Productivity in Software Productivity software isn?t a flashy item. Every business needs certain apps to do business and most businesses need the same apps. There are a lot of options to choose from, and many of the options might seem pretty similar. What?s important is that you get the tools your business needs. Productivity software, which is generally made up of a word processor, a spreadsheet program, a presentation software, note-taking software, and other useful task management tools, isn?t much different from one to another. What is different?and makes a difference?is how the apps are deployed and how they are managed by the developer. It?s fair to say that you get what you pay for, and some productivity apps are just stronger than others. What Should You Look For? When trying to sort out which productivity apps to use, you obviously will want to consult your budget and your needs. As we mentioned above, most word processors are going to do the job you?d expect out of a word processor, but with more innovative solutions, you will get more options that will help your overall productivity. That?s extremely important. Let?s take a look at some variables you should consider: Reliability If your software isn?t reliable, it isn?t worth it, period. Reliability can be measured in several ways. Is it still being developed consistently so you know it isn?t a security risk? Does it have the options you need? Is it easy to use and won?t take a long time to get the hang of? Some apps will promise you benefits that you will never see, but what you can bank on is if the applications cause you a steady stream of problems, you?ve probably made a bad choice. Interoperability If a lot of your team is working remotely on their own computers, you may find that not everyone is going to have the same OS, the same chipset, etc. You will need any productivity app that you choose to work on several different systems. This includes mobile devices. You may think you?re getting a great deal, but if a handful of your workers are working on macOS and the software isn?t compatible with it, you?re going to be kicking yourself. Accessibility As many people continue to work remotely, or in some type of hybrid work system, having apps that work from anywhere is extremely important. Today, a lot of options are available as Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings to help businesses avoid the expense of setting up their own cloud server or remote access tools. Either way, you need to be able to get your remote workers the tools they need to be productive. Collaboration Features Speaking of productivity, a lot of businesses are asking their people to do more. We are in unprecedented times and business decisions have to be made down to the dollar. When the productivity software your business uses has collaboration features built-in, it can make a world of difference. Workers can work in the same file, share files, and consistently stay up to date on workflows. A lot of the productivity suites available will also come with some form of project management software. This is a good way to oversee your team?s progress on a project and work right alongside them in real-time. If […]
What Are Deepfakes? Deepfakes are manipulated images or videos that have been altered to revise the truth with the assistance of artificial intelligence. The Internet is full of lighthearted examples, where a comedian?s face is changed during an interview to be replaced with the celebrity who they are impersonating, or different actors are cast in classic movies. Mobile applications that allow you to create a rough lip-synch video from a still image are growing in popularity. Of course, there are much more convincing examples of deepfake technology that we can point to. For instance: This Person Does Not Exist. This website pulls the results of a generative adversarial network trying to create the most convincing face it can possibly generate. Each time that page is refreshed, a new face pops up that looks just like a real person?despite no such person actually existing. While these applications are quite entertaining, they undermine the real risks that deepfakes pose to security. Explicit deepfakes are already being generated that depict people in assorted adult situations without their consent to be used in blackmailing schemes. Deepfakes have also been spread to manipulate political impressions and sway the tides of some elections. Unfortunately, there is an additional threat that these doctored images are now being used to support: geographic deepfakes. What is a Geographic Deepfake? Instead of manipulating someone?s face or the words they say, geographic deepfakes alter satellite imagery to manipulate our impression of the landscape and what is present. With deepfake technology as a whole improving all the time, geographic deepfakes could create some serious problems for businesses and governments alike. How a Geographic Deepfake Could be Abused Let?s run through a potential scenario for a moment, just to illustrate how serious this threat is: A platoon of soldiers are out in the field, advancing on a target. All they need to do is reach a bridge that will take them to their objective. Satellite imaging shows a clear path to the bridge, but once the platoon reaches it, they actually find themselves face-to-face with the enemy, who has taken the bridge and created an ambush for them to walk right into?or perhaps they find no enemy troops, but also no bridge for them to cross? ruining their plan, and possibly many others that were contingent upon it. This latter possibility was actually proposed in 2019 by a National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency analyst named Todd Myers, as it draws from a tactic as old as cartography itself. Maps Have Always Been Manipulated History is full of times where maps have played a key role in disinformation campaigns and propaganda alike, in addition to providing a form of copyright protection for cartographers. By changing some details of a map?occasionally making up features and towns that didn?t actually exist there?a mapmaker could easily identify if their work had been copied. Geographic deepfakes could simply add an additional level of complexity to such efforts, as the University of Washington recently explored in an academic study. In this study, the researchers abbreviate the very long history of map manipulation and embellishment, starting from the Babylonian 5th century B.C. but focusing much more closely on the modern applications. Things like location spoofing and how they?re weaponized were covered, with practical examples provided by the researchers that they generated as […]
Remote Monitoring and Maintenance (RMM)? In managed services, there is a rule. If you can do something remotely, you should. This is exactly the opportunity that the RMM capabilities provide us. We are able to remotely monitor and manage all aspects of a business? IT infrastructure and network. How does this benefit them? It?s simple. With the RMM, we can detect inconsistencies in the components of the hardware and software on the network. For most of the issues, we can use the RMM to fix them so any issue we detect doesn’t have the chance to become an operational problem. Let?s go through some of the benefits that come with using RMM to manage your business? IT infrastructure. RMM is Proactive The idea of being proactive in any regard is to mitigate the risks that could interfere with progress down the line. In the case of using an RMM for managed services, we look to fix all the issues on your network, and you would be surprised how many there can be, before they can kill productivity. Getting out in front of any issue is the key to keeping it from negatively affecting your business. Minimized Downtime The dreaded downtime is one of the worst things for a business. Depending on how bad a downtime event gets, your business could be dealing with a lot of lost revenue and a halt to productivity. With our remote monitoring and management service we can ensure that if a problem can be handled before it causes downtime, it will be. Improved Security RMM can help keep your business out of the line of fire of many problematic threats. One of the primary reasons that cyberattacks can get to be so severe is that they have time to fester and deploy payloads if they are not detected in time. Streamlined Cost of Ownership Technology is expensive, and that is kind of an overstatement. If you can avoid having to buy new hardware with constant proactive maintenance in place, you will get more out of your existing technology. If you can control hardware and other technology costs, you will, and with RMM it is a good way to do so. If you would like to talk to one of our consultants about getting a RMM service in place at your business and be able to proactively keep your technology running smoothly now and in the future, give us a call today at (603) 889-0800.
A Good Data Backup Means More Than One Copy Let me put it this way: how useful is a backup that was also destroyed in some disaster, along with the original copy of your data? In short? it isn?t. There is a non-zero chance that something could make your backups unavailable to you, so you need to have a backup backup plan, stored someplace separate from your other backup or the original data. A Good Backup Means Keeping Your Backups Safe If you?re around any of us at White Mountain IT Services for any length of time, you?ll see how seriously we take data security around here. Failing to properly secure your backups is a rookie mistake to make, as it contains exactly the same data that your default data storage does. Therefore, it is crucial that you make sure these copies are just as securely protected. A Good Data Backup Contains More Than One Version While cybercriminals have taken to showing their hand earlier and earlier, this isn?t always how they operate. Sometimes, they prefer to work in the background, corrupting your data?and any backups taken of it?for some time. Therefore, it is wise to keep a few copies of your data going back a ways. That way, should you need to restore your data, you are more likely to have a copy from before the infiltration occurred. Maintaining a Backup Takes Strategy. Let Us Help. Establishing a good data backup and implementing the processes to make it seamless will take a fair amount of time. While this would not be time wasted by any stretch, it can be hard to reconcile that with the opportunities you could miss as a result. White Mountain IT Services is the best option for the business that needs assistance with their IT in New Hampshire. Hand off the responsibility of taking care of your backup to us. Focus your energies on growing your business? we?ll make sure it?ll still be there and ready. Call us at (603) 889-0800 today.
Damage Control Your first step needs to be getting a handle on the situation at hand. While hacking on any scale is a bad thing to experience, cutting it off as quickly as possible will serve you well. Here are a few steps that you need to take in order to do so: Contact Your IT Provider IMMEDIATELY If your IT provider is anything like us, they are more than likely aware of something happening on your network if they are monitoring it closely. That said, you?ll want to notify them immediately if you are suspicious of malevolent activity. Depending on what the issue is, IT will take specific actions to remove the threat, mitigate the damage, and then harden your network to prevent it from happening. Threats can sometimes be removed easily, or it could take a lot of hunting to chase down the cause of the problem if it isn?t being done proactively. Here?s an example of a nightmare recovery scenario. IT may decide it?s best to take the nuclear option and wipe all affected devices completely before restoring them from a data backup. Doing so should remove the chance that a lingering threat could continue causing problems. We strongly recommend that you reach out to us for assistance with this, as we?ve seen plenty of cases where the business goes through an intense amount of labor only to experience the same hack after everything is back online. It has to be done carefully, and it has to be done correctly, and even then, the risks are still there. Once that?s been accomplished, you need to be sure that all of your cybersecurity protections are fully updated and that you are as secure as possible. Check your firewalls, antivirus, spam protection, everything. Seek Out Assistance Many small businesses fully place their IT issues (or more accurately, dealing with them) on their staff members. Obviously, this isn?t a good situation. For a business? purposes, it is much better to have a professional, dedicated resource to answer any questions your team has. A solid and reliable expert, like the ones that we employ here at White Mountain IT Services, can be key to making it through these kinds of situations in the best position possible. Be Prepared to Inform Clients and Prospects Finally, we come to the last (but by no means least) part of making it through a cybersecurity incident: disclosing it. Of all of your interactions with your clientele or staff, this is the time when clarity and concision is most crucial. Bring everyone up to speed on the situation, what the possible ramifications are, and what needs to be done next to minimize the damage the event ultimately causes. The hard truth of the matter is that you will ultimately lose some people when this happens. Of course you will. While the data practices of some people in their personal lives are questionable at best, the onus is still on you if they?ve entrusted you with the same data? and they?re not wrong. This means that you are accountable, and therefore need to be open and forthcoming with anyone involved. Every state and most industries have their own rules and requirements for data privacy, so you?ll want to understand exactly how you need to handle the communication involved with a […]
