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Cyber Resilience Matters More Than You Think

Thomas Fox is president of Tech Experts, southeast Michigan’s leading small business computer support company.

Most businesses still picture cybersecurity like an old-school castle. Tall stone walls. Heavy iron gates. A moat full of alligators, if possible.

The idea is simple: keep the bad guys out, and everything inside stays safe.

That model made sense once. But it doesn’t anymore.

Today’s workplace isn’t a castle. Your employees work from home, the office, hotels, and coffee shops. Your data lives in the cloud. Your systems connect to dozens of outside vendors, apps, and services every day. Files are shared constantly. Logins happen from everywhere.

There is no single wall to defend anymore, and cybercriminals know it.

That’s why the focus of cybersecurity has quietly shifted over the last few years. It’s no longer just about trying to block every possible attack. It’s about assuming something will eventually get through, and making sure your business can recover quickly when it does. That mindset is called cyber resilience.

Frankly, even well-protected organizations get hit. Someone clicks the wrong link. A trusted supplier suffers a breach. A password gets reused. A convincing, AI-powered scam slips past email filters. It happens to smart, careful companies every single day.

The difference between a crisis and a minor disruption is what happens next.

A cyber-resilient business is built to spot trouble early, contain it quickly, and recover without chaos. Instead of panic, finger-pointing, and downtime, the response is calm and methodical. Accounts get locked down. Systems are isolated. Data is restored. Business resumes. That doesn’t happen by accident.

One major piece of cyber resilience is visibility – having systems that constantly watch for unusual behavior, not just obvious “alarms.” Modern security tools look for things like strange login locations, unusual file access, or activity that doesn’t match a user’s normal pattern. Many of these tools now use AI to spot problems long before a human ever would.

This is important because today’s attacks often don’t announce themselves. Hackers don’t always smash windows. More often, they log in quietly and try to blend in.

Then there’s the safety net: backups.

Not just “we think we have backups,” but properly designed, secure, and tamper-proof backups that attackers can’t delete or encrypt. When backups are set up correctly, recovery can be surprisingly fast. In some cases, systems are restored so quickly that customers never even realize something went wrong.

But technology alone isn’t enough.

Cyber resilience also depends on people. Employees need to recognize suspicious emails and feel comfortable reporting mistakes immediately.

Leadership needs a simple, clear plan for who does what when something goes wrong. Everyone needs to understand that speaking up early is always better than staying quiet and hoping a problem disappears.

Cyber resilience is about preparation and accepting reality, staying calm under pressure, and having the ability to bounce back quickly when the unexpected happens.

If your business hasn’t thought beyond “keeping the bad guys out,” it may be time to rethink your approach.

And if you’d like help building a practical cyber resilience strategy that fits how your business actually operates, we’re here to help.

Hackers Aren’t Hacking – They’re Just Logging In

When most business owners picture a cyberattack, they imagine a hoodie-wearing genius furiously typing code, breaking through firewalls, and “hacking” their way into a network.

That image is outdated.

Today’s cybercriminals usually aren’t hacking anything at all. They’re logging in – using real usernames and real passwords.

And that’s what makes modern cybercrime so dangerous. Attackers have figured out that breaking in is hard. Logging in is easy.

Instead of trying to defeat security systems, they steal or buy login credentials and walk right through the front door. Once inside, they look exactly like a normal employee.

Your systems don’t raise alarms because, technically, nothing unusual is happening. This shift has changed the rules of the game.

How Do Hackers Get Logins?

Most of the time, it starts outside your business. Employees reuse passwords across multiple websites. A breach at a social media platform, online retailer, or personal email account exposes those passwords. Criminals collect them, bundle them together, and sell them on underground marketplaces.

From there, automated tools try those same email-and-password combinations against business systems like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, VPNs, and remote access portals.

If one works, they’re in. No malware. No warning pop-ups. No dramatic breach notification. Just access.

Why Small Businesses Are Prime Targets

Large companies make headlines, but small businesses are easier and more profitable targets.

Smaller organizations often assume they’re “too small to bother with.” Attackers know better.

They know smaller businesses tend to have weaker security, fewer safeguards, and limited monitoring.

Even more appealing: small businesses often serve larger ones. Law firms, accountants, manufacturers, contractors, medical offices – these are gateways to valuable data and trusted relationships.

Once attackers log in, they take their time. They read emails. They learn how invoices are sent. They figure out who approves payments. Then they strike.

That’s how wire fraud happens. That’s how fake invoices get paid. That’s how ransomware spreads quietly before detonating.

Why Passwords Alone No Longer Work

Passwords used to be enough. They aren’t anymore.

Even strong passwords fail if they’re reused or stolen somewhere else.

You can do everything “right” internally and still get compromised because the password was exposed on an unrelated site years ago.

That’s why breaches today often leave business owners stunned.

“We didn’t click anything.”

“We didn’t download anything.”

“Our antivirus never went off.”

All true – and all irrelevant. The attacker didn’t force their way in. They logged in.

The One Control That Stops Most Attacks

There’s a simple reason cybersecurity professionals push so hard for multi-factor authentication (MFA). It works.

MFA requires something you know (your password) and something you have (a phone app, text code, or hardware key). Even if a criminal has the password, they can’t complete the login without the second step.

It’s not flashy. It doesn’t feel dramatic. But it stops the vast majority of account-based attacks cold.

When businesses skip MFA because it’s “inconvenient,” they’re betting the company on convenience.

That’s rarely a good trade.

What Business Owners Should Take Away

Cybersecurity today isn’t about fighting hackers in dark basements. It’s about controlling access. Ask yourself a few simple questions:

Could someone log in as one of my employees from another country?

Are email, remote access, and cloud systems protected with MFA?

Would we even notice if someone quietly accessed our systems today?

If the answers aren’t clear, that’s a risk – not a technical problem, but a business one.

Hackers aren’t breaking in anymore. They’re logging in.

And the businesses that recognize that reality are the ones staying ahead of the next incident, instead of reacting after the damage is done.

The “Deepfake CEO” Scam: Voice Cloning Is The Next Cyber Threat

The phone rings, and it’s your boss. The voice is unmistakable; with the same flow and tone you’ve come to expect. They’re asking for a favor: an urgent wire transfer to lock in a new vendor contract or maybe sensitive client information that’s strictly confidential.

Everything about the call feels normal, and your trust kicks in immediately. It’s hard to say no to your boss, and so you begin to act.

What if this isn’t really your boss on the other end? What if every inflection, every word you think you recognize has been perfectly mimicked by a cybercriminal?

In seconds, a routine call could turn into a costly mistake; money gone, data compromised, and consequences that ripple far beyond the office.

What was once the stuff of science fiction is now a real threat for businesses. Cybercriminals have moved beyond poorly written phishing emails to sophisticated AI voice cloning scams, signaling a new and alarming evolution in corporate fraud.

How AI voice cloning changes the threat landscape

We have spent years learning how to spot suspicious emails by looking for misspelled domains, odd grammar, and unsolicited attachments. Yet we haven’t trained our ears to question the voices of people we know, and that’s exactly what AI voice cloning scams exploit.

Attackers only need a few seconds of audio to replicate a person’s voice, and they can easily acquire this from press releases, news interviews, presentations, and social media posts

A scammer doesn’t need to be a programming expert to impersonate your CEO. They only need a recording and a script.

Traditionally, business email compromise (BEC) involved compromising a legitimate email account through techniques like phishing and spoofing a domain to trick employees into sending money or confidential information. BEC scams relied heavily on text-based deception, which could be easily countered using email and spam filters.

While these attacks are still prevalent, they are becoming harder to pull off as email filters improve.

Voice cloning, however, lowers your guard by adding a touch of urgency and trust that emails cannot match.

“Vishing” (voice phishing) uses AI voice cloning to bypass the various technical safeguards built around email and even voice-based verification systems. Attackers target the human element directly by creating high-pressure situations where the victim feels they must act fast to save the day.

Challenges in audio deepfake detection

Few tools currently exist for real-time audio deepfake detection, and human ears are unreliable as the brain often fills in gaps to make sense of what we hear.

That said, there are some common tell-tale signs, such as the voice sounding slightly robotic or having digital artifacts when saying complex words. Other subtle signs you can listen for include unnatural breathing patterns, weird background noise, or personal cues such as how a particular person greets you.

Securing your company against synthetic threats

As AI tools become multimodal, we will likely see real-time video deepfakes joining these voice scams, and you will need to know how to prove that a recording is false to the press and public.

Waiting until an incident occurs means you will already be too late.

Does your organization have the right protocols to stop a deepfake attack? Contact us today to assess your vulnerabilities and secure your communications against the next generation of fraud.

Why “It Hasn’t Happened To Us (Yet!)” Is The Most Expensive IT Strategy

There’s a small word people usually leave off the end of this sentence: “It hasn’t happened to us… yet.”

Most business owners don’t say the word out loud, but it’s always there. Unspoken. Understood.

The systems are running. Email works. Files open. No one has locked up the network. No clients are calling about strange messages. So it feels safe to assume that whatever happens to other companies probably won’t happen here.

At least not anytime soon.

The problem isn’t that this thinking is reckless. It’s that it quietly assumes time is on your side.

Technology doesn’t usually fail in dramatic, movie-style fashion. It fails slowly, silently, and then all at once. Settings drift. Hardware ages. Security tools fall behind. Backups run without ever being tested. One workaround turns into a permanent solution because everyone is busy.

Nothing breaks, so nothing changes. That “yet” keeps getting pushed forward.

Then something ordinary happens on an ordinary day. A password is reused. A software update doesn’t go as planned. An employee clicks a link they’ve clicked a hundred times before. A server that’s been “fine for years” finally isn’t.

And suddenly the question becomes: Why are we dealing with this now?

The answer is almost always the same. It didn’t happen earlier, but it was always going to happen eventually.

For small and mid-sized businesses, the cost isn’t just the technical repair. That part is usually solvable. The real damage comes from everything that stacks up around it.

Work stops. Deadlines slip. Employees wait. Customers notice. Leadership gets dragged into decisions they shouldn’t be making in the middle of the day. People scramble without a plan because the plan was “we’ll deal with it if it ever comes up.”

The “yet” has arrived. What surprises most owners is how long the fallout lingers. Productivity doesn’t snap back instantly. Systems behave oddly for weeks. Data has to be verified. Trust has to be rebuilt – internally and sometimes externally. Everyone remembers how fragile things felt.

None of this happens because someone ignored a warning labeled “Disaster Ahead.” It happens because everything appeared stable enough to postpone improvements one more quarter, one more year, one more budget cycle.

Businesses that avoid this trap don’t do it by being paranoid. They do it by being realistic.

They assume failures will happen eventually and plan accordingly. They design environments that are predictable, documented, and recoverable. They test the things they hope they’ll never need. They remove single points of failure before those points get to choose the timing.

They don’t rely on luck as a business strategy. “It hasn’t happened to us yet” is a comforting thought. It feels responsible. It feels measured.

But “yet” is doing more work than most people realize.

And when that word finally cashes in, it usually does so at the worst possible time – and at a much higher cost than anyone expected.

You Absolutely Need To Back Up Your Cloud Services Like Office 365

Thomas Fox is president of Tech Experts, southeast Michigan’s leading small business computer support company.
Most businesses today rely heavily on Microsoft 365 for email, documents, calendars, and collaboration. It’s the backbone of day-to-day operations.

Because Microsoft has massive data centers and strong uptime, many people assume their data is automatically “fully backed up.” That’s a dangerous assumption.

Microsoft 365 runs on a shared responsibility model. Microsoft does a great job keeping the platform running, but protecting your data is still your responsibility. In other words, they keep the lights on – but what happens to your files, emails, and Teams data is ultimately on you.

Yes, Microsoft includes some built-in safety nets. Things like file versioning in OneDrive and SharePoint, recycle bins that typically keep deleted items for up to three months, and basic retention policies can help recover from simple mistakes. Accidentally delete a file or overwrite a document? You may be able to get it back – if you catch it in time.

That “if” is the problem. Once those retention windows expire, your data is gone. There’s no rewind button. And these tools aren’t designed for full, point-in-time restores or long-term archiving across your entire environment.

Human error alone makes this risky. Someone deletes the wrong folder. An email with an important attachment is purged. A departing employee’s mailbox is removed before something critical is discovered.

These things happen every day, often without anyone realizing it until it’s too late.

Security threats raise the stakes even higher. Ransomware and account takeovers increasingly target Microsoft 365 environments through phishing and stolen credentials.

Even with good security controls in place, breaches still happen. When attackers encrypt or delete cloud data, Microsoft’s native tools don’t always provide a clean, fast way to roll everything back.

Then there are outages. While rare, Microsoft 365 service disruptions do occur. When access is interrupted, organizations without independent backups may find themselves completely stuck, unable to retrieve email, files, or records when they need them most.

Compliance requirements add another layer. Industries governed by HIPAA, GDPR, or financial regulations often need longer retention, audit trails, and reliable recovery options. Microsoft’s built-in tools help, but they’re usually not enough on their own.

That’s where third-party Microsoft 365 backups come in. Dedicated backup solutions capture your data regularly, store it independently, and let you restore exactly what you need when you need it. They’re affordable, easy to automate, and dramatically reduce risk.

Bottom line: Microsoft 365 is an excellent productivity platform, but it is not a complete backup solution. If your data matters to your business, relying on built-in tools alone is a gamble you don’t need to take.

It’s Time To Prepare For The Era Of Agentic AI

A quiet shift is happening in the digital world. But most businesses won’t notice it until it’s already reshaped how work gets done.

We’re entering the era of agentic AI. Smart, autonomous systems that don’t only assist people, but act on their behalf.

While that might sound futuristic, the foundations are already in place today.

Unlike traditional tools that wait for someone to click, type or browse, agentic AI can read data, talk to other systems, and complete entire tasks end-to-end.

It can negotiate prices, fill out forms, run processes and make decisions within rules you set.

To do that safely and effectively, it needs clean data, reliable systems and secure paths to the information it uses. That’s where lots of businesses will need to prepare.

Most companies have grown their technology stack over years, adding apps, cloud services, storage locations and workflows along the way.

It works, but it’s often messy behind the scenes. Data sits in different places. Integrations are fragile. Permissions aren’t always up to date. These things might not cause major problems today, but they’re exactly the areas agentic AI depends on.

For example, AI agents rely heavily on APIs, the simple, secure digital doors that allow one system to talk to another.

If those doors don’t exist, don’t work properly or aren’t secure, the agent’s capabilities become limited or worse, risky.

The same goes for identity management. If your business still relies on shared passwords, old login methods or inconsistent MFA, an autonomous system can only do so much safely.

Then there’s data quality. AI agents don’t guess, and they don’t “work around” human mistakes.

If your data is duplicated, inconsistent or outdated, the agent will simply act on whatever it sees. Even if that leads to poor decisions.

Good data governance suddenly becomes a business essential, not a nice-to-have.

You may also need to rethink how automations run inside your business.

Many companies already use basic workflow tools, but agentic AI expects deeper, more reliable automation pathways that don’t break the moment a system changes.

Luckily, it’s simply a case of strengthening the digital foundations you already rely on. Better identity systems, cleaner data, solid cloud infrastructure, modern security and well-designed integrations.

Agentic AI will introduce incredible opportunities, but only for businesses whose tech environments are ready for it. If you need help getting those foundations right, get in touch.

Upgrading Your Technology Could Reduce The Impact Of Sick Leave

Most businesses have felt the pain of sick leave at some point.

A key person off for a few days can slow everything down. A longer absence can put entire projects on hold.

But did you know that upgrading your technology can help offset some of that lost time?

When people talk about tech upgrades, they often think it means buying shiny new devices. Really, it’s mostly about removing the daily friction your team faces.

You know the thing. Slow systems, unreliable tools, old software, and clunky processes. They may seem small, but over a year, they quietly drain hours, days, even weeks of productivity.

Recent research shows that improving workplace connectivity – that’s the speed and reliability of your internet and internal systems – could help employees reclaim the equivalent of several working days per year.

Why?

Because when systems are fast, secure and stable, people get more done with less frustration. And frustration is a bigger problem than most business owners realize.

A large share of employee sick leave around the world is connected to stress and mental health. And many workers say outdated or unreliable tech is part of what increases their stress.

Think about how it feels when you’re trying to do something important and your device freezes or a system keeps crashing. Modern tools remove that emotional strain by simply… working.

Better tech can also give employees more flexibility.

Cloud systems (software and data stored securely online rather than on a local computer) make it easy for people to work effectively from anywhere. And AI tools, which help automate repetitive tasks or surface information quickly, free up time and reduce cognitive load.

When people feel in control of their work, they tend to feel less stressed, more productive, and more satisfied.

There’s another benefit too: Training.

Many workers say they want better skills and clearer support as businesses adopt new tools. The advent of AI and AI-assisted tools means your team is working with new technology regularly.

When people understand the technology they’re using, confidence goes up and mistakes go down.

So while you can’t stop illness entirely, you can build a workplace where lost time hurts a lot less.

If you need help making an investment in productivity, well-being and long-term resilience, please give us a call at (734) 457-5000, or email us at info@MyTechExperts.com.

Why Hackers Love Small Businesses… And It Isn’t The Reason You Think

When people hear about cyberattacks, they usually picture giant corporations, government agencies, or well-known brands making the news.

That leads many small business owners to a dangerous conclusion: “Why would anyone bother with us?”

The reality is the opposite.

Small businesses are often more attractive targets than large enterprises – not because they’re famous or wealthy, but because they’re easier.

Hackers aren’t usually looking for a specific company. They’re running automated scans and phishing campaigns across thousands of businesses at a time, searching for the lowest resistance. The goal isn’t drama. It’s efficiency.

Large organizations invest heavily in cybersecurity teams, advanced monitoring, and formal response plans.

Small businesses, by contrast, are more likely to rely on basic protections and the hope that nothing bad happens. From a hacker’s perspective, that’s a much simpler equation.

One of the biggest reasons small businesses get hit is inconsistent security habits.

Passwords get reused. Updates get postponed. Old employee accounts linger longer than they should.

These aren’t signs of carelessness, they’re just signs of busy people juggling a lot of responsibilities. But they create openings that attackers know how to exploit.

Email is another favorite entry point. A convincing phishing message doesn’t need to fool everyone. It just needs to fool one person on a hectic morning.

Once an attacker has access to an email account, they can quietly monitor messages, reset passwords, or launch follow-up attacks from a trusted address.

By the time anyone notices, the damage is already underway.

There’s also a misconception that cybercrime is always about stealing money directly. In many cases, it’s about stealing access.

Email accounts, cloud files, and login credentials can be resold, reused, or leveraged for ransomware later. Even a small company’s data has value in the wrong hands.

Another factor is recovery. Large organizations expect incidents and practice responding to them. Small businesses often don’t.

When something goes wrong, they’re left scrambling, figuring out who to call, what data is affected, and how long systems will be down. That chaos is exactly what attackers count on.

Ironically, many small businesses do have good tools in place, but they’re not consistently configured, monitored, or tested.

Backups may exist but haven’t been verified. Security features may be available but not fully enabled. The gap between “having technology” and “actively managing it” is where problems start.

The good news is that this isn’t about spending enterprise-level money or turning your office into a high-security bunker.

Most successful attacks rely on very basic weaknesses – things that can be addressed with the right planning, consistency, and oversight.

Hackers don’t love small businesses because they’re small. They love them because they’re busy, trusting, and often stretched thin. When security becomes intentional instead of reactive, that appeal fades quickly.

The goal isn’t to be perfect. It’s to be prepared. And in today’s environment, preparation is one of the smartest business decisions you can make.

Why You Should Treat Scam Alerts Like A Fire Drill

Thomas Fox is president of Tech Experts, southeast Michigan’s leading small business computer support company.

As business owners, we’re used to handling risk. We lock the doors at night, back up data, check accounting. But when it comes to scams like phishing, vishing, and bogus security alerts many of us treat the warnings like background noise. Once in a while, we glance, nod, and move on.

That’s a mistake.

Scammers are still using the same basic tricks but dressing them up in newer clothes.

As highlighted recently in a post by tech-advisor Leo Notenboom, many of the messages you see these days come from people claiming to be banks, government agents, or “security departments.” They try to scare you, tell you there’s unusual activity on your account, or warn you about imminent fines.

The goal: make you panic and then make you act before you think. Transfer your money. Give remote access. Submit credentials. Before you know it, the damage is done.

Here’s the problem: far too many of us assume we can spot a scam based on “common sense.” But when those messages are timed right like late at night, during a busy day, or right after another stressful event, even savvy folks get caught.

That’s why it’s time to treat scam prevention like a core business process, not a “nice to have.”

Core lies scammers tell

Most scams rely on one of three basic lies:

“Your accounts have been compromised – act now or lose everything.”

“Your identity is being used in a crime, you must respond immediately.”

“Your computer or system has a serious security problem. Call now for help.”

None of these are legitimate openers. Real banks, real agencies don’t call randomly, don’t demand immediate action, and won’t threaten legal consequences over a phone call or email.

Make this your test: if someone pressures you to act right now, hang up. Then take five minutes, step away, and verify using contact information you already have.

Build guardrails around your company

As an owner or manager, you can lead the charge on this. Set clear policies for how you and your team respond to unexpected calls, emails, even pop-up alerts.

Require that anyone getting a “security alert” call must first hang up and call back the official support number.

Never rely on caller ID to verify identity. It’s trivial to fake.

Prohibit transferring funds or sharing sensitive credentials unless someone else signs off, even if the “call” claims to be from your bank.

Consider call-block tools or spam filters. Less clutter means fewer chances to get tricked.

Those few simple steps dramatically reduce the odds of someone making a mistake on a bad day.

Protecting data is about psychology, not just tech

You might be thinking, “We already have firewalls, anti-virus, secure endpoints.” That’s good. But none of that protects you from a human being tricked into handing over access.

Real protection comes from building a mindset: skepticism, calm, and verification. When your team treats every unexpected alert like a potential fire — a threat until proven safe — you build the reflexes necessary to stop scams.

If you wait until after disaster strikes, you’re already reacting. Instead, lead with prevention.

How To Use A Password Manager And Virtual Cards For No-Risk Holiday Shopping

Have you ever been concerned about your credit card or personal data getting stolen while shopping online? You’re not alone.

Each holiday season, as millions of shoppers flock online for convenience, hackers ramp up their activity.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has warned that scammers often create fake shopping websites or phishing emails to steal consumers’ money and personal information, especially during the holidays.

If you’re planning to shop this holiday season, now is the perfect time to boost your online security. Two simple tools, password managers and virtual cards, can make a big difference. But how exactly?

People prefer password managers for online shopping

Shopping online is quick, easy, and often cheaper than going to physical stores. However, it is fraught with security risks. Many people now use password managers and virtual cards for safer transactions.

A password manager creates and keeps complicated, distinct passwords for all accounts. This minimizes the chance of unauthorized access and theft. The Cyber-security and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) recommends using password managers to reduce password reuse and protect sensitive data from hackers.

Virtual cards also add an extra layer of protection when shopping online. Although the card numbers are linked to your real credit or debit card account, the merchant never sees your card details. This helps prevent identity theft and financial fraud.

Use virtual cards for online purchases

Before you start adding items to your cart, the safety of your money comes first. Here are smart ways to use these tools to improve online security during the holidays.

• Choose a Reputable Password Manager. Select a trusted provider with strong encryption and a solid reputation.
• Create a Strong Master Password. Your master password protects all your other passwords and should be the most secure.
• Turn On Two-Factor Authentication (2FA). Even if hackers steal your password, they can’t access your account without your verification code.
• Generate Virtual Cards for Each Store. This way, if one store is compromised, only that temporary card is affected your main account stays safe.
• Track Expiration Dates and Spending Limits. Virtual cards often expire after a set time or after one purchase. Set spending limits as well, as this helps with budgeting and prevents unauthorized charges.
• Shop Only on Secure Websites. Be sure to purchase only from websites you are familiar with.

Common mistakes to avoid for safer online shopping

Even with the best security tools, simple mistakes can put your data at risk. Here are some common pitfalls to watch out for when shopping:

• Reusing Passwords. One hacked password can put all your accounts at risk.
• Using Public Wi-Fi for Shopping. Hackers can easily monitor public Wi-Fi networks, making them unsafe for any online activity.
• Ignoring Security Alerts. If your bank, password manager, or virtual card provider alerts you to suspicious activity, act immediately. Follow their instructions to protect your data.
• Saving Card Details in Your Browser. If hackers access your browser, your saved cards are compromised.

Need help improving your cybersecurity before the holiday rush? We can help you protect your data with smarter, easy-to use security solutions. Stay safe, stay secure, and shop online with confidence this season. Contact us today to get started.