Blue Ridge Technology

50% of Phishing Attempts Impersonate Microsoft The old advice is still true: don’t trust anything you see on the internet. Within reason, of course: we work hard to make sure this blog is fact-based and trustworthy. But the big-picture advice is still good advice: how can you know for sure our team wrote this and that the whole post isn’t just the figment of a genAI’s imagination? There are signs, like the way this introduction is going. (Not your standard opening, that’s for sure!) So what’s our point? While you can learn a lot online, and you rely on it for a massive slice of your business, you still can’t take everything you see at face value. A recent report looked at a huge number of phishing attempts — those fraudulent emails that pretend to be from someone else and try to get you to give up sensitive information — and found that one company was the undisputed “leader”: more than ⅓ of phishing emails impersonating a brand chose Microsoft. If your business does business with Micr...

Is that Microsoft email actually a phishing attack? Phishing attacks come from all sorts of places. But where they actually come from isn’t something you need to spend time worrying about: they’re all bad, and unless you’re a security expert yourself, the actual source of the threat isn’t going to change what you do about it. What’s even scarier is where phishing attacks appear to come from . And a recent report shows that the #1 “source” for Q2 2023 is one of the most trusted brands in business. We’ll break down what this threat means and what you can do about it — but let’s start with a quick refresher on phishing in general. What Is Phishing, Again? Phishing attacks are digital attacks that dangle some kind of bait out there, hoping to get you to bite. Usually these take the form of an email (or text message or even social message) that appears to be from a trusted brand or trusted source, like your bank or even your boss. That email alerts you to some kind of problem, usually one ...

If you’re under pressure to take urgent action – stop and think At Blue Ridge Technology, we talk a lot about cybersecurity, and we publish about it on this blog regularly, too. Why? Because digital threats are one of the biggest risks that businesses, including our clients, could face. It’s vitally important to have strong cyber defenses in place (and we’re certainly ready to audit your hardware, network, and software defenses to find any vulnerabilities—just reach out today). But it’s just as important to train yourself and your employees or teammates on how to be aware of cyber threats. In other words, cyber awareness training is just as valuable as the best firewalls and endpoint protection systems. That may sound like a bold claim, but it’s true. The most common digital attacks don’t happen by bad guys brute forcing their way through your firewall. They happen because someone on your team makes a mistake. Your Biggest Cybersecurity Threat Is on Your Payroll As crazy as it sounds...

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...