Connected Systems

Your bin might be the easiest place to steal your customer data from. Invoices, bank statements and employee files go in the rubbish and anyone can pull them back out. One rule: personal, financial or customer info gets shredded, not binned. Use a cross-cut shredder.

AI can save a huge amount of time.

But not every piece of business information should be shared with it.

Before you paste something into an AI tool, ask yourself one simple question: Would you be comfortable if that information ended up in the wrong hands…?

An email from a supplier says their bank details have changed. You update them, pay the invoice, and the money goes to a criminal. Sometimes the supplier's own account was hacked, so it's genuinely from them. Never change bank details without calling on a number you already have.

Researchers found the DragonForce ransomware group hiding inside normal Microsoft Teams traffic, undetected for up to two months. Their malware disguised its connection as ordinary Teams activity. Basic antivirus misses this. Ask your IT provider if what you have would catch it.

DragonForce Hackers Abuse Microsoft Teams Relays to Hide Backdoor.Turn C2 Traffic DragonForce-linked hackers used Backdoor.Turn to route C2 traffic through Microsoft Teams relay infrastructure during a U.S. firm attack.

One of the easiest ways for a scammer to succeed is to look like someone you already trust.

That's why this WhatsApp change is worth paying attention to 👀

Usernames have become more widely available, and security researchers are warning about the potential for impersonation.

The concern is that criminals could create usernames that look very similar to a real colleague, supplier, customer or business leader and use them to start conversations that appear real.

This isn't really a WhatsApp problem.

But the technology creates another opportunity for someone to pretend to be somebody else.

I think this is a good reminder to think carefully about where work conversations should happen.

If employees are discussing projects, sharing documents, approving payments or making important decisions through personal messaging apps, it’s much harder to verify who you're talking to.

That's one of the reasons platforms like Microsoft Teams exist.

They're designed for business communication, with user accounts managed by the organisation, security controls in place, and much better visibility if something unusual happens.

WhatsApp has its place.

It's great for chatting with friends and family, and many businesses use it for customer communication.

But be very cautious about relying on it for internal business conversations. Especially where money, confidential information or important decisions are involved 🤐

Whatever messaging platform you use, remember that names, profile pic

When did anyone last look closely at your card terminals? Skimmers get attached and terminals get swapped, and neither is obvious unless someone checks. Look at each one at the start of the day. If it looks different or loose, stop using it and call your provider.

Use Microsoft 365?

You’ll want to know this 👉

Researchers uncovered a campaign that generated more than 81 million login attempts against Microsoft 365 accounts in just two weeks 😱

The attackers were taking usernames and passwords that had already been exposed in previous data breaches and testing them against business accounts, hoping people had reused the same password somewhere else.

This type of attack is known as password spraying.

Instead of trying thousands of passwords against one account, criminals try a small number of commonly used or previously stolen passwords across thousands of different accounts.

Eventually, they find someone who's still using one of them 💡

What surprised me most about this research wasn't the number of login attempts.

It was the fact that some businesses had Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) enabled and were still compromised because it hadn't been configured to protect every type of sign-in.

MFA is the extra security step where you approve a login using an app, text message or security key.

It's one of the best ways to protect business accounts.

But like any security tool, it still needs to be set up properly ⚙️

Sure, you need to turn security features on, but it’s important to make sure they're configured correctly and reviewed regularly too.

A security setting that was appropriate two or three years ago may not be enough today.

Attackers are constantly finding new ways to work around things.

You've thought about what you'd do in a cyberattack, but have you practiced it? Sit your key people down for an hour and talk it through: files encrypted Monday morning. Who do we call first? Can we reach our contacts with email down? Note what nobody could answer.

I completely understand why people pause Windows updates ✋

You're in the middle of something important and a restart appears at the worst possible moment.

The last thing you want is your computer disappearing for 20 minutes.

Microsoft’s making that a bit easier by letting you choose a specific date to pause updates until, rather than selecting fixed one-week blocks.

For short-term situations, I think that's a sensible improvement 👍

If you're travelling, delivering a presentation, or working against a deadline, it's useful to know Windows won't suddenly ask for a restart.

Where I'd be careful is turning that short pause into a long-term habit.

I still hear people say things like, "I haven't updated my PC for months because everything's working fine."

The trouble is that Windows updates aren't only for adding new features.

A large proportion of them contain security fixes ⚒️

They close vulnerabilities that have been discovered since the last update, including weaknesses that cyber criminals may already know how to exploit.

Every day you delay those updates is another day your computer may be missing important protection.

There's another practical reason to avoid falling too far behind.

Installing one month's worth of updates is straightforward.

Installing six months' worth is much more likely to be disruptive, take longer, or uncover compatibility issues that could have been dealt with gradually.

Regular updating is a bit like serv

Microsoft will never call you about a virus on your computer. Neither will Apple. If a pop-up or a caller says your machine is infected and wants you to call a number, install something or pay, it's a scam. Close it or hang up, then call your own IT provider if you're worried.