Computing Dynamics

Computing Dynamics Computing Dynamics Ltd provides consultancy, project planning, sales, support services, backup and disaster recovery and connectivity services to SMEs.

We currently work with over 200 companies providing essential IT management services.

When was the last time you looked at the browser extensions installed on your computer?I'm guessing the answer is... nev...
05/09/2026

When was the last time you looked at the browser extensions installed on your computer?

I'm guessing the answer is... never 🤷

Once an extension is installed and working, it disappears into the background. You stop thinking about it.

That's why this latest announcement from Microsoft caught my attention šŸ‘€

It has removed 119 malicious extensions from the Edge Add-ons store after discovering they had been downloaded around 2.6 million times.

These were tools people install every day, including ad blockers, PDF tools, VPNs, translators and video downloaders.

On the surface, they appeared perfectly legitimate.

The malicious behaviour didn't start straight away.

In many cases, the extensions waited days before doing anything harmful, so they were much harder to detect.

From there, some were able to steal information stored in the browser, redirect people to malicious websites, or download additional software onto the device.

Cyber attacks are changing 😬

Years ago, we thought about security in terms of downloading the wrong file or opening the wrong email attachment.

Today, attackers are much happier to hide inside software that people already trust.

A browser extension feels harmless because it's designed to make life easier.

It might block adverts, help you edit PDFs or translate web pages, so it doesn't raise suspicion.

Now, most browser extensions are perfectly safe and genuinely useful. But they're worth treating like any other software you install.

If you no longer use one, remove it.

If you don't recognise one, find out what it does.

And if an extension asks for permissions that seem excessive, ask why it needs that level of access.

One of the biggest lessons in cyber security is that convenience and trust are closely linked.

The more useful something appears to be, the less likely we are to question it.

That's what attackers are counting on 😱

šŸ’­ How many browser extensions do you think are installed on your computer right now... and could you name them all?

If your employees are finding their own ways of getting things done, you should ask why.Most often, they're working arou...
04/09/2026

If your employees are finding their own ways of getting things done, you should ask why.

Most often, they're working around a process that feels slow or awkward.

But shortcuts can introduce security risks and make it harder to keep control of your business systems…

02/09/2026

About to enter your password? Check this first. It could save you from a fake website…

One of the questions I hear more often is: "Can I trust AI to tell me whether something is a scam?" šŸ¤”Until recently, I'd...
01/09/2026

One of the questions I hear more often is: "Can I trust AI to tell me whether something is a scam?" šŸ¤”

Until recently, I'd have been cautious with that.

AI is brilliant at explaining things, but when it comes to cyber security, being almost right isn't good enough.

That's why I think this latest development is interesting.

Norton has integrated its Genie scam detection tool into both Claude and ChatGPT.

It means people can ask an AI assistant to help assess whether an email, text message, website or online offer looks suspicious šŸ‘€

The AI isn't giving its own opinion, it’s drawing on Norton's scam detection technology, which looks for things like impersonation, pressure tactics, suspicious links, and requests for sensitive information.

It's combining the conversational side of AI with technology that's specifically designed to identify scams šŸ”Ž

But I don't think people should stop thinking for themselves.

If an email claims your bank account is about to be closed or a supplier suddenly wants you to change their payment details, you should still check independently.

Tools like this could become useful as a second opinion though.

Online scams are becoming much harder to spot than they were a few years ago.

Criminals are using AI to write more convincing emails, create more believable websites, and remove the spelling mistakes that used to give them away šŸ¤–

Anything that helps people pause and sense-check what they're looking at must be a positive step.

I can also see this becoming part of everyday working life.

Instead of forwarding a suspicious email to a colleague and asking, "Does this look right to you?", people may increasingly ask an AI assistant first.

It should never replace security awareness or good internal processes.

But it could help you make better decisions before you click a link or reply to a message.

šŸ‘‰ Would you trust an AI assistant to help you decide whether something was a scam, or would you still rather rely on your own judgement?

31/08/2026

It might sound like good news when cyber criminals turn on each other.

But it doesn’t make things safer.

Some are offering to ā€œhelpā€ victims caught in the middle, which sounds tempting until you think about it properly…

One reason modern cyber attacks are becoming so difficult to spot is that many of them no longer rely on breaking into s...
30/08/2026

One reason modern cyber attacks are becoming so difficult to spot is that many of them no longer rely on breaking into systems in the traditional sense 🦹

Instead, attackers are learning how to manipulate normal business processes and get people to unknowingly help them.

Microsoft has warned about a group called Storm-2949 doing exactly that through the password reset process used in Microsoft accounts.

The attack starts with information the criminals have already gathered.

Usually things like a person’s email address and phone number.

They then trigger a password reset request on the victim’s account and, at the same time, place a phone call pretending to be IT support šŸ“ž

The victim receives a genuine Microsoft authentication prompt on their device while the caller calmly explains that they need to approve it to ā€œfixā€ the issue.

That’s what makes this attack convincing.

The notification is real. The system is real.

The attacker is abusing a legitimate process and persuading the person to cooperate.

Once the request is approved, the criminals can reset the password, lock the real user out of the account, and begin accessing company information.

In some reported cases, attackers downloaded huge amounts of data from systems like OneDrive because different employees had access to different folders and shared files šŸ—‚ļø

MFA stands for Multi-Factor Authentication. It’s the extra security step where you approve a login using your phone, an app, or a code.

It’s still one of the best protections available, but attacks like this show that security tools are only effective if people understand what they’re approving.

Cyber security increasingly revolves around trust and human behaviour rather than purely technical weaknesses.

People are naturally inclined to cooperate when someone sounds professional, calm, and helpful on the phone.

Especially if a real security prompt appears at the same time ā€¼ļø

That’s why you need clear internal processes around password resets, account changes, and unexpected authentication requests.

šŸ¤” If you received a real authentication request while speaking to someone claiming to be support, do you think you’d feel confident spotting whether it was genuine or not?

One of the things businesses often underestimate about downtime is how quickly it spreads beyond ā€œthe IT issueā€.A system...
29/08/2026

One of the things businesses often underestimate about downtime is how quickly it spreads beyond ā€œthe IT issueā€.

A system goes offline and, within minutes, people can’t access information 😱

Customers start noticing problems, communication slows down, and normal workarounds suddenly become much more difficult than anyone expected.

New research suggests the financial impact of unplanned downtime is growing at a huge rate, with major organisations collectively losing hundreds of billions every year.

It can mean staff sitting idle because systems aren’t available.

Delays to customer service.

Disrupted operations.

Marketing campaigns pausing unexpectedly.

In some situations, it can mean reputational damage that lasts much longer than the outage itself.

The interesting part of the research wasn’t really the size of the numbers, though.

It was the fact that many businesses still struggle to identify what’s causing the disruption in the first place šŸ˜µā€šŸ’«

In a growing number of cases, security incidents are initially mistaken for ordinary technical faults.

Something seems slow, unstable, or unavailable, so teams treat it as a normal IT problem while an attacker is still actively operating in the background.

That delay can make the eventual impact much worse 😰

At the same time, businesses are becoming more dependent on connected systems, cloud services, and digital workflows than ever before.

When almost every part of the company relies on technology in some way, even relatively short disruptions can create operational problems quickly.

That’s why resilience has become such an important conversation.

Not in the sense of trying to guarantee that nothing will ever go wrong, because that’s unrealistic.

Systems fail, updates cause problems, cyber attacks happen, and unexpected outages will always exist to some degree.

But it is important that you think through what happens next.

Who needs to know first?
How do teams continue operating?
Which systems are critical?
What can still function manually if necessary?

Those conversations are easier to have calmly before a problem happens than during the middle of one.

šŸ‘‰ If a major system outage happened tomorrow morning, would your business have a clear plan for keeping things moving?

28/08/2026

Too many tabs, apps, and distractions? Windows 11 has a simple way to separate your work…

This is one of the clearest signs that AI is becoming part of mainstream business infrastructure…Companies are now payin...
26/08/2026

This is one of the clearest signs that AI is becoming part of mainstream business infrastructure…

Companies are now paying to reserve guaranteed AI capacity in advance.

OpenAI launched an enterprise plan that allows large organisations to lock in long-term access to its computing power šŸ”

Specifically, so their AI systems keep running reliably, even during periods of very high demand.

That might sound quite technical, but the idea behind it is simple.

AI tools like ChatGPT rely on enormous amounts of computing power sitting inside data centres.

Every prompt, response, automation, and AI-driven workflow uses a small piece of that infrastructure.

As more businesses adopt AI, demand for that computing power keeps increasing 😰

The result is that AI availability is starting to matter in the same way internet uptime or cloud reliability matters.

A couple of years ago, most businesses treated AI as something experimental 🧫

People used it occasionally to write content, summarise notes, or brainstorm ideas.

Now some organisations are building AI directly into customer service, reporting, operations, workflows, and internal automation.

In those environments, even short outages become much more significant.

That’s why this announcement feels important to me.

It shows AI is moving towards being treated more like core infrastructure.

Businesses are no longer asking: ā€œCan AI help us?ā€

They’re starting to ask: ā€œWhat happens if our AI systems become unavailable?ā€

What’s also interesting is how much infrastructure sits behind all this.

OpenAI is continuing to build huge new data centre capacity to support growing demand, because the scale of AI usage now is difficult to comprehend.

And demand is still accelerating.

I think this is another reminder that AI adoption is moving much faster than many people expected.

šŸ’¬ Do you think businesses are becoming too dependent on AI, or are we only just scratching the surface of what it’ll eventually become?

25/08/2026

Copilot Wave 3 has landed and it’s a step up from what we’ve seen before.

There’s something new happening in how AI fits into your day-to-day work.

It’s useful.

But it also changes how things get done behind the scenes…

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