Blue Ridge Technology

Are your productivity tools actually slowing you down? Depending on who you ask, we’re either living in a golden age of remote work powered by the best productivity tools the world has ever seen — or we’re drowning in “productivity” tools and remote work isolation. As usual, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. We really do have access to better, more powerful productivity tools than any previous working generation, and they really do enable remote and hybrid work in powerful ways. At the same time, there really are too many of them. If you suspect your productivity tools aren’t delivering on the promise of higher productivity and better collaboration, you’re probably right. Good news: you can take steps to fix this and truly benefit from the right set of productivity tools. Here’s what you need to know. Too Many Choices, Too Many Tools The first problem many businesses encounter is this: they’re just using too many tools. And who can blame them? There are hundreds of softw...

Don’t forget your phone when you think about cyber security Cybersecurity is such a huge focus these days, both here at Blue Ridge Technology and in the broader business world. But given how connected our lives are these days, it’s easy to have blind spots in the way we think about staying safe. For many people, their smartphone is one of these blind spots. It’s a super powerful device, but it can do a ton of damage in the right situations. Your Smartphone Is the Skeleton Key to Your Digital Life So why do we say your smartphone can do so much damage? Because your phone is almost like a skeleton key to, well, everything in your digital life. If you use your phone like most people do, it has access to most of your most secure, most personal information. It also has direct access to certain work information — maybe even protected or sensitive data, depending on how you configure access. In your personal life, someone gaining access to your phone could do damage. They might gain access to...

AI is making phishing scams more dangerous Have you played around with the latest generation of AI chatbots recently? They’ve been making waves. It started with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which can answer complex queries and do a surprisingly good job, at least most of the time. Seriously: you can ask it to write a review of your favorite smartphone in the style of a Shakespearean sonnet (or a Shakespearean sonnet in the style of a Wikipedia entry) — and it delivers something awfully close to what you asked for! You can also ask it to write an article like this one. And while this writer certainly hopes the machines aren’t coming for his job quite yet, the results are honestly a little amazing. To be fair, it’s not pro-quality copy. For now it’s more like, let’s say, B-plus-level high-school writing? And there are certainly still some issues with the tech (it can’t really tell what’s true, and it has no qualms making stuff up). Still, this technology (called generative AI) has people — and big ...

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 ...

Young employees have different attitudes to cybercrime. If you look at your team as a whole, how would you say they think about cybercrime? Hopefully you’ve taken the time to get them educated; maybe we’ve even stopped in and done some of that training. But do you think all members of your team understand the threats equally well, and take those threats as seriously as you should? Most managers and business owners would say a quick “no” here— and we agree. But maybe not for the reasons you’d think. Conventional wisdom says your older employees might not get this cybersecurity stuff as easily, and since they aren’t digital natives, they may be more likely to fall for a scam. On the flip side, your younger employees live and breathe tech, so they’re going to be pretty safe. Right? That’s not what the latest studies are showing. Younger People Too Carefree About Cybersecurity A recent study discovered that among people 16 to 19 years old, attitudes about cybersecurity are pretty lax. It s...

Take action to avoid a clever new phishing scam Another week, and yet another scam hitting the corporate interwebs, one that finds a brand-new way to exploit your employees and damage your company. We want to help you stay safe and keep your business free from the distraction or even devastation of a cyberattack. So here’s what you need to know about this new phishing scam, and how to keep yourself and your team members safe. The New Threat: Malware Wrapped in a Phishing Attack The new threat uses similar tactics to those we’ve warned you about before. But the specifics are different enough — and convincing enough — that this one warrants special explanation. Like any other phishing attack, this one sends a phishing email pretending to be from somewhere reputable. This time, it impersonates a very reputable tech brand, one that offices everywhere use and that employees will likely recognize. This phishing attack doesn’t try to steal your credentials, though: instead it delivers a payl...

When did you last have a health check? As we’re rolling headlong through the early part of the year, many of us would benefit from a quick check-up — or at least a check-in. Every new year, health and fitness-related goals and resolutions are some of the most common on a personal level. And a few weeks into every new year, most of us begin to falter on those goals, if we’re honest. At a minimum, now is an ideal time for a health check-in, asking ourselves: how are those goals going? Do any of them need adjusting to be realistic and attainable? And how’s my health overall? Along the same lines, perhaps it’s time for something a little more official. When was your last health check-up or physical? Most physicians would rather see patients once a year proactively rather than wait until a problem grows more serious. Of course, we aren’t doctors, dieticians, or trainers— so please don’t take health advice from us! So why are we talking about check-ins and check-ups? Because your business — ...