Technology Advisor Blog

 📩 Most employees have seen it. 

That little button in Outlook:
👉 “Report Phishing”
👉 “Report Junk”

During a recent Cybersecurity Town Hall with one of our clients in Boston, someone in the room asked about this button - The question most people haven't asked:

What actually happens when someone clicks it?
And more importantly - is anyone paying attention?

This is worth exploring.

Every year, the IRS releases its list of the “Dirty Dozen” - the most common tax scams they’re seeing across the country.

And every year, we have the same conversation with clients:

“I got an email that looked official… I just wanted to double-check before I clicked anything.”

This year’s list for 2026 is a reminder of something we’re seeing more and more - scammers aren’t just targeting individuals anymore. They’re going after small businesses, nonprofits, and busy teams who don’t have time to second-guess every message.

Let’s break down what matters most - and what to watch for.

The IRS “Dirty Dozen” tax scams for 2026 highlight the most common ways scammers target taxpayers and small businesses - from phishing emails and fake charities to misleading tax credits and identity theft. Understanding these scams can help you avoid costly mistakes, protect sensitive information, and reduce your risk during tax season. 

Is love in the air…or is it a romance scam? Whatever situation you find yourself in, if 2026 is the year for you to find love this Valentines Day, it’s generally good practice to know the person you are talking to. What I mean by that is ensuring the person of interest you met through a website or dating app is a legitimate person that’s actions and words add up. Romance scams are currently one of the highest scam methods in America. When using social media or the internet in general, it’s essential to have security and knowledge equipped to protect yourself, your time, your heart, and your personal information. At Ekaru, we provide users with educational cybersecurity awareness training, not to frighten you but to inform you to make thoughtful decisions. To react proactively when situations arise, the best form of defense is not always security tools, its knowledge.

Most of us barely notice CAPTCHA checks anymore.

You know the ones - the little box that says “I am not a robot”, or the quick image puzzle before you can move on. The little puzzle may ask you to select the images that contain traffic lights, bicycles, or crosswalks.  We see them so often that clicking through has become second nature. In fact, many people associate CAPTCHAs with extra security, not risk.

Coordinating a Wishlist for the holidays with your friends, family and loved ones can be challenging. Especially when no two people are the same. In a lot of cases, whether you utilize your time management right during the season or not, (it’s completely understandable if you don’t, it’s a stressful time in the work-life balance realm), sometimes the best gift, when you don’t know what to get, is a gift card.

As we enter Halloween, the larger national holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas are closing in. It’s a stressful time of year, causing a lot of folks to not act rationally how they usually would. Scammers are aware of this more than ever and will do whatever it takes for you to fall into their trap. How do they try to get you? Sometimes it’s not as obvious, sometimes its overlooking how a website HTTP link is typed out incorrectly. The term for this type of social engineering scam is called Typo squatting.

When keeping business operations alive, security is essential. Security isn’t just strong passwords of 16 or more characters across multiple different websites/accounts, or MFA, it’s a deeper-rooted step to take with your networks to prevent most cybersecurity threats.
From a 2021 Verizon study, “61% of small to mid-size businesses experienced a cyberattack in 2021”. In 2023 73% of small businesses faced cyber-attacks. In 2024, 94% of small to medium sized businesses faced a cybersecurity attack. The number keeps increasing each year with small businesses affected. Something must be done to protect businesses from such cyber attacks.

The mindset has probably come up multiple times in conversation; “I’m a small business, I’m too small to be known for hackers to try and target me”. It’s not exactly if it happens, it all matters as to when. Don’t wait until that ‘when’ turns into ‘today’ when you receive a socially engineered scam that looks legit. Scams are becoming harder to identify, when you are not investing in proper cybersecurity measures, the wrong people will notice you do not have the tools or budget.

Are you someone that does not want any trace of work on your phone with the intent of separate work from home? Well, you’re not alone.
It’s understandable that you would want to have a personal device that has no affiliation to work or receive any work-related phone calls. However, with threat actors ruthlessly and creatively generating scams for folks to fall victim to, it’s important to understand the benefits of using multi factor authentication across multiple devices.

October is here, and threat actors are ramping up their attacks to the point where its… spooky.
While Halloween is coming up, Thanksgiving and Christmas are also on the horizon, it’s more evident than ever we must remain hypervigilant and not fall for these intricate phishing attempts.

In September, many folks and including some of us in the office, experienced a rise in spam (Vishing) phone calls. You may be wondering ‘Where are all these unknown numbers coming from?” If you’re like me, when you notice an unknown caller ID notify your phone, you never pick up. However, not everyone is like that. However, the Ekaru team is here to teach you all about cold calling scams, how to identify them, reasons why they are potentially occurring, and the steps/services we provide to help protect yourself and others from falling into their trap.

When businesses become further established and credible within their community, the conversations of increasing security measures, budgeting, and overall work morale begin to initiate for further discussion. Understandably, maintaining a growing business can be challenging and shifting your priorities, sometimes causing the complacent “My business won’t get hacked, I’m safe it won’t happen to me.” This type of thinking can backfire especially if you’re not paying close enough attention - there is no "Security by Obscurity"!  At the end of the day, we have all been there and sometimes had to pay for the consequences.
Since there are so many aspects to a business that can pull you in several directions at once it’s hard to pinpoint where to begin conversations on cybersecurity needs. That’s where Ekaru comes in to provide you with the best IT solutions in the Boston Massachusetts area. To make informed decisions about your cybersecurity needs aligned within your budget.