Blue Ridge Technology

New Year’s Resolutions It may be hard to believe, but the year is over, and 2025 is here! As we jump into the next year, many of us are thinking through New Year’s resolutions at home: maybe this is the year to cut back, to get fit, to start saving, or to finally master that hobby or language. We aren’t much help when it comes to those kinds of resolutions. But as you’re taking stock at home, right now is the perfect time to think through your business. What’s going well? What goals did you achieve during the previous year? And what needs to change heading into the new year? To help get the ball rolling, here are 3 top business resolutions for the new year — changes that businesses like yours might benefit from making. #1: Cybersecurity Audit and Upgrades First up is making this the year that you conduct a cybersecurity audit — and implement any hardware/software upgrades or process changes revealed through the process. Small businesses get hit every single day by cyberattac...

Heads up: there’s another security threat that could be lurking around your business. And even though it’s almost Christmas, today we’re talking about the undead — undead accounts , that is. Keep reading to learn about zombie accounts: what they are, how they come to be, and how they could threaten your business. Zombie Accounts: What Are They? Zombie accounts are network accounts (login credentials) that are active in your systems but that don’t belong to any current user. We call them “zombie accounts” because they're, well, undead. Like TV zombies, they should be dead, but no one went and made sure they really were dead. And now these accounts are bumbling around your network, just waiting for some enterprising bad guy to come along, resuscitate them, and find a way to hurt your business. Why Are Zombie Accounts a Thing? So far these zombie accounts sound like bad news, and they are. So why do they exist at all? Well, there are lots of ways to end up with zombie accounts, but b...

These days, most of us are more flexible than we’ve ever been in how and where we work. As our devices have gotten smarter, faster, more connected, and more portable, it’s now possible to pull out a phone, tablet, or laptop just about anywhere and take care of business. If you do mobile work, then you should know about a fantastic new feature that Microsoft is finally bringing to Windows PCs: Handoff. The Trouble with Mobile Work It’s great that we can whip out any device and get started on work from anywhere. But we’ve all been in situations where we start a task on our phones (maybe something as simple as replying to an email) and then quickly realize that a mobile device isn’t going to cut it. So what happens when you start some business task on a mobile device, only to realize you need a full keyboard or some app that’s only on your work PC? Right now, if you’re like most mobile workers, you probably share the file, attach it to an email, open your PC, open your email, download the...

Microsoft has announced some major upcoming changes to the Windows Photos app in Windows 11. You might tend to think of that app as something for personal use (like organizing vacation photos), not a business tool. But with the updates coming soon to the app, it could be time to reconsider. If you work with photos at all in your workflows, even in seemingly small ways, Windows Photos might have something for you in the next update. Here’s what’s on the way. Biggest New Feature: Visual Search with Bing Microsoft is about to infuse its desktop photos app with the power of its Bing AI, giving you the ability to conduct what it calls Visual Searches. Visual Search looks like a version of something called a reverse image search, possibly with other enhancements as well. So what’s a reverse image search? It’s where you use an image you already have as the “search term”. Imagine going to Google.com or Bing.com to ask a question or search for “best ergonomic keyboard” — but instead of giving y...

Beware this malware: It "annoys" you into handing over login details There’s a new malware threat that’s been on the rise since August. This one’s a little…weird, to be honest. But because it’s unusual and unexpected, it’s working surprisingly well at tricking people into giving up their credentials and causing massive risks of data breaches and more. This week, we’re explaining how this malware works, why it’s been so effective, and how you can avoid getting sucked in. Meet Amadey: A New Breed of Annoyance Malware Amadey is what some call “annoyance malware”: it doesn’t lock up your data and threaten you for ransom, and it doesn’t do major damage to your computer or turn it into a botnet. It just emulates a problem with Windows itself and annoys you. And this particular version makes you think the only way to solve the problem is to log in and change your settings. You might already see where we’re going with this: the login link and screen are fake, of course. So if you ent...

Cybersecurity With all the talk of AI everything these days, it’s easy to wonder if a new generation of AI tools is going to create cybersecurity nightmares. Well, many leading cybersecurity firms aren’t worried about AI — at least not yet, and not in the ways we might think. And worst (or best?) of all, the solutions to today’s biggest problems are still actually pretty simple. Here’s what you need to know. New Tech that Could Become a Threat Much of the focus lately has been on a new generation of AI tools, like large language model (LLM) generative AI tools. These systems have the potential to be really powerful, no question about it. It’s not impossible to imagine a future where hackers create a sort of “malwareGPT,” a generative AI tool that creates malicious code. And that’s just one example of how AI tools could increase cybersecurity threats; there are plenty more. AI-powered tools could greatly increase the speed and scalability of creating malicious code, and it’s possible t...

Ever heard of a honeypot? (Outside of stories involving Winnie the Pooh.) It’s something Microsoft is using to continually hone and refine its digital security products and capabilities. In today’s post we’ll explain what Microsoft is doing to help keep users safe, plus what that does and doesn’t mean for your business. Honeypots, Explained “Honeypot” is a term for any kind of scheme or setup that uses bait (honey) to lure people into a trap. You might hear it in your favorite show about government agencies or law enforcement or fictitious spies. The good guys set a trap, maybe involving a cache of (fake) diamonds or an Old Masters painting that looks just easy enough for the bad guys to try and steal. But it’s a trap, of course, and the good guys invariably catch the bad guys. (Seems like it always goes that way in Hollywood, huh?) Honeypots work in reverse, too: real-world bad guys often use nothing more than the promise of money to lure unsuspecting law-abiding citizens into their s...