Advanced AI is a new buzzword in cloud computing. The launch of tools like ChatGPT and Google Bard have made big waves. Developers are now racing to introduce the next level of features to apps. Features that do part of your work for you. Such as writing emails or making follow-up checklists based on contact data.
These AI-based applications do much more than automate processes. People are using them to write business correspondence, create websites, and write scripts. AI is also quickly transforming the everyday office workflow.
Microsoft is one of the biggest players in the office application field. It’s at the forefront of introducing transformative technology. The company is about to transform Microsoft 365 in a huge way with its new Copilot tool.
Microsoft 365 Copilot is a new tool designed to help users get the most out of their Microsoft 365 apps. This revolutionary tool is an intelligent, personalized assistant. It's designed to help users navigate and use M365 more efficiently.
In this article, we'll take a closer look at Microsoft 365 Copilot. And tell you the key ways it's going to improve M365 apps and your business workflows.
Microsoft 365 Copilot is an AI-powered assistant. It helps users with their day-to-day tasks in M365 apps. It's like having a personal assistant right in your Office apps. Users can ask questions, get help with tasks, and receive personalized recommendations. Copilot responds leveraging the context of their usage patterns.
Microsoft 365 Copilot works across all M365 apps. This includes:
Whether you're doing any number of tasks, Microsoft 365 Copilot is there to assist you. This includes working on a document, meeting scheduling, or collaborating with a team.
Microsoft 365 Copilot uses AI and machine learning to understand users' needs. It provides personalized help. It uses data from users' interactions with M365 apps. It learns a user's usage patterns and offers recommendations based on their preferences.
For example, say you frequently use certain features in Excel. Microsoft 365 Copilot will learn this. It will offer suggestions when it detects that you're working on a similar task.
Say that you're working on a presentation in PowerPoint and struggling with design. Microsoft 365 Copilot can offer design suggestions based on your company's brand guidelines.
Microsoft 365 Copilot can also help users with common tasks. Tasks such as, scheduling meetings and managing emails. Users can simply ask Copilot for help. They can ask it to schedule a meeting or find an email from a specific person, and Copilot will take care of the rest.
Copilot is important because it can help users be more productive and efficient. By providing personalized support, the tool can save users time and reduce frustration.
Imagine you're working on a report in Word and you're struggling to format a table. Instead of spending time searching for a solution online. Or trying to figure it out on your own, you can simply ask Microsoft 365 Copilot for help. Copilot can offer suggestions. It can even walk you through the process, saving you time and reducing frustration.
Microsoft 365 Copilot is also important because it can help users get more out of their M365 apps. Many users may not be aware of all the features and capabilities of their M365 apps. But with Copilot, they can discover new ways to work more efficiently and effectively.
The capabilities of Copilot go even further. Say that you need to give your team an update on a marketing strategy. You won’t need to dig out emails, chat threads, or meeting notes. Instead, you can ask Copilot to “tell my team how we updated the marketing strategy.” The app will then search all those places for you and craft an update for your team.
Need a first draft of a meeting agenda or presentation? Just ask Copilot. It can access existing M365 documents and content and craft an initial draft for you.
Microsoft 365 Copilot provides personalized help based on users' usage patterns and preferences. This means that users get the help they need when they need it, without having to search for solutions on their own.
Microsoft 365 Copilot can help users save time on common tasks. Such as scheduling meetings and formatting documents. It can take on many information gathering tasks, like summarizing meeting notes. This saves users considerable time. Especially for manual tasks such as searching for information.
Knowledge workers spend an average of 2.5 hours per day searching for information.
Microsoft 365 Copilot can help reduce frustration. It provides solutions when users are stuck on a task. The tool can also help users struggling with an Excel chart or table. Instead of having to figure out how to generate it, they can simply give a command to Copilot to do it for them.
Microsoft Copilot handles tasks that go beyond what business apps have historically done. For example, you can use it in PowerPoint to create a presentation for you. Use a command such as, “Create a six-slide presentation based on (this) document.” You can also tell it to find appropriate Microsoft stock photos and insert them.
The sky is the limit right now for how much this tool is going to impact office productivity.
If you are interested in further improving productivity in your office or daily life, you may want to check out our earlier article about Enhancing Productivity with Google Chrome.
At the writing of this article, Microsoft hasn’t announced a release date yet. It is currently testing Copilot with a limited number of users. You will most likely see it coming out sometime soon.
Need help with security or setup in Microsoft 365? Give us a call today to talk to one of our cloud app experts.
This Article has been Republished with Permission from The Technology Press.
You’ve completed your annual phishing training. This includes teaching employees how to spot phishing emails. You’re feeling good about it. That is until about 5-6 months later. Your company suffers a costly ransomware infection due to a click on a phishing link.
You wonder why you seem to need to train on the same information every year. But you still suffer from security incidents. The problem is that you’re not training your employees often enough.
People can’t change behaviors if training isn’t reinforced. They can also easily forget what they’ve learned after several months go by.
So, how often is often enough to improve your team’s cybersecurity awareness? It turns out that training every four months is the “sweet spot.” This is when you see more consistent results in your IT security.
So, where does this four-month recommendation come from? There was a study presented at the USENIX SOUPS security conference recently. It looked at users’ ability to detect phishing emails versus training frequency. It looked at training on phishing awareness and IT security.
Employees took phishing identification tests at several different time increments:
The study found that four months after their training scores were good. Employees were still able to accurately identify and avoid clicking on phishing emails. But after 6-months, their scores started to get worse. Scores continued to decline the more months that passed after their initial training.
To keep employees well prepared, they need training and refreshers on security awareness. This will help them to act as a positive agent in your cybersecurity strategy.
The gold standard for security awareness training is to develop a cybersecure culture. This is one where everyone is cognizant of the need to protect sensitive data. As well as avoid phishing scams, and keep passwords secured.
This is not the case in most organizations, According to the 2021 Sophos Threat Report. One of the biggest threats to network security is a lack of good security practices.
The report states the following,
“A lack of attention to one or more aspects of basic security hygiene has been found to be at the root cause of many of the most damaging attacks we've investigated.”
Well-trained employees significantly reduce a company’s risk. They reduce the chance of falling victim to any number of different online attacks. To be well-trained doesn’t mean you have to conduct a long day of cybersecurity training. It’s better to mix up the delivery methods.
Here are some examples of engaging ways to train employees on cybersecurity. You can include these in your training plan:
When conducting training, phishing is a big topic to cover, but it’s not the only one. Here are some important topics that you want to include in your mix of awareness training.
Email phishing is still the most prevalent form. But SMS phishing (“smishing”) and phishing over social media are both growing. Employees must know what these look like, so they can avoid falling for these sinister scams.
Many businesses have moved most of their data and processes to cloud-based platforms. This has led to a steep increase in credential theft because it’s the easiest way to breach SaaS cloud tools.
Credential theft is now the #1 cause of data breaches globally. This makes it a topic that is critical to address with your team. Discuss the need to keep passwords secure and the use of strong passwords. Also, help them learn tools like a business password manager.
Mobile devices are now used for a large part of the workload in a typical office. They’re handy for reading and replying to an email from anywhere. Most companies will not even consider using software these days if it doesn’t have a great mobile app.
Review security needs for employee devices that access business data and apps. Such as securing the phone with a passcode and keeping it properly updated.
Data privacy regulations are something else that has been rising over the years. Most companies have more than one data privacy regulation requiring compliance.
Train employees on proper data handling and security procedures. This reduces the risk you'll fall victim to a data leak or breach that can end up in a costly compliance penalty.
Take training off your plate and train your team with cybersecurity professionals. We can help you with an engaging training program. One that helps your team change their behaviors to improve cyber hygiene.
This Article has been Republished with Permission from The Technology Press.
As we conclude the month of May, we have another zero-day vulnerability to report. This vulnerability is a zero-click remote code execution vulnerability utilizing Microsoft Diagnostic Tool and the Microsoft Office Utilities. The vulnerability is primarily exploited by Microsoft Word documents, but can be accessed by any of the Office applications. Email-based delivery will be the main attack vector used by malicious actors to deliver this cruel code execution to their victims.
It is important to mention that this was originally posted by @nao_sec on Twitter. Our partners, Huntress, have verified and replicated this exploit, which is detailed in their technical blog post.
To summarize the vulnerability, in Microsoft Word, you are asked to select "Enable Content" or "Enable Saving" when you open the document. By selecting these options, the malicious process can be spawned. Huntress has discovered that this code can be executed upon simply opening the file without any other actions, which makes this Zero-Click that much worse. Microsoft does not yet have any mitigations that have been fully tested or verified, and there is no patch available at the time of writing this (May 31, 2022 @ 11:00AM).
We strongly advise all our clients and readers to be vigilant and not open any Word documents you receive via email (or any other source) without verifying the sender first. Please ensure that even if the person is legitimate, the document you receive is an expected attachment until we have a patch in place. We appreciate your cooperation and understanding.
The global damage of cybercrime has risen to an average of $11 million USD per minute, which is a cost of $190,000 each second.
60% of small and mid-sized companies that have a data breach end up closing their doors within six months because they can’t afford the costs. The costs of falling victim to a cyberattack can include loss of business, downtime/productivity losses, reparation costs for customers that have had data stolen, and more.
You may think that this means investing more in cybersecurity, and it is true that you need to have appropriate IT security safeguards in place (anti-malware, firewall, etc.). However, many of the most damaging breaches are due to common cybersecurity mistakes that companies and their employees make.
The 2021 Sophos Threat Report, which looked at thousands of global data breaches, found that what it termed “everyday threats” were some of the most dangerous. The report stated, “A lack of attention to one or more aspects of basic security hygiene has been found to be at the root cause of many of the most damaging attacks we've investigated.”
Is your company making a dangerous cybersecurity mistake that is leaving you at high risk for a data breach, cloud account takeover, or ransomware infection?
Here are several of the most common missteps when it comes to basic IT security best practices.
Credential theft has become the top cause of data breaches around the world, according to IBM Security. With most company processes and data now being cloud-based, login credentials hold the key to multiple types of attacks on company networks.
Not protecting your user logins with multi-factor authentication is a common mistake and one that leaves companies at a much higher risk of falling victim to a breach.
MFA reduces fraudulent sign-in attempts by a staggering 99.9%.
Shadow IT is the use of cloud applications by employees for business data that haven’t been approved and may not even be known about by a company.
Shadow IT use leaves companies at risk for several reasons:
Employees often begin using apps on their own because they’re trying to fill a gap in their workflow and are unaware of the risks involved with using an app that hasn’t been vetted by their company’s IT team.
It’s important to have cloud use policies in place that spell out for employees the applications that can and cannot be used for work.
No matter how small your business is, a simple antivirus application is not enough to keep you protected. In fact, many of today’s threats don’t use a malicious file at all.
Phishing emails will contain commands sent to legitimate PC systems that aren’t flagged as a virus or malware. Phishing also overwhelmingly uses links these days rather than file attachments to send users to malicious sites. Those links won’t get caught by simple antivirus solutions.
You need to have a multi-layered strategy in place that includes things like:
A majority of companies around the world have had employees working remotely from home since the pandemic, and they’re planning to keep it that way. However, device management for those remote employee devices as well as smartphones used for business hasn’t always been put in place.
If you’re not managing security or data access for all the endpoints (company and employee-owned) in your business, you’re at a higher risk of a data breach.
If you don’t have one already, it’s time to put a device management application in place, like Intune in Microsoft 365.
An astonishing 95% of cybersecurity breaches are caused by human error. Too many companies don’t take the time to continually train their employees, and thus users haven’t developed the skills needed for a culture of good cybersecurity.
Employee IT security awareness training should be done throughout the year, not just annually or during an onboarding process. The more you keep IT security front and center, the better equipped your team will be to identify phishing attacks and follow proper data handling procedures.
Some ways to infuse cybersecurity training into your company culture include:
Don’t stay in the dark about your IT security vulnerabilities. Schedule a cybersecurity audit to uncover vulnerabilities so they can be fortified to reduce your risk.
This Article has been Republished with Permission from The Technology Press.
Digitalization has forced businesses to alter their operations and make IT a huge part of their day-to-day affairs. Still, some owners can't cope with the change effectively, so they hire a managed service provider, or MSP, to take care of the work.
But what exactly is an MSP?
Simply put, this is a third-party company you can collaborate with to help manage parts of your business, such as your IT or cloud needs. It provides technology and expertise to boost your organization’s scalability.
Working with MSPs can have tremendous benefits for your enterprise.
For instance, their profound understanding of cutting-edge technology can help you improve performance, operations, and security while reducing overheads. In addition, they can offer several creative solutions to help you navigate the evolving landscape of the big data world.
But the strongest suit of any MSP is usually their ability to deliver tailor-made solutions that fit your company perfectly.
Their expertise allows them to analyze your business thoroughly and render their services according to your strengths and weaknesses. Plus, they consider the regulatory environment and compliance to safeguard against legal issues.
Another great thing about MSPs is that they can support your business even after hours.
They offer support measures and staff to maintain and protect your organization 24/7. MSPs can even tap into your system to resolve issues and deploy updates without going to your office using remote technology.
Overall, MSPs can help take your company to the next level. However, you can't work with just any service provider. You need to select the right team for your enterprise, and this article will show you how.
Hiring an MSP shouldn't be a hasty decision. Instead, you want to take a variety of factors into account.
Here are the six important factors to keep in mind:
Prospective MSPs should provide case studies and success stories to demonstrate they're suitable for your business. You can also look for testimonials, references, and endorsements. These will help you determine if the team has been operating for a while and if their reputation is solid.
Working with a reputable MSP can give you peace of mind with the knowledge that your system will be appropriately managed. Moreover, you'll feel confident that the MSP will do all in its power to preserve its name.
The MSP's success hinges on yours in some respect, which is why they'll view you as a valuable partner.
MSPs offer a wide array of services. Some teams are full-service companies, meaning they address your cloud and IT needs comprehensively. In contrast, others may help you with different pieces of your tech puzzle.
Therefore, consider your needs carefully and ensure your MSP can meet them.
Regardless of your service package, the MSP needs to keep up with the latest technology trends. Otherwise, numerous security issues may compromise your company and allow the competition to prevail over you.
As previously indicated, MSPs can work round the clock to ensure your business is compliant and maintained adequately. However, they should also increase their support quickly and adjust staff schedules as your company grows.
That's why you should consider an MSP that offers training for your employees.
It lets them understand the necessary changes and encourages them to train other team members as they join your business. But if your employees are too busy, you can instruct the MSP to carry out all the training.
Your network can go down for any number of reasons, preventing your employees from working and your clients from reaching you. This situation can even cripple your reputation, customer base, and revenue. In the worst-case scenario, it can even make you shut down your business.
Fortunately, a high-quality MSP can help you avoid this scenario. They can identify threats to your system and neutralize them before hurting your company.
Moreover, if an incident takes place, they should respond immediately. They need to mitigate the risks as soon as possible to keep your organization from crumbling.
One of the most important duties your MSP should perform is to shield your data from cyberattacks. This is critical to protecting your company and customers. Besides, safe data storage might be mandatory in your industry, which is why your IT department could use all the help they can get.
Once you work with an MSP, they should recommend robust security solutions and endpoint protection to combat harmful software. And throughout their engagement, they should consider compliance to help prevent legal issues.
Another major part of their mission should be the implementation of backup software. It enables you to retrieve your data in case of a breach. Such implementation may involve automation, a restoration plan, and a no-downtime policy.
With a failproof backup and security strategy in place, you should be able to run your company more confidently. The risk of downtime will be drastically lower, allowing you to operate smoothly, maintain high sales, retain customers, and preserve your brand.
Your MSP shouldn't just deal with cybersecurity – they should also suggest adopting the best practices across the entire tech landscape.
For example, they should advise you on various CRM solutions and project management applications. They should also help you revamp your approach to workflow and data to create efficiency in all departments.
The fact is, you can yield tremendous results from their guidance. Your team can work faster, collaborate in real-time, and be more tech-savvy.
While price is important when selecting an MSP, it pales in comparison to all the factors listed above. Be sure they're a perfect fit for your enterprise, even if you need to pay more.
With high expertise, customized services, and an understanding of threats, a reputable team can help you stay ahead of your competitors.
If you need more assistance choosing your MSP, get in touch with our experienced team. Let's schedule a quick 15-minute chat and figure out the ideal MSP for your company.
This Article has been Republished with Permission from The Technology Press.
Google Chrome is arguably the most popular browser on the planet. It’s best known for allowing faster loading of websites, optimized performance, and an intuitive interface. As a result, it can help your team complete their daily duties much faster.
However, it raises the same concern as other browsers – ample room for distractions.
Your team members can easily switch to YouTube videos or social media, lowering their productivity. And it can often get out of hand, preventing your staff from meeting deadlines and reducing customer satisfaction.
That said, you can help your employees get back on track and maintain productivity. All you need to do is incorporate practical extensions into your browser.
This article will list the 12 best Google Chrome extensions that can help increase office productivity in your business.
BlockSite can enable your team to stay focused by blocking harmful or distracting websites. This extension is perfect for team members who tend to drift away due to all the online activities that seek their attention.
Some of the web pages you can block access to with BlockSite include social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. But if you don’t wish to block them completely, you can limit access to them during breaks.
AdBlock is one of the most widely used extensions for Google Chrome. More than 10 million users rely on it to remove most ads by preventing them from showing up on their screens.
It can also help your team avoid malware-ridden ads, improving their experience in turn by increasing browsing speed.
Remembering your passwords can be extremely challenging. Thankfully, LastPass can provide an efficient solution.
LastPass is an effective alternative to your browser’s built-in password manager, generating new passphrases whenever you log into a web page.
In addition, the extension can synchronize passwords across various devices, providing easy access to accounts, credit cards, and form filling.
Although Chrome has a convenient bookmark feature, Evernote might be even more powerful. You can use Evernote Web Clipper to save your internet content for later viewing.
This extension enables you to easily save your web content and transfer it to your account. With just a few clicks, you can obtain images from any website, create summary links, save a distraction-free version of web pages, and make annotations.
Another effective way to track your online content is through Pocket. This extension can also let you save articles, web pages, and videos for later use.
Whenever you come across interesting content, hit your Pocket extension and you’ll automatically save it on all your devices. You’ll then be able to access it whenever you want, even if you’re offline.
Momentum isn’t a standard extension. Rather, it’s a custom-made page to replace your default landing page.
It has a robust, personalized dashboard with a beautiful scenic background, inspirational quotes, weather reports, widgets to favorite sites, and to-do lists. Therefore, it doesn’t just help enhance productivity – it can also motivate your team members to keep grinding.
Google Keep is a powerful extension that can allow your team to organize their data neatly. Its primary purpose is to help users create to-do lists and take notes. It also works great for saving pages, images and adding notes to them. Plus, it can make voice memos to simplify notetaking.
To further improve note organization, users can market them with colors and labels. This way, there’s no time wasted when looking for crucial notes.
Monitoring workplace performance is critical, and Clockify Time Tracker is the ideal extension for this.
As the name suggests, it tracks time spent on specific activities. Your staff can later use the results to analyze their productivity levels and determine their weaknesses.
The extension lets users schedule break intervals, operate in pre-set work periods, detect idle time, set reminders, and integrate with more than 50 business apps.
If you want your team to stay away from distracting websites but don’t want to remove them altogether, StayFocused may be the answer.
This extension can help your employees avoid distractions by limiting the time they can spend on them.
What’s more, StayFocusd comes with a handy Nuclear Option. It sets the time during which your team can’t access certain websites. Once you activate this option, there’s no way to deactivate it until the time expires.
The main purpose of Noisli is to enhance your team’s productivity. It allows you to select the sound combination your staff finds most inspiring. This can include falling rain, storms, wood noises, wind, crickets, fire crackling, and coffee shop chatter.
Noisli can be particularly useful if your team works in open offices where background noises often cause distractions.
Hypercontext is an extension that can help teams maintain high performance by combining engagement measures, quarterly priorities, and weekly meetings.
The platform enables you to create collaborative, one-on-one meetings, access conversations starters, and elicit feedback from each team member. You also get a feature that can help limit social media distractions and encourage your staff to prepare for their meeting.
Todoist is a straightforward yet helpful task manager. It can help users monitor their projects and tasks by delegating or organizing them from your browser.
This extension is a terrific option for tracking multiple deadlines. After all, it can set due dates and help you prioritize specific tasks accordingly.
Streamlining office productivity isn’t just about providing your team with cutting-edge computers and advanced software. It also has to do with installing appropriate extensions on your web browser.
We’ve given you many options for Google Chrome with this article. It’s now up to you to decide which ones work best for your company. Remember that by incorporating them into your business, your workforce should become more efficient.
Give us a call if you want to find out other tips to help boost employee productivity. We can have a non-salesy chat about it.
This Article has been Republished with Permission from The Technology Press.
