Blue Ridge Technology

You need this feature if your browser looks like this Have you noticed how much you use your web browser these days? If you’re like most business leaders, you’re using it more than you used to, and for more types of tasks, too. As more and more of the apps and services your team uses to get work done transition to the cloud, the humble internet browser has gradually transformed into a versatile powerhouse app. It’s actually pretty amazing how much our browsers can do for us today, and the continued transition to the cloud shows no signs of stopping. But all this new activity within your browser can create a problem: too many tabs. With 15, 25, or even more tabs open, it can take forever to find the tab you’re looking for — and one errant click could close some mission-critical web app before you save your work! Thankfully, Microsoft has been teasing a solution for a while, and it finally showed up in a recent test version of Microsoft’s Edge internet browser. It’s called Workspaces, an...

Russian cyber-attack threat: White House advice to protect your business Cyberattacks are on the rise, and there’s an increased threat of attacks coming out of Russia right now, according to the Biden administration. As Russia grows increasingly combative and sanctions grow, the state and affiliated groups within it may crank up cyber intrusions soon. Many of these attacks are likely to be aimed at infrastructure like water or electricity or at other targets with ties to the federal government. But even businesses that don’t fit that profile should take this moment to secure their digital assets, according to the administration. Here’s what you need to know about the current recommendations coming out of the White House . Multi-Factor Authentication Matters If you haven’t yet implemented multi-factor authentication, or MFA, for your logins and key accounts, now is the time to do so. Without MFA, all the bad guys have to do is steal or guess the right combination of a username and a pas...

Two thirds of remote workers are using faulty tech Does your company have any workers who work remotely some or all the time? Your at-home or remote workforce can be a powerful contributor, and many love the flexibility of ditching the commute or being able to spend lunch breaks with pets or loved ones. Yet an increase in acceptance of remote work has led to a new round of logistical and practical concerns for business leaders like you. One that you might not think of? What happens when company tech breaks at home. A new report reveals that as many as 67% of remote workers fail to report damaged or broken technology to their employer. It’s a little weird that this is the case, but what’s more alarming is that this can turn into a security concern for your business. Here’s what you need to know. 67% of At-Home Employees Don’t Report Broken Tech If you’re working in the office and your keyboard stops working, what do you do? You request a new one. What if the reason your keyboard stopped...

Alert: A clever new type of ransomware attack Another week, another brand-new form of cyberattack. It certainly feels that way, doesn’t it? As a business leader, it’s easy veer in one of two directions. Either you live in constant fear or you grow numb and complacent to the very real threats. The best approach lies somewhere in the middle, where you recognize the threats for what they are and take appropriate steps to combat them. This week, we’re shedding light on a new threat vector, one that affects any business with a website that has a contact form. The New Threat Explained This new threat isn’t all that complicated, and that’s part of what makes it so effective. Here’s how it works. A threat actor visits your website normally, just like any other visitor would. They look for a contact form and fill it out, posing as a real lead or prospect. So far, if they’ve built an effective attack, they haven’t done anything out of the ordinary or suspicious. They just look like any other cus...

When something’s wrong, you want a responsive IT helpdesk. It’s an all-too-familiar scene: in an office complex somewhere near you, an employee is fighting with a computer. Something that has always worked, something that’s supposed to work, something the employee needs to do their job— you guessed it, it’s not working. At this hypothetical company, there’s a structure in place to solve problems like this: the IT helpdesk. In theory, the employee should just call the helpdesk to get the problem solved. But the employee doesn’t call the helpdesk right away. They spend 30 minutes, an hour, maybe two trying to solve the problem themselves. They bother a tech-savvy coworker or loop in their manager. Two or three people — none of whom is trained for it — now sit around the computer, poking through menus and Googling the symptoms. This not-so-hypothetical scenario plays out countless times every day, wasting too many resources and destroying worker focus and productivity. If you’ve lived it,...

How to protect your webcam from spies A few years ago, news rumbled through the tech press that Mark Zuckerberg, leader of Facebook (now Meta), was doing something unusual with his MacBook. It showed up first on Twitter , and was quickly picked up by numerous outlets, eventually reaching general news markets like The New York Times and The Guardian . So, what’s the weird thing Zuck was doing? Taping over the webcam on his MacBook Pro (and the microphone, too). The reason is straightforward enough: someone as powerful as Zuckerberg doesn’t want to be caught on camera or on audio discussing trade secrets, future products, or even his personal life. And he knew then that there was at least a possibility that his webcam and microphone could be weaponized against him without his knowledge. Paranoia or Something More? So what was going on here? Did Zuckerberg know something the rest of us didn’t? Maybe. But if so, he’s never come out with it. In all likelihood, Zuckerberg didn’t know of any...

A longer lasting battery with Efficiency mode Does your workforce rely on laptops or tablets running Windows? If so, battery life can be a persistent concern. Everything’s fine when your team members are working at their primary desk and connected to power, but short battery life can create headaches and even lost work in other situations. And what about resource efficiency? Do your team’s laptops and Windows tablets seem to struggle under the weight of everything you need them to do? Or do they feel surprisingly sluggish compared to just a few years ago? Sometimes the answer to problems like these is that you need to upgrade older devices. Batteries don’t last forever, and older machines lack the power of newer ones. But what if you could get more out of your current devices—without needing to replace them just yet? That’s what the latest upcoming feature in Windows 11 promises to do. Here’s everything you need to know about a Efficiency Mode, a feature likely coming to Windows 11 in ...