Expel published a report revealing the most common subject lines used in phishing emails, all of which encourage the reader to take some sort of action. This is problematic, especially for employees who don?t typically tend to think twice before downloading an attachment or clicking on a link. Expel looked at 10,000 known malicious emails and put together a list of keywords used in phishing emails. The fact that most of them have a sense of urgency should come as no surprise, as this tactic has been used in phishing attacks since their inception. Plus, this is a tactic also utilized in marketing emails, so hackers can blur the lines a bit and create uncertainty in this way. Ben Brigida, Director and SOC of Operations at Expel, had this to say regarding the matter: “Attackers are trying to trick people into giving them their credentials. The best way to do this is to make the email look legitimate, prompt one clear action and lace it with emotion – urgency or fear of loss are the most common? The actions are as simple as ‘go to this site’ or ‘open this file,’ but the attacker wants you to be moving too fast to stop and question if it’s legitimate.? Basically, the simpler and more direct the phishing email is, the easier time a hacker has in pulling it off. This idea is reflected in the keywords. You might notice that not only are they simple, but they also mimic emails sent from legitimate businesses. Here are three of the most common ones: RE: INVOICE Missing Inv ####; From [Legitimate Business Name] INV#### These subject lines tap into the fear that one might have of missing a payment, something which can be problematic for a small business that relies on goods or services to stay operational. Rather than take a step back and question these messages, users will simply make the payment. Plus, when you consider the sheer amount of invoices or messages sent out by automatic systems, this type of language is not necessarily a red flag. Some other common phishing subject lines might include the words ?required,? ?verification required,? file sharing, action requirements, or service requests. The tags that sometimes get assigned to emails in inboxes also don?t help, as employees might see the word ?new? next to a message and impulsively click on it. If you want to take your network security seriously and stop phishing emails in their tracks, White Mountain IT Services can help. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

The Latest Is the Greatest Some folks have a mindset that the latest version of a particular piece of technology will be the greatest thing since sliced bread, and while it?s true that software and hardware have come a long way in the past decade or so, the idea of ?new = better? is not necessarily the most accurate. There are many businesses that cling to old technology simply due to the fact that the new technology is not as compatible with their legacy applications to the extent they need it to. This is not really an excuse, but just one example of why the latest might not be ideal for some companies. This does not mean they are out of options, though. Modern technology does offer certain outs, but you will need to ask yourself whether or not the technology addresses your organization?s specific needs and if the implementation is worth it. My Staff Know How to Use Technology Employers often believe that the people they hire to fulfill a certain task will be able to adapt to the use of technology in the blink of an eye. All it takes is a short tutorial and they?re on their way to making you money, right? Wrong. Some people have enough intuition to pick up technology like this, but it?s dangerous to assume too much, especially for productivity. Many employers are under the impression that young people, too, have greater technology skills than their older contemporaries, but again, this is not the reality. You should provide adequate training to all employees who are using technology for your business so that everyone has minimum baseline knowledge of what they are doing. It Can?t Happen to Me This is perhaps one of the most fatal unrealistic expectations to have. You see the stories in the news all the time with headlines detailing hacking attacks and other issues that threaten operational continuity. SMBs often have a mindset that these types of problems are so large-scale that they can?t possibly be targets, but they are wrong. All businesses must be prepared to handle a hacking attack, no matter their number of employees or clients serviced. Don?t let your unrealistic expectations for your technology sink your chances of being productive with it. To learn more about how you can achieve great things through the use of business technology, subscribe to White Mountain IT Services?s blog.

What Leads to Burnout? There are a lot of different factors that can contribute to your team members experiencing burnout: Too Much Work It shouldn?t be any surprise that having too much on their plate will wear your team members down? especially if this situation is the standard in the office. Overwork not only diminishes how effective your team can be, it can have significant impacts on their health and wellness. How significant? Well, according to the World Health Organization, long working hours contributed to 745,000 deaths in 2016 through a variety of factors. Clearly, overwork is a significant issue, so if you can identify that it is affecting your team, you need to do what you can to rectify that. Lack of Workplace Recognition In addition to paying employees what they are worth to your company through their contributions as a form of recognition, they will also want to see that recognition come more directly from both management and their peers. Otherwise, there?s little to motivate them to accomplish all they can. Lack of Control People like to have some level of self-determination at work, so if that?s missing in the work environment they can quickly lose their motivation. Micromanaging and overly restrictive scheduling for the sake of oversight can help to fan the flames of burnout. How would you feel if someone was constantly hovering over your shoulder and judging every move you make? Put your employees in the same shoes, and it isn?t hard to imagine that they may not be all that motivated as a result, Unfair Treatment At this point, it should be clear that the workplace environment itself is a major contributor to burnout, more than the work itself usually is. If there are inherent discrepancies in how different employees are treated?even if they are only perceived?problems will come about. Of course, other forms of bias and discrimination is even worse, and needs to be rooted out as well. Poor Workplace Relationships Let?s look at things from your perspective again: how motivated would you be to spend hours of your day with people you hardly know (or worse, don?t particularly care for), having to work with them to accomplish a common goal? Your employees will feel the same way. After a while, this kind of environment will sap their motivation to do anything over the bare minimum. What Can You Do to Minimize the Frequency of Burnout? Now that we?ve identified some of the causes of burnout in your employees, let?s go over a few ways you can help them bounce back. Know the Signs The first thing you need to know to help minimize the burnout your team experiences is that your team members are burnt out in the first place. Are your employees having issues concentrating? Acting irritable with their coworkers? Complaining about aches and pains, or not sleeping well? Are they less likely to feel proud of what they?ve accomplished? If so, they?re likely suffering from some level of burnout, making your ability to spot these signs as they persist absolutely crucial. Identify Where It Comes From So, let?s assume you?ve spotted some of the warning signs in one of your team members. The next step to resolving burnout is to figure out where the stress that is contributing to their […]

TangleBot is a malware that allows hackers to gain full control over the infected device, allowing them to steal personal information and other important credentials. Once the malware is installed on the infected device, attackers gain several permissions, including the ability to spy on communications with the device as well as use of applications like the camera, the device?s location, listening in through the microphone, and more. Suffice to say that this malware is capable of doing a lot of harm, especially since it has permissions to do so much. It can essentially monitor and record just about all user activity, from websites visited to credentials entered to recording video and listening to audio.  This particular brand of malware spreads through text messages and infected links sent to the device. The user is encouraged to click on a link referencing the subject of the SMS message, usually something related to the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccination appointments or local power outages. After the user follows the link, they go through a series of messages allowing the attacker privileges that no applications on your phone should allow. As you might suspect, many of the best practices that keep your users safe can also be used to secure your company from mobile malware. Using a bit of scrutiny when handling suspicious links can go a long way toward keeping your organization as secure as possible, but only if you encourage your staff to always be wary of what they are clicking on, both on the desktop and on the mobile device. These practices are especially important in today?s workplace environment where many organizations have employees who are working remotely either part of the time or full-time, and especially important if the devices are company-owned and used to access sensitive workplace data. There are ways to secure devices that involve whitelisting and blacklisting various apps, including the ability to disable installing applications via links. In general, employees should be advised not to download applications that are not approved? particularly those that allow for insane amounts of permissions. White Mountain IT Services can help train your employees to identify and avoid threats of all kinds. Furthermore, we can equip your company with the tools needed to prevent infections and keep threats to a minimum. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

We?ll walk you through exactly what happens when you deploy data backup in the event of a disaster recovery incident, as well as what you should aim for and how to proceed following the event. What Happens with Disaster Recovery? True to its name, disaster recovery aims to help your organization prepare and respond to events that impact its ability to sustain operations. These events could include natural disasters like floods and electrical storms, hardware failure, and hacking attacks. The goal is to minimize data loss while ensuring operational continuity, no matter the circumstances. Disaster recovery has two primary aspects: data backup and establishing a disaster recovery strategy. Data backups are copies of your data that are stored off-site in a safe location to be later deployed through the use of your disaster recovery solution. The disaster recovery solution itself deploys the data backups to temporary hardware that can keep a minimum level of operations and functionality. If you don?t implement data backup and disaster recovery, such scenarios as those mentioned previously can completely wipe out your organization. What Are Your Goals? You should have clearly defined goals for your data backup and disaster recovery plan. Basically, you need to identify the absolute minimum baseline of data and operational continuity your organization needs to get back in business following a disaster. This asks a lot of difficult questions of you, the business owner, such as what data needs to be a priority, what aspects of your organization?s operations need to be maintained in the event of a disaster, and who is required in order to ensure all of this can be pulled off without a hitch. You should also ensure that you focus on minimal downtime following such an event, as downtime is often associated with hidden costs that you might not budget for otherwise. How Should You Move Forward? By now it should be clear that your organization cannot hope to move forward without a contingency plan for the future. The truth of the matter is that data backup and disaster recovery are but one part of a comprehensive business continuity plan. White Mountain IT Services can help your organization ensure that it is not caught unawares in the event of a disaster scenario or other business-ending situation. Not only can we equip you with the means to take automatic data backups, but we can also ensure that you can restore these backups in a quick and efficient manner. To learn more about our data backup and disaster recovery solutions, reach out to White Mountain IT Services at (603) 889-0800.