cybersecurity

Why AI Training Is A Business Essential

October 21, 2026

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

There is a good chance someone in your business is already using AI.

They might be using it to draft emails, summarize notes, organize information, research ideas, or even to help with presentations and reports.

AI has arrived long before any formal plan for using it.

The conversation around workplace AI usually focuses on the technology. Which tools should we use? Which platform is best? How quickly should we adopt it?

But the more important question is simpler: Do people know how to use it properly?

Like any workplace tool, AI delivers the best results when people understand both its strengths and its limitations.

Used well, it can save time, remove repetitive admin, and help people focus on higher-value work.

Used poorly, it can create confusion, introduce errors, and increase the chances of sensitive information ending up in places it should not.

The challenge for businesses is that employees are often learning about AI from social media, online videos, articles, and conversations with colleagues rather than from their employer.

That means people inside the same business can develop different habits and expectations around the technology.

Some become confident users very quickly.

Others avoid it altogether because they worry about getting something wrong.

Good AI training helps employees understand where AI adds value, where human judgment is vital, what information should never be shared, and how to spot when an answer needs checking rather than trusting automatically.

Importantly, that training should reflect the work people do.

The way a finance team uses AI will look different from marketing, operations, customer service, or leadership teams.

A one-size-fits-all approach probably won’t cut it.

Invest in practical guidance now and you’re likely to find adoption becomes more consistent, confidence grows more quickly, and security concerns become easier to manage.

Because whether you actively encourage AI use or not, the technology is already finding its way into the workplace.

Training helps make sure it arrives in a way that benefits the business as much as the people using it.

If you need help with training your team, get in touch. Give us a call at (734) 457-5000, or email us at info@mytechexperts.com.

Why Employees Shouldn’t Have Administrator Access To Their PCs

October 21, 2026

Administrator access often starts with a reasonable request.

Someone needs to install a printer, update a program, or change a setting, so they’re made an administrator on their computer. The task gets done, but the access stays.

From then on, that employee can approve software installations and make changes that normally require help from IT.

If they download a fake installer or approve a harmful program, it may be able to install system components, change security settings, or affect other information on the computer.

For email, web browsing, documents, meetings, and most business applications, employees should use standard accounts. Administrator access should be reserved for approved IT work.

What administrator access allows

On Windows, members of the local Administrators group have broad control over that computer.

They may be able to install software, add drivers, manage other local users, and change system settings or file permissions.

Why standard accounts are safer

Programs normally start with the permissions available to the person who launches them. If an employee can approve an administrator request on their own, harmful software may receive the same level of access.

Windows uses User Account Control to ask before many important changes. An employee using an administrator account can approve that request.

A standard user is normally asked for administrator credentials, which gives IT an opportunity to check the program and where it came from.

Standard accounts still support normal work. Employees can use email, browsers, Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, meetings, approved software, printers, and shared files.

How to handle software installations

Employees can still get software installed without keeping administrator access. Your IT team can install it remotely, approve a request when it is needed, or deploy updates to several computers at once.

Test specialist or older software before changing permissions across the business.

If a program expects the user to be an administrator, your IT provider may be able to change its setup or find a supported alternative.

Keep a separate administrator account for approved technical work. Do not use it for email, web browsing, or everyday tasks. Protect it with multifactor authentication where the system supports it.

Check who has access now

Ask your IT provider to review the administrator accounts on every company computer, including former employees, shared logins, vendor accounts, and accounts created during the original setup.

Before removing access, confirm that IT still has a tested way to perform administrator tasks on every device.

Standard accounts let employees do their jobs without giving them or the software they run more control than normal work requires.

Should Your Team Use Personal Devices For Work?

October 21, 2026

Allowing employees to use personal phones or computers can be convenient. They already know the device, and they can check email or join a meeting without carrying another piece of equipment.

But the business still needs to decide what work is allowed, which applications employees may use, and what happens to company information if a device is lost or an employee leaves.

Personal devices can be suitable for limited work when they meet your security requirements. Company-owned devices are a better choice for sensitive work, administration, or jobs that require large amounts of business data to be stored on the device.

What counts as a personal device used for work?

Bring your own device, often shortened to BYOD, includes reading company email on a personal phone, opening documents in mobile apps, or using a home computer to connect to a business system. Files may remain in the Downloads folder, and accounts can stay signed in after the work is finished.

Decide what employees may do

Set the rules according to the work and the information involved. You might allow employees to read email through an approved mobile app but require a company computer for customer database exports, payroll, system administration, or access to sensitive client records.

Staff should know which devices and applications are permitted, whether they may download files, and what they must do before selling or replacing the device.

Set minimum security requirements

A personal device should run an operating system that still receives security updates. It should have a screen lock, device encryption where available, current updates, and multifactor authentication on company accounts. A lost or stolen device must be reported quickly.

Keep business information inside approved applications or a managed work profile where possible. Device and app management tools can apply security settings and, on supported platforms, remove company data from managed apps. Tell employees what the business can see or remove before they enroll their device.

Plan for a lost device or departing employee

If a personal device is lost, IT may need to revoke active sessions, reset affected passwords, and remove company information from managed apps.

When an employee leaves, disable their account and active sessions at the agreed time. Remove company data from managed apps, check for downloaded files, and confirm that business information has been returned or deleted.

When to provide a company device

Use a company-owned device when an employee handles sensitive information, needs administrator access, stores a large amount of data locally, or requires specialist software. It is also the better choice when IT needs full control over updates, backups, applications, and security monitoring.

BYOD can work, but only when the rules are clear and the device can meet them. If your business allows personal devices, ask your IT provider to review the policy, access settings, and offboarding process before a lost phone or employee departure puts company data at risk.

Could This Be The Future Of Cybersecurity?

September 21, 2026

Most cybersecurity tools work reactively.

Something suspicious happens, the system spots it, and then tries to stop the damage before it spreads.

That’s incredibly important.

But Microsoft is working on something that pushes much further: using AI to find weaknesses before attackers discover them.

The new system is called MDASH, and the idea behind it is genuinely interesting.

Microsoft has built a platform that uses more than 100 specialized AI agents working together to search for hidden security flaws inside Windows.

These agents are designed to inspect different parts of the system, test for weaknesses, and flag potential vulnerabilities automatically.

Simply put, Microsoft is using AI to hunt for security holes at a scale humans simply couldn’t manage alone.

And it appears to be working.

During testing, the system reportedly uncovered multiple previously unknown vulnerabilities inside important parts of Microsoft Windows.

This included flaws that attackers could potentially have exploited remotely over the internet.

Some of those vulnerabilities were considered critical.

These are the kinds of weaknesses that, in the wrong hands, could allow attackers to take control of systems or run malicious code.

What makes this more impressive is the accuracy.

One of the biggest problems with AI-driven security tools has always been false alarms.

Systems that flag hundreds of “possible issues” which turn out to be nothing. That creates noise, wastes time, and makes security teams less effective.

Microsoft claims MDASH has been unusually good at avoiding that problem while still finding genuine risks.

Now, before anyone assumes AI is about to solve cybersecurity completely, it’s important to keep this in perspective.

This technology is mainly being used internally by Microsoft engineers now.

It’s still early days, and even if these systems become more widely available, they won’t suddenly replace the fundamentals that keep businesses safe.

Because most cyberattacks still succeed through ordinary gaps:

Weak passwords
Unpatched systems
People clicking the wrong link
Poor access controls
Missing backups

Those remain the biggest risks for most businesses today.

AI-driven security tools may eventually become a powerful extra layer of protection, especially for large organizations managing huge and complex systems.

The idea of intelligent agents constantly scanning for hidden weaknesses before criminals find them is a very promising direction for the future.

But the basics are more important right now.

A fully patched system with strong passwords, multi-factor authentication, good backups, and sensible user awareness training will protect most businesses far better than chasing the latest AI security trend without solid foundations underneath it.

The future of cybersecurity probably will involve more AI working behind the scenes, both defending systems and, unfortunately, helping attackers too.

But while the technology evolves, the core principles of staying safe haven’t changed.

Good security still comes down to reducing risk, limiting opportunities for attackers, and making sure the simple things are consistently done well.

If you want to make sure your business security is up to scratch, we’d be happy to help. Get in touch. You can call (734) 457-5000 or email info@mytechexperts.com.

The Employee Who Left Six Months Ago Still Has Access

August 17, 2026

When someone leaves your company, you probably collect their keys, take back the laptop, and shut off their email. Job done, right?

Not quite.

Over the years, most employees pick up access to more systems than anyone tracks. There’s Microsoft 365, your accounting software, your CRM, cloud storage, payroll, vendor portals, remote access tools, and shared mailboxes.

Then there are the accounts nobody remembers: a Canva login someone set up for marketing, a Facebook page a former employee managed, a Dropbox folder shared with a manager years ago, an app someone connected to their Microsoft 365 account and forgot about.

The employee leaves, their email gets disabled, and everyone assumes their access went with it. It often doesn’t.

What is access creep

Access creep happens when employees pick up new permissions as they change roles, but the old ones never get removed.

Someone starts in customer service, moves to sales, and eventually becomes a manager. Each job change adds new access. Rarely does anyone go back and take the old access away.

After five years, that employee may be able to reach far more of your business than their current job requires. When they leave, all of that access leaves the building with them, at least on paper. In reality, it usually stays right where it was.

Offboarding needs to be a process, not a checklist item

Turning off someone’s email is a start, but it only closes one door. What about the cloud app they logged into with a separate password? The vendor site where their account is still active? The shared password they know? The company social media account they had the keys to?

Offboarding works best when it starts before the employee’s last day.

Someone should know which systems they can reach, which devices they hold, which passwords or codes they know, and whether they have access to any shared accounts.

From there, equipment gets returned, individual accounts get disabled, shared passwords get changed, remote access gets pulled, and email forwarding or delegation gets reviewed.

Don’t forget the accounts your IT provider doesn’t manage directly. Your bookkeeper may have logins for banking or payroll.

A salesperson might hold customer portal credentials. Whoever runs your marketing may control social media accounts, your website, ad platforms, or your email marketing tool. Those accounts need the same attention.

The account nobody is watching is the one that gets hacked

Most former employees have no interest in logging back into your systems. That’s not the real risk. The real risk is that their old account is still sitting there, active and unused. If that account gets compromised months or years later, an attacker may find it still opens the door to your business. Nobody notices, because nobody remembers the account exists. That makes forgotten accounts an easy target.

Don’t wait until someone leaves

Access should match the job. When someone’s role changes, their access should change with it.

A periodic review of who can reach what often turns up old accounts, admin permissions nobody needs anymore, forgotten vendor logins, and software nobody uses. You might be surprised by what’s still active.

Ask yourself this: if you made a list today of everyone who can access your company’s systems and data, could you say for certain that everyone on that list still belongs there?

If your honest answer is “I think so,” it’s worth a closer look.

Give us a call for a no-charge, no-obligation review of your user accounts and access, and we’ll help you build a process that covers employees joining, changing roles, and leaving for good.

Implementing Zero Trust For Small Business

March 17, 2026

Think about your office building. You probably have a locked front door, security staff, and maybe even biometric checks.

But once someone is inside, can they wander into the supply closet, the file room, or the CFO’s office?

In a traditional network, digital access works the same way: a single login often grants broad access to everything. The Zero Trust security model challenges this approach, treating trust itself as a vulnerability.

For years, Zero Trust seemed too complex or expensive for smaller teams. But the landscape has changed.

Today, it is a practical, scalable defense, essential for any organization.

It’s about verifying every access attempt, no matter where it comes from. It’s less about building taller walls and more about placing checkpoints at every door.

And it’s not just about outsiders. It also limits damage from everyday mistakes – like clicking a bad link – or from a compromised vendor account. With Zero Trust, access is granted based on identity, device health, and context, and only to the specific resources needed. That “least privilege” approach shrinks the blast radius when something goes wrong, making incidents easier to contain and faster to recover from.

Transform your security posture

Adopting Zero Trust isn’t just a technical change, it’s a cultural one. It shifts the mindset from broad trust to continuous monitoring and validation.

Your teams may initially find the extra steps frustrating, but explaining clearly why these measures protect both their work and the company will help them embrace the approach.

The goal is to foster a culture of ongoing governance that keeps Zero Trust effective and sustainable.

Your actionable path forward

Start with an audit to map where your critical data flows and who has access to it. While doing so, enforce MFA across the board, segment your network beginning with the highest – value assets, and take full advantage of the security features included in your cloud subscriptions.

Achieving Zero Trust is a continuous journey, not a one-time project. Make it part of your overall strategy so it can grow with your business and provide a flexible defense in a world where traditional network perimeters are disappearing.

Cyber Resilience Matters More Than You Think

February 17, 2026

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.

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

February 17, 2026

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.

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

January 20, 2026

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.

Scary Cyber Scams Your Business Should Watch Out For

October 14, 2025

Cyber scams don’t need to be sophisticated to cause serious damage to a business.

In fact, many of today’s most effective scams rely on busy people making quick decisions and not having time to double‑check what they’re doing.

Staying informed is one of the best ways to stay protected. So here are five scams we’re seeing right now:

Robocall scams

With artificial intelligence, scammers can clone someone’s voice using only a short audio clip. You get a call that sounds exactly like a supplier or even a colleague, asking you to urgently confirm bank details. It feels genuine, but it isn’t.

Some scams even use this information to carry out a “SIM swap”, tricking a phone provider into moving your number to a criminal’s SIM card so they can intercept security codes.

Crypto investment scams

A convincing email or social media post might offer an incredible return on a business investment. Some of these projects, known as “rug pulls”, are designed to collect funds and then disappear, leaving investors with nothing.

Romance scams (sometimes called pig‑butchering scams)

These might sound unrelated to business, but they’re not. Scammers build trust over weeks or months, often through social media or messaging apps, and then persuade someone to share sensitive information or even send money.

In some cases, they use AI‑generated images or videos to make the scam more believable and later threaten to leak personal material unless they’re paid.

Malvertising

Criminals hide malicious links inside paid ads on legitimate sites. An employee looking for a new supplier or tool could click an ad and unknowingly install malware onto a company laptop.

Formjacking

This is where criminals inject code into an online checkout form to steal payment or login details. If staff buy supplies or services from websites that aren’t secure, those details can be intercepted.

The common thread is simple: these scams exploit human attention and trust.

Regular reminders and training help staff stay alert, question unexpected requests, and think twice before clicking. A little extra caution can stop a scam before it starts.

We can help you make sure your team is vigilant about these scams and more. Get in touch – email info@mytechexperts.com, or call (734) 457-5000