start with that username + password. At virtually any website you visit, those two elements tell the site that you’re you. (Sort of: technically it just tells the site that someone has credentials that only you should have — and that’s where the problems start.) You’ve probably come across two-factor authentication (2FA) somewhere in your business or personal life. There are lots of ways to do it, but the most consumer-familiar version is when a company asks for your username and password, then texts or emails you a tempor...

Is your security focusing on the right things? There’s a big problem with the way that many businesses approach cybersecurity policy and protections. Are you making this key mistake? Today’s post covers what many businesses get wrong about digital security — and how you can avoid making the same mistake. Doors and Windows Have Limitations There was once a church that kept discovering strange things missing from storage areas—especially the freezers where they kept food to serve to people in need. They wondered if it was mice, squirrels, maybe raccoons, but they couldn’t figure it out. The problem went on for months. Eventually they discovered the real culprit when maintenance found a human-sized makeshift bed up in the rafters. A guy on the run had been hiding out, helping himself to items from the cafeteria. Creepy, right? A stranger secretly living in a building where families and young children attend every week. This church locked its doors every night. But locks alone didn’t stop ...

Are your people Christmas shopping from work? The holidays are fast approaching, and let’s be real — we’re all scrambling for those gifts, especially for the folks on our lists that are hard to shop for! More than likely, you’ve got an employee or two doing a little holiday shopping on their work machine. Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they’re doing it on break time or over lunch. Still, if you and your people aren’t careful, that online holiday shopping could actually turn into a business threat! Here’s how — and how you can keep your business data safe this holiday season. Online Scams Are Everywhere We’ve said it before, and it’s just as true now: online scams are everywhere. Well, not everywhere. If you’re buying from trustworthy retailers like Amazon or Macy’s or Wal-Mart — and you’re certain you’re on their actual legit website — it’s pretty tough to get scammed. During the holidays, online scammers like to take advantage of how busy and even desperate some p...

Workers are more mobile than they’ve ever been at many office-oriented businesses. Your business likely pivoted hard to a virtual or work-from-home environment thanks to the pandemic. That move was crucial at the time as it was the only way to keep work moving, even though it created its own set of security concerns (which we’ve discussed here before). Now, as the world starts to open back up, many businesses are keeping more relaxed policies in place regarding where employees work. And employees are taking advantage, working from wherever they happen to be. If you or members of your team are working on the go, being Wi-Fi aware is also crucial for your company’s security. Here’s what mobile employees (executives, too) need to know about the potential dangers of unfamiliar Wi-Fi. Be Cautious About Connecting to New Networks The first step in being Wi-Fi aware is simply to be cautious when connecting to new Wi-Fi networks. It may seem like a Wi-Fi connection is merely a way to access th...

Ransomware Resilience No matter the size of your business, you could be the target of a ransomware attack. These attacks are more complex to pull off than simple credential theft, and early attacks tended to target high-profile organizations and government agencies. But now, ransomware attacks are becoming more and more common. You might not think of your business as a likely target. But the danger is real regardless. Here’s what you need to know about ransomware attacks — and how to protect yourself and your business. What Is Ransomware? Ransomware is a type of malicious code-based lockout attack. In a ransomware attack, hackers break into a target system and lock out all users (typically encrypting data on that system as well). The perpetrators demand a payment (or ransom) to return or unlock the affected systems and files, often in cryptocurrency or other means that are difficult to trace. What Are Some Recent Ransomware Attacks? Ransomware attacks have been on the rise, including s...

There’s a false notion out there among small businesses that can be unimaginably dangerous. It goes something like this: “We don’t need to worry too much about cybersecurity. We’re so small, no one would want to hack us.” If you’ve ever been tempted to think something similar — and if your digital security efforts reflect this mentality — your business could be in danger. The truth is, small businesses are big targets for cybercriminals. Your small business isn’t too small to get hacked, and it may even be an especially enticing target. Here’s why, and some initial steps you should take. Fort Knox and Convenience Stores It’s tempting to think that hackers will always and only go after big, juicy, lucrative targets. And don’t get us wrong: hackers do go after big global corporations. Sometimes they even succeed. But everyday hackers are just as likely — if not more likely — to go after smaller targets. To understand why, we’ll use an analogy from offline crime. Which would you rather r...

Five Strategies for How to Spot a Phishing Email In last week’s blog post, we talked about the rise of the phishing email, now one of the most common methods of digital attacks. We showed you how dangerous these emails can be, and what to do if you think you’ve fallen for one. What Are Phishing Emails, Again? As a reminder, phishing emails are fraudulent messages that usually appear to be from some well-known, legitimate company or authority (like the IRS). But they actually come from scammers trying to steal account information and other personal data. If a user clicks a link in a phishing email and tries to log into the (fake) page, the scammers immediately get access to whatever the user typed (usually a username and password). While it’s good to know about phishing emails, the real trick is to be able to recognize phishing emails in the first place. If employees know the email’s a phony, they should know to delete it, not click through. So, with that in mind, here are our top tips ...

When it comes to protecting your assets, your best bet is a multi-layered security or defense approach. Multi-layered security refers to a security system that uses numerous components to shield multiple levels or operational layers. The term can also refer to the term “defensive depth", which is based on slightly different ideas, many of which are used to mitigate threats, delay or prevent threats. Security classes can also be called defense layers. Secure Your Network with a multi-layered security approach. How multi-layered security network defense works Ensuring that multiple layers are included in network security should guarantee that each defense component is supported in the event of a failure or lack of coverage. The benefit of a multi-layered security solution is that it monitors and secure your data from breaches that singular focused defense systems lack. According to this assumption, each layer in the multifaceted security approach focuses on precise areas of security...