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Business Computers & Software Technology

Microsoft Teams Now Empowering Users to Edit Excel Spreadsheets in Real-time; User Productivity Expected to Improve

The software giant Microsoft is reportedly bringing Excel directly into Teams. With the new update, multiple users can collaborate in real-time on a single spreadsheet through Excel Live while in a Teams meeting.

The new Excel Live version will allow users to make edits or update data during a Teams call, and the changes will be reflected in the spreadsheet in real-time, according to techradar.

“Until now, sharing spreadsheets within a Microsoft Teams meeting has been a fairly one-sided experience. You share your screen, and everyone else watches while you navigate through the workbook and update the content. But what if your group could use that meeting time more efficiently to get the work done together? Building on what we’ve learned and the evolving needs of today’s workplace, we’ve created an enhanced collaboration solution for working on Microsoft Excel workbooks—Excel Live—empowering your group to collaborate in real-time within your Teams meetings,” explained a member from Microsoft’s Tech Community.

Excel Live in Teams

Excel Live is built on top of the Live Share feature of Microsoft, described by the company at its Build 2022 developer conference.

Previously, meeting attendees were required to open Excel documents and share their screens. However, this process creates conflict, thus negatively impacting users’ productivity.

The new update of Excel Live will allow owners to choose the workbook file they want to share with others and edit directly while on a Teams call. Upon sharing the file, they can grant editing permission to specific meeting attendees or allow all participants to edit the workbook from the Teams meeting interface.

Microsoft expects the new update of Excel Live will make collaboration on Teams meetings seamless, delivering a frictionless co-working experience. 

In addition, by enabling users to co-edit Excel spreadsheets right from within the meeting window, this new Teams feature will eliminate the need to switch between multiple windows, thus saving time in consolidating content after the call.

The new update has a scheduled rollout date of April 2023 and will be available on PC, iOS, and Android devices. 

Microsoft Striving to Fortify Customer Experience

Microsoft has been working on updating Excel and Teams as part of its effort to fortify customer experience. 

For example, it has recently added a new “@mentions” expansion which is expected to enable users to tag their co-workers, both within their company and outside. 

On top of that, by releasing the spreadsheet software update last year, Microsoft has rectified an obvious drawback dating back several years: Excel users can now drop hyperlinks into comments added to spreadsheets.

To make presentations more accessible, Microsoft has recently introduced the Closed Captions feature with PowerPoint Live for Teams meetings. 

Moreover, Microsoft is poised to give Excel a deep AI boost by bringing out an assistive AI system, FLAME AI. An AI developed for Excel-specific tasks, FLAME is expected to make automation in the Excel app more efficient.

Excel charts have now become the go-to choice for many when it comes to making a large volume of datasets easily comprehensible. By recapitulating massive troves of data in visual form, Excel charts help professionals assess key trends, evaluate key values at a glance, and more. 

However, despite releasing a number of updates, the built-in Excel charts and graphs are still overwhelming to work with. 

For example, formatting functionalities are limited with some types of Excel charts, which make the process of creating professional-looking PowerPoint presentations arduous and time-consuming. 

For professionals who are often required to make PowerPoint presentations with great-looking charts, investing in high-quality add-ins such as think-cell is a sensible decision.

With less formatting and fewer clicks, PowerPoint add-ins enable users to create charts directly in PowerPoint, thus significantly saving working hours. 

Wrapping Up

Microsoft expects the new Excel Live feature in Teams will allow users to collaboratively edit Excel spreadsheets while making file sharing in meetings more seamless than ever before.

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Business Law & Legal Services Technology U.S

Legalese Decoder, AI legal language translation platform, announces its application to Seed Checks for funding

Legalese Decoder, the AI-powered legal language translation platform, announces its application to Seed Checks for funding. The startup aims to revolutionize the legal industry by providing a solution to a common problem experienced by many: the difficulty of understanding legal language.

Founders and entrepreneurs are often left in the dark when it comes to deciphering legalese, which can be a major barrier to creating and running successful businesses. Legalese Decoder seeks to solve this problem by providing an easy-to-use platform that translates complex legal language into plain English.

Seed Checks, launched by venture capitalist and growth marketing entrepreneur Julian Shapiro, is a platform that allows founders to apply for funding from top investors in a quick and efficient manner. Legalese Decoder is excited to apply for funding through Seed Checks and join the thousands of other startups that have already applied.

Legalese Decoder’s AI-powered technology is unique in the legal industry, and the company is confident that it will have a significant impact on the industry as a whole. With the support of Seed Checks, Legalese Decoder aims to continue developing its technology and expanding its reach.

“Our goal is to make legal language accessible to everyone, regardless of their background or experience,” said Legalese Decoder founder, William Tsui. “We believe that our platform has the potential to change the legal industry for the better, and we are excited to partner with Seed Checks to make that vision a reality.”

Legalese Decoder has already received significant interest from investors and entrepreneurs alike, and the company is eager to continue growing its reach and impact. With Seed Checks, Legalese Decoder hopes to find the right investors who share its vision and can help take the company to the next level.

For more information about Legalese Decoder, visit our website at www.legalesedecoder.com. To learn more about Seed Checks, visit their website at www.seedchecks.com.

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Arts & Entertainment Business Celebrity Fashion & Beauty Marketing & Sales

Wonderland Offers Revolutionary Marketing Formula to Help Content Creators and influencers Achieve Rapid Profits

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London, England – Wonderland, a leading marketing agency founded by a 10-figure marketer, is making waves in the influencer community with their innovative approach to marketing and promotion. The agency’s unique Rabbit Hole™ Marketing Formula has helped countless content creators skyrocket their social media followers and unlock rapid profits in as little as 24 hours.

With over a decade of experience at the highest level, Wonderland brings a wealth of expertise to the table. The agency is dedicated to helping everyday content creators share their gifts with the world, providing custom marketing campaigns, account management, and messaging systems to help models achieve their financial goals.

“Our team is passionate about helping content creators achieve rapid profits with their brand,” said the spokesperson for Wonderland. “We understand the challenges that come with managing your own brand and promoting your content effectively. Our Rabbit Hole™ Marketing Formula takes the guesswork out of the equation, allowing models to focus on creating content while we handle the marketing and promotion.”

The agency’s approach to marketing and promotion is simple but effective. Using a customized approach tailored to each client’s needs, the team creates custom marketing campaigns to drive thousands of followers to their social media pages. This, in turn, leads to increased subscribers and rapid profits.

Wonderland’s messaging system is also a game-changer. The agency’s experienced messaging team chats with subscribers daily and sells them on PPV content using the model’s voice and brand.

“We are committed to helping our clients achieve their financial goals and take their influential brand to the next level,” added the spokesperson. “With our team of experts handling the marketing and promotion, models can focus on what they do best – creating amazing content for their subscribers.”

To apply for Wonderland’s management, content creators and influencers with at least 5,000 Instagram followers can visit their website at https://www.thewaytowonderland.com

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Business Computers & Software Science Society & Culture World

Introducing AIUpbeat.com: Latest News in Artificial Intelligence Developments

April 12th 2023 – San Francisco, CA

AIUpbeat.com is a new blog that covers the latest news and trends in artificial intelligence (AI). The blog aims to provide informative, insightful and engaging content for anyone interested in AI, whether they are beginners, enthusiasts or experts.

AIUpbeat.com was launched by Jane Doe, a former journalist and AI researcher who has been following the developments of AI for over a decade. She decided to start her own blog after noticing a gap in the market for accessible and reliable AI news.

“I have always been fascinated by AI and how it can transform our lives,” said Jane Doe, founder and editor-in-chief of AIUpbeat.com. “But I also realized that there is a lot of misinformation and hype around AI that can confuse or mislead people. I wanted to create a blog that would offer accurate, balanced and easy-to-understand AI news for everyone.”

AIUpbeat.com covers a wide range of topics related to AI such as machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, robotics, ethics, society, business and more. The blog features original articles written by Jane Doe as well as guest posts from other experts and influencers in the field.

Some of the recent articles on AIUpbeat.com include:

  • How GPT-3 Is Changing Content Creation
  • The Rise of Conversational AI: Chatbots vs Voice Assistants
  • How AI Can Help Fight Climate Change
  • The Ethical Challenges of Facial Recognition Technology
  • How AI Is Revolutionizing Healthcare

AIUpbeat.com also offers various resources for learning more about AI such as podcasts, books, courses, events and newsletters.

Jane Doe hopes that her blog will inspire more people to learn about AI and its potential impact on our world.

“AI is not just a buzzword or a sci-fi fantasy,” she said. “It is already here and it is changing everything from how we communicate to how we work to how we entertain ourselves. I believe that everyone should be aware of what AI can do and what it cannot do and how it can benefit us or harm us depending on how we use it.”

She added: “My goal with AIUpbeat.com is to make AI news more accessible and enjoyable for everyone and to spark curiosity and conversation about this fascinating topic.”

To learn more about AIUpbeat.com and its content, visit https://aiupbeat.com/ or follow them on Twitter @aiupbeat.

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Business Human Resources Lifestyle Public Affairs Services

Top 10 Personal Backgrounds Launches New Website with Enhanced Features

The new website allows customers to access TPB’s services faster and easier than ever before. Customers can now order personal background checks with just a few clicks, view their reports online or download them as PDF files, and compare different plans and prices with ease.

“We are thrilled to launch our new website that offers more features and benefits for our customers,” said Mark Stevenson, CEO of Top 10 Personal Backgrounds. “Our goal is to provide our customers with the best service possible when it comes to finding out more about their potential dates online.”

TPB’s personal background checks include information such as criminal records, marital status, education history, employment history, social media profiles, and more.

TPB also offers customer support via phone, email, or chat, as well as tips and advice on how to use personal background checks safely and responsibly.

According to Stevenson, personal background checks are becoming more popular among online dating users who want to verify their matches’ identities and avoid scams, catfishing, or other risks.

“Online dating can be fun and exciting, but it can also be dangerous if you don’t know who you’re talking to,” Stevenson said.

“That’s why we created TPB, to help our customers find out more about their potential dates before meeting them in person.”

About Top 10 Personal Backgrounds

Top 10 Personal Backgrounds is a leading provider of personal background checks for online dating users. Founded in 2020, TPB’s mission is to help online daters find their perfect match by providing them with accurate and reliable information about their potential dates. TPB’s services are fast, easy, and affordable, and are trusted by thousands of customers across the country. For more information, visit www.top10.personalbackgrounds.com.

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Business Computers & Software Technology U.K

Vulnerability Management 101 for Businesses That Care About Cybersecurity

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Businesses, both small and large, rely on technology. That means using computers (and other devices), apps, software, and, of course, a connection to the internet.

And, as technology becomes more sophisticated, it also falls prey to misconfiguration and vulnerabilities. 

These, in turn, can leave the business open to cyber attacks, leading to data breaches or loss control of assets.

That’s why vulnerability management is so essential.

What Is Vulnerability Management?

“Vulnerability management” refers to an integral part of cybersecurity management. It’s a task periodically carried out to identify, evaluate, remediate/mitigate, and report any potential weaknesses in a business’ network, system, infrastructure, or endpoints.

It forms a part of an overall strategy where cybersecurity is maintained by constantly evaluating risk and finding points that threat actors could use to gain access. Once these weak points are identified, the threat can be assessed and patch implementation carried out.

The reason why vulnerability management is essential is that it can help businesses reduce the avenues a threat actor has to get into the data and network of the company.

How Does Vulnerability Management Work?

As stated previously, vulnerability management is a process where a business scans its systems and network for exploitable weaknesses. It generates a list of potential “problem areas”.

These are then assessed and given a priority ranking. This ranking helps business team identify issues that need fixing first.

Since the process is periodic and ongoing, businesses can monitor all its digital assets to ensure your data stays safe.

What Is the Vulnerability Management Process?

The Vulnerability Management Policy

As with anything else in a business, vulnerability management starts with a plan. Here’s what security teams need to map out:

Prepare the vulnerability management policy: Once created, the policy should be shared with other stakeholders to get their input before proceeding further.

Create a priority system: certain systems might not require as much security as others. By creating a priority list, teams can focus on the important parts whilst giving others slightly less, but adequate, attention.

Factor in the industry- and region-specific regulations: Certain industries have to follow regulations and policies specific to the work they do. Certain regions might have more stringent regulations around cybersecurity and data protection.

Train cybersecurity and vulnerability management stakeholders: Whilst it is important that everyone in the organisation is trained on cyber secure behaviour, certain people would have to take on extra responsibilities. 

For example, security officers, cybersecurity or vulnerability engineers, asset and data owners, managed security service providers (MSSPs), and other business leaders. For a smoother operation, these people should know their roles and responsibilities in the vulnerability management process.

The Vulnerability Management Process

Once the policy is drafted and in place, teams can start implementing it. The vulnerability management lifecycle can be broken down into the following steps (bear in mind, all of these steps have to be repeated regularly if you want to stay on top of threats):

Finding out the vulnerabilities: Identifying vulnerabilities in a business’ networks, systems, and IT assets can be done through vulnerability scanning (an automated process that identifies and reports exploitable weaknesses) or penetration testing (a mock attack carried out by a person who uses any weak points they find to “attack” a system like a hacker would).

Evaluating and prioritising vulnerabilities: Once there’s a list of vulnerabilities, a business doesn’t just start fixing them in any order. They need to be assessed and prioritised in order of how likely they are to be exploited and how much damage the threat actor can do through them. 

It is entirely possible that there’s a vulnerability that doesn’t actually pose any threat to an organisation. That’s why they need assessing and prioritising, so serious weaknesses are dealt with first.

Remediating and mitigating: Once a team knows which vulnerabilities they need to deal with and in what order, they can start the process of fixing them. Some can be fixed with vulnerability patches. Others might not be fixable, and may require mitigation instead.

Assessing if the fixes worked: If a team doesn’t test its solutions, it won’t know whether they worked or not. This process might require additional scanning or penetration testing. That way, businesses can definitively determine if the remediation and mitigation worked.

Documenting and reporting: The team will need to document any vulnerabilities discovered as well as the steps taken towards their resolution. Of course, if there are a different sets of reports coming in from processes like scans, pen testing, or other such activities, it might help to have them all in one place. 

Leading cybersecurity service provider, DigitalXRAID, recently launched a one-of-a-kind portal that “allows a company’s cybersecurity measures to be viewed from a single source and enables greater collaboration across the business.” 

This portal, called OrbitalX, enables businesses to create bespoke and automated reports to provide clients with “a holistic overview and better visibility of [their] cybersecurity posture and risk.”

Reassess the cybersecurity framework from time to time: Cyber threats continue to evolve. To keep up with them, the cybersecurity industry keeps developing new methods and tools for protecting data. 

A business has to keep up with both the potential threats and the available solutions in order to be truly protected. The best way of doing so is by periodically reassessing the cybersecurity framework.

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Business Computers & Software Services Technology U.K

The Role of Cloud Data Lakehouses in Machine Learning and Deep Learning

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Before one can understand the role of cloud data lakehouses in machine learning and deep learning, one needs to know what machine learning and deep learning actually are.

Anyone vaguely interested in artificial intelligence (AI) might have come across these two terms before. Contrary to some confusion, these terms aren’t interchangeable (despite both having something to do with learning). For anyone interested, here’s an article that discusses the difference between machine learning and deep learning.

It’ll clarify why structured, unstructured, and semi-structured data are all so important in artificial intelligence.

What’s the Difference Between Machine Learning & Deep Learning?

To understand how ML and deep learning differ, people first need to understand what these two types of learning are.

What Is Machine Learning?

Machine learning is the process of teaching computers to make decisions and predictions based on a bunch of rules. These include simple if-then logic, using mathematical equations, and neural network architecture.

The algorithms used to teach computers through ML generally rely on structured data.

What Is Deep Learning?

Deep learning is a process of teaching computers in a manner similar to how humans learn. Instead of using structured data with structured rules, this process uses unstructured data. Obviously, this type of learning takes longer and requires specialised AI learning processors.

Deep learning is used for AI that has to mimic human-like decision-making processes; eg., Natural Language Processing (NLP), software for self-driving vehicles, and image recognition software.

So, to summarise, machine learning is a structured learning model that takes less time, whilst deep learning is a more organic learning system, which takes longer, is more complicated, and requires complex hardware.

Machine learning is useful for solving simpler, linear problems, like classification, regression, dimensionality reduction, and clustering.

Deep learning, on the other hand, is used for solving more complex problems, where human-like thinking and processing might be required. These include image and speech recognition, AI game bots, NLP, and autonomous systems.

Structured Data vs. Unstructured Data vs. Semi-Structured Data

So, now that we know what machine learning and deep learning are, let’s move on to structured and unstructured data. As we just saw, both have a role in the development of AI. Here is the difference between the two.

Structured Data

Structured data, as the name suggests, is, well… structured. It follows a standard format and can be worked on directly. If you’ve ever worked with an Excel spreadsheet, with the information neatly organised in cells and tables, you’ve encountered structured data.

Such data is easy to store, access, and process, because it’s all so well organised.

Unstructured Data

Unlike structured data, unstructured data cannot be organised as easily. It doesn’t follow a standard format and each item in the database could have different properties. Examples of unstructured data include images, video files, audio files, social media posts, or behavioural data.

Since this data is so varied, it cannot be organised into neat little compartments. As a result, it needs more storage space and it can be slightly difficult to retrieve.

Semi-Structured Data

This type of data, whilst largely unstructured, does have some organisational logic to it. In fact, some people argue that there is no true unstructured data. Even an image will have some meta-data included, which can be used to retrieve it.

However, unlike structured data, semi-structured data too requires more storage.

This brings us to cloud data lakehouses.

What Is a Cloud Data Lakehouse?

When you want to store clean, organised structured data, you use data warehouses. These are ideal for business intelligence data. 

On the other hand, if you want to store unstructured data and semi-structured data, you want data lakes. These types of data can’t be housed in neat, logical data warehouses.

But, having two types of storage for structured and unstructured data means you cannot derive benefits from both. That’s where a data lakehouse enters the picture.

A data lakehouse combines the logical, analytical storage of a warehouse with the flexibility of a data lake—ideal for an artificial intelligence model which uses both deep learning and machine learning.

Whilst a data warehouse is simple in structure, the data lakehouse architecture is largely dependent on your business’s needs. You might need an expert, like Agile Solutions, to help you design a bespoke solution.

However, having a cloud data lakehouse can be an important resource if you want to make the most of the data—both structured and unstructured—that your company owns.

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Business Computers & Software Technology U.K U.S

Microsoft Introduces Closed Captions in PowerPoint Live for Teams Meetings; Presentations Expected to be More Accessible

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Microsoft has reportedly rolled out the coveted Closed Caption feature in PowerPoint Live for Microsoft Teams meetings. 

Announcing the release on March 6th, 2023, Microsoft said that with this new feature, users seeking to make their presentations more accessible to a larger audience can add closed captions to any video file embedded in a PowerPoint slide. 

The new feature is currently available in PowerPoint for Mac and Windows operating systems, reported Commercial INTEGRATOR. 

Details of the Closed Caption Feature

Microsoft expects this new feature in Microsoft Teams to help people with language barriers or hearing impairments to participate in the meetings. Participants with issues in processing auditory information, or attending a meeting from a loud place can also benefit from the feature.  

Now, while in a Microsoft Team meeting, they won’t face difficulties comprehending the audio components of the video content embedded in a PowerPoint presentation being shared via PowerPoint Live. 

“Closed captions make PowerPoint presentations more accessible and benefit everyone who watches videos, especially those watching videos in their non-native language, people learning to read, and individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing,” said Microsoft in one of its Tech Community posts.

Additionally, meeting attendees can also activate or deactivate captions for any video project containing a closed captions file.

Once activated, attendees can find the Closed Caption feature at the bottom of their PowerPoint slides. Microsoft confirms the new addition, when turned on by a specific meeting attendee in the Teams, will not distract others.

Adding Closed Captions

In its Tech Community post, Microsoft has broken down the process of adding closed captions to video content included in a PowerPoint presentation:

  1. Open the required PowerPoint slide with the video content
  2. Select the video and click Insert Captions from the Playback tab
  3. Choose the WebVTT file or files to be added to the selected video content from the Insert Captions dialog box
  4. Click Insert Caption to add closed captions

When this PowerPoint presentation with closed captions is shared using PowerPoint Live in Microsoft Teams, the Closed Caption feature will automatically appear for all meeting attendees. 

To turn on closed captions, attendees need to:

  1. Press the Closed Captions options on the video player in the PowerPoint Live presentation
  2. Pick the language from the dropdown list

“Once turned on, the video closed captions will appear at the bottom of the slide for only the individual attendee, empowering each attendee to choose the closed captions setting that’s best for them without distracting other attendees who may prefer to have closed captions turned off,” explained Microsoft in the Tech Community post. “When no closed captions are available for a video, the closed captions button will be unavailable for participants to select.”

Turbocharge Your PowerPoint Presentation

With more than 500 million users worldwide, Microsoft PowerPoint seems like the obvious choice for many when it comes to creating business presentations.

However, with so much clicking, formatting, and manual calculations, creating a professional-looking presentation in PowerPoint becomes a time-intensive, cumbersome task. 

For users looking to create a great-looking presentation with stunning charts, using a high-end PowerPoint add-in like think-cell is a sensible decision.

A high-quality add-in fully integrates into Microsoft office 365 and helps users impress the audience while significantly saving them time.

Wrapping Up

Microsoft stated that the Closed Caption feature is “just a beginning.” The company is committed to delivering proactive and pleasant Teams meeting experience to attendees with hearing impairments.

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Business Human Resources Professional Services Services U.S

Keri Laine Executive Solutions Is Making Waves In The Private Equity and Venture Capital Space.

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Orlando FL, April 3rd, 2023: Keri Laine Executive Solutions, a preeminent firm is making significant impacts on private and venture capital firms by helping them maximize profits, realize faster rates of returns, and offer value creation. The firm focuses on the executive team and talent aspects of deals pre, during, and post due-diligence as companies look to raise capital, prepare to go public, or if they are merging or acquiring. 

Keri’s team has deep experience in evaluating leadership capabilities, developing effective leaders, building productive teams, and creating frameworks for success. 

Keri Laine Executive Solutions utilizes a platform that ties the predictability of the executive team’s success to specific metrics driven by action plans. This is a key differentiator for investors to determine how best to leverage their investment dollars with a data-backed decision-making model.

The data-driven process aims to take the subjectivity out of decisions related to talent and people at various stages in a transaction.. This provides more transparency, and predictability for success. It also creates more precise outcomes in the financial modeling of a deal, helping founders, boards, and executive teams frame their value propositions when presenting their business cases to potential investors. 

According to Keri Laine “At a time when the quality and the diligence of a deal is a competitive advantage, our platform, methodology, and applied frameworks provide significant insight and greater confidence in each decision. This sets firms or founders who hire us miles ahead of others. It enables all sides of the event to make faster decisions that are rooted in more objectivity, have higher validity, and allow there to be collective agreement gained during diligence that leverage the talent of an organization at the right time – ahead of time. We accelerate the process, we generate value within the deal outcomes, we are a risk aversion, and we save millions of dollars by avoiding unforeseen potholes or pitfalls of a deal, specifically related to talent”. 

Keri Laine Executive Solutions helps investors, venture capitalists, and private equity firms maximize profits by developing strong leaders, building efficient teams, and creating frameworks for success. They do this by developing and implementing talent strategies for their clients. 

Keri Laine Executive Solutions’ fundamental mission is to assist in accelerating their client’s journey to profitability. 

The founder, Keri Laine, is a former global chief-level executive, a certified executive coach, and a proven business strategist in the entrepreneurial and investor space. She has coached more than 200 top executives and entrepreneurs, helping them disrupt their sectors with innovative success across the globe. She has taken three companies public, and been a part of dozens of mergers and acquisitions worldwide. 

Keri has led organizations through employee growth of 100 to 4,000, both public and private, with revenue stages from $40m to $5.6b. 

For more information about Keri Laine Executive Solutions, you can visit www.kerilaine.com.

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Business Computers & Software Technology U.K U.S

Some Cybersecurity Trends in 2023 that Business Owners Should Be Aware Of

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Cybersecurity is important. I think we can all agree about that. And, it’s forever evolving, because just as we figure out a response to a cyber threat, hackers go and find a new way of attacking.

The latest in cyber threat evolution was using AI to create malware. But, that’s not all there is to it. That’s why maintaining cybersecurity is not a one-time exercise. One needs to work hard to keep up.

And, as with anything that is ongoing, one can expect to see patterns and trends.

So, what are the cybersecurity trends we can expect to see in 2023?

AI and ML For Cybersecurity

As AI and machine learning (ML) become more sophisticated, threat actors are using these technologies to avoid detection.

The preferred method of hackers is not high-tech hacking exercises, as shown in movies. What they do almost 71% of the time is steal valid credentials and then use those to force their way into accounts.

For example, they steal an email address used to register an account on an online platform. Then, they try to brute-force their way into that account using commonly used passwords. 

If they succeed in cracking the password, they’d use that email/password combination on other websites. 

(That’s why you shouldn’t use the same password for different accounts.)

Now, unless they buy a stolen list of email addresses, most hackers use social engineering attacks to get people’s credentials.

With the help of AI, they are creating not just more refined malware but also phishing emails that are more personalised.

So, whilst businesses are using AI to detect cyber attacks, they end up being reactionary rather than proactive. By the time they “teach” AI how to identify a new threat, hackers have moved on to another method.

Fortunately, just as AI can be used to craft better (for lack of a better word) attacks, it can also be used to prevent them.

One of the things AI does better than you or I is speedy analysis. Where we might take us hours or days to go through data and get anything meaningful out of it, AI can do it in minutes.

As a result, its predictive analytics capabilities could be used to infer and predict threats. Once the threats have been identified, it’s easier to mitigate them with fewer resources.

Patching Open Source Code Vulnerabilities

Open source code can be very handy. But, it is also very likely to have vulnerabilities. Synopsys researchers have reported that almost 84% of open source code bases had at least one vulnerability in their Open Source Security and Risk Analysis (OSSRA) report.

The problem with weaknesses in the code is that they can be exploited by threat actors. The way to deal with them is by using penetration testing to find exploitable flaws and patching them.

(You can also make use of cloud penetration testing services from reliable service providers like DigitalXRAID. The company has also launched a first-of-its-kind cybersecurity platform.)

Simple, right?

Unfortunately, the report also found that 91% of the patches weren’t implemented. Maybe the devsecops team didn’t have enough time or resources. 

Maybe they didn’t think the benefits weren’t worth risking the unintended consequences.

Or, maybe they just weren’t aware that there was an updated version of the code available.

Either way, these vulnerabilities exist and can be exploited.

To avoid that, and to potentially keep the open code they’ve used updated, businesses might need to keep a software bill of materials (SBOM). According to the report, this will include any open source code they’ve used, its licenses, versions, and patch statuses.

This practice would be very handy in making sure any open source code used by your business is not putting you at risk.

Training Employees on the Dangers of Phishing Attacks

Sometimes, when something works, there is no real need to change it up. That seems to be the case with phishing.

Phishing is a form of social engineering attack where a legit-looking email is designed to get the victim to click on a link. That, then, redirects them to a page where their info is stolen.

Apparently, hackers most often like to use (or abuse, rather) Microsoft, Amazon, DocuSign, Google, DHL, and Adobe. However, don’t be surprised to see emails from banks in your inbox as well.

Again, the best way to combat this challenge is the old-fashioned “train your employees” method. Human error is inevitable, but training people to identify emails that might be dodgy can help a lot.

As can limiting their access.

So, there you have it. Here are some ways you can keep your business safe from cyber-attacks in 2023.