Blue Ridge Technology

Microsoft Teams is an impressive collaboration and workflow tool that has the potential to completely transform the way you interact with team members. It’s especially useful when you’re working with a distributed workforce, where some (or even all) members of your team aren’t in the same physical location. If you’re already using Teams, you know how powerful it can be. But did you know about these lesser-known tools from Microsoft that can further improve your productivity and workflow? Each of the tools we review below is already available to you if you have a Microsoft 365 subscription or license. And each tool integrates seamlessly with Teams, so you can keep everything running in the same ecosystem. Editor Your organization’s top-tier, public-facing content probably routes through an editor or proofreader (or someone with a better than average eye, at least). That’s because we all understand the importance of brand image: your company needs to look polished and professional at all...

So you’ve tapped a bad link on your phone. You’re not the only one. Truth be told, this happens all the time. Once you realized your mistake, it all seems so obvious. But in the moment, that link seemed too good to pass up (or too urgent to ignore). These scam links are getting better and more sophisticated. We’re not seeing so much “hot singles in your area” these days — most people know by now that the sketchy links are no good. These days scammers target business users with legit-sounding offers or urgent-sounding messages that act like they’re from work. In other words, it’s quite possible that the scam was so well disguised that you’d never have known if it weren’t for that strange outcome. Whatever the case, the important question to ask is this: What now? What’s done is done, but you still need to take steps to make sure your smartphone isn’t compromised. Here’s what you need to know. Understand the Threat Vectors First, understand the potential threat vectors in play with bad l...

The Biggest Security Threat to your business might be on your payroll Your biggest security threat may well be on your payroll right now. Without proper training, your own well-intentioned employees can unknowingly open you up to attack. Rarer (but much worse), someone on your payroll could be intentionally working against you as a malicious insider. Here are five strategies to mitigate internal threats and increase your overall cybersecurity health. 1. Commit to Ongoing Cybersecurity Education Investing in ongoing cybersecurity education for your team is the most important thing you can do to reduce the risk of accidental exposure. In today’s connected environment, there are more bad actors out there than ever before. Scammers are getting more sophisticated, too. One 10-minute training session once a year isn’t going to cut it. Cybersecurity training must be thorough, and it must be carried out frequently. Most importantly, though: everyone — and we mean everyone — in your organizatio...

Your building is only as strong as its weakest point of security. The same goes for your network and digital infrastructure. Your firewall is the most significant piece of your IT security system. But how strong is it, really? You’d never dream of leaving the doors to your corporate office wide open and unmonitored overnight. No, instead you take every reasonable precaution to prevent break-ins and theft. But far too many SMBs leave the “digital doors” open or very weakly secured. Is your company one of them? Many small companies don’t even have a real firewall, and if they do, it’s not configured well. Even many medium-sized businesses don’t implement a more robust UTM firewall. Or, again, if they have one, it’s not properly configured. UTM firewalls are more robust and more powerful, providing all sorts of additional security benefits. In recent years, costs have dropped significantly as well. Today, nearly every SMB can afford to implement this better technology. Not sure whether sw...

Adapting to the new “Work from Home” environment Millions of us across the world have responded amazingly to the challenges of working from home and many people who have taken this challenge to change the workplace will never return to their old jobs. So for people who can not take home their laptops or desktops with them at all times, it is crucial to know how best to train their team on software when they work from home. For these people, software training in the workplace is essential. And training on the software at home is even more essential. A study conducted by O*NET over three years identified that more than 50% of the people asked about software training said that this was essential. Training staff remotely In a world where in person training is no longer always an option, we must look at how we can support our people digitally. If we can’t train them, we have even less chance of retaining them. Using video, webinars and workshops are all great ways to encourage your colleagu...

The Last Line of Defense Is a Next Generation Anti-Virus Next Generation Anti-Virus (NGAV) has become the latest evolution of legacy anti-virus products that for years have protected computers, servers and networks from the range of modern-day cyber attacks. The legacy products that most people are familiar with work at delivering the endpoint protection with very little effort. NGAV addresses an updated approach in the way malicious activity is detected and blocked. Next Generation Anti-Virus Ben Johnson from CarbonBlack describes NGAV as a “system-centric view of endpoint security, examining every process on every endpoint to algorithmically detect and block the malicious tools, tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) on which attackers rely”. Johnson in the above linked article describes how NGAV has taken four important measures to protect the company: Prevent traditional malware in traditional AV. Prevent unknown malware and advanced attacks and evaluate the general backgro...

With cyber attacks on the rise, it is essential for your business to be prepared in the event of a disaster. Most businesses have offsite backups that they can use in the event of a disaster or attack, but how reliable is your backup? Have you tested it to make sure that it can restore your information in a timely manner and get you up and running again quickly? Routine and regular backup testing can alert you to possible failures so that you can take appropriate action. In order to have little to no impact on your business operations and financials, a comprehensive and quick restoration is important to making sure you are prepared in the event of a disaster. In 2017, Cockrell Hill Police Department out of Texas announced that fell victim to a ransomware attack resulting in the loss of 8 years of data. This data loss included evidence pertaining to ongoing investigations. This data was unrecoverable. Ransomware resulted in 8 years of lost data for a police department in Texas. In 2016...