Blue Ridge Technology

AI Passwords ​Depending on what you do, AI can do a lot for your individual productivity. Given how effective some AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini are at certain business tasks, like drafting emails, improving grammar, synthesizing information, or even writing or correcting code. But recent research shows us one thing you shouldn’t use AI for: creating passwords. A clearer understanding of how these systems work can show you why. Here’s what you need to know. Why People Use AI for Password Creation We’ve warned for more than a decade that using simple passwords is dangerous, and reusing them is even worse. Passwords that use your birthday, common patterns like 2468, or even the word “password” itself (yes, this really still happens) are easy to guess. When you reuse those easy passwords across multiple accounts, all it takes is one right guess and the bad guys could gain access to all sorts of information. People hear that passwords need to be long, complex, and unique, but we humans ...

SHOCK STAT: A third of business owners don’t trust their staff Business success thrives on trust: to some degree, you trust that your customers and suppliers and vendors will all pay what they’ve promised, deliver goods on time, and keep the services running that you rely on to power your business. But trust is a tricky thing. And we’re often unsure exactly how much we can (or should) trust people. It’s one of the reasons some business owners struggled with the idea of remote or hybrid work. Too much trust is also a significant driver in cyberattacks, data theft, and any other sort of digital threat your business faces. One recent survey revealed something shocking: around a third of business owners don’t trust their own staff. Let’s take a look at why this is — both the good and the not-so-good reasons business leaders struggle to trust employees — along with what you can do to improve this crucial area. Why Leaders Struggle to Trust Many leaders struggle to trust because of past expe...

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...

Android 13 is safer for your business Mobile devices can be a security threat to your business — but it’s hardly possible to force your people to never access business materials while on the go. Doing that might even threaten your business, making it harder for your sales force to close deals or for your management to resolve off-hours problems. If this conundrum — access versus security — is one that keeps you up at night, then Google’s recent announcement about a new version of Android will come as welcome news. Bottom line: Android 13 is on its way, and it brings numerous security enhancements that should eliminate some of those mobile security concerns. Here’s what you need to know as a business leader. Better IT Admin Controls The first big update is a little nerdy, but it’s an important one. Android 13 brings more robust admin controls to business devices running the OS. If your team members have work phones, your IT admin will be able to monitor security logs more efficiently an...

Is this the end of passwords… forever? The move to simultaneously simplify and enhance security has been a long time coming. We’ve said it before: passwords are a terrible way to protect your business accounts. Microsoft, Apple, and Google all agree— and they’re finally going to work together to do something about it . This is going to be a pretty big shift once it arrives, and with the Big 3 involved, there’s every reason to believe this new system could become the new standard across most of your accounts and business services. And that’s very good news! Here’s what you need to know about this coming change: what it is, when it will roll out, and how to prepare. The Problem with Passwords We won’t go too deep here because we’ve talked about it so often already, but the short version is this: passwords are awful. They’re hard to remember and easy to steal or crack. They lead to all sorts of security breaches, data theft, and more: as many as 81 percent of data breaches are due to weak...

You’ve probably seen the stats by now: data breaches can be massively expensive. The average cost of a breach in 2021 was $4.24 million globally, and for US companies that figure shoots up to $8.64 million (in 2020). No matter the size of your business, the financial costs of a data breach are concerning enough to get serious on your digital security. But the financial costs aren’t the sum total of what you’ll deal with in a breach. In fact, they’re only a small piece of the puzzle. Data breaches cause far more damage than just the monetary sort. Consider these hidden (and not so hidden) costs that you’ll face if your company goes through a data breach this year. 1. You Will Lose Clients First, if you encounter a data breach, you will with near certainty lose some of your clients. Your clients are expecting you to keep their information secure, and some of them will take a breach as serious enough to move on to a competitor. As a result, you’ll have to deal with the monetary costs of...