Why is a Clean Computer Better? Think of it this way. If you have one pan and you use it to cook regularly, you?d wash it every time you cooked a new meal, right? If you didn?t it would pick up stuff from everything you?ve cooked and it would make the food you cook next taste weird. Cleaning your computer works the same way. The more you use it without cleaning it, the more dust and residue builds up in the machine and it affects the way the computer works. How Often Should I Clean My Workstation? Unlike a pan, you can get away with not cleaning your computer for a while. You should definitely clean it at least once a year, but it?s really a good idea to open it up and at least blow it out with some canned air every quarter (four times a year) or so. It also matters where the computer is located. For computers that are in an industrial environment, in the presence of pets, near or on carpet, or used regularly by children (or unhygienic adults) should be cleaned more often. Either way, you should plan on giving it a good cleaning at least once a year. We recommend having a professional do this for you – if your office workstations are starting to look pretty dirty, it might be a good idea to give us a call at (603) 889-0800. Cleaning Your Computer?s Components You will need to approach cleaning each part of your workstation differently. Let?s start with some things that you absolutely shouldn?t do:  Do not spray any liquid directly into the computer. Spray a cloth and wipe instead. Do not use a vacuum, as it can create a damaging static charge. Use compressed air to blow away any debris. Don?t allow fans to spin freely as you are cleaning them, as it could actually damage them. Don?t clean your computer while it?s turned on. Now, let?s go through how to clean the various parts of your workstation. Your Workstation?s Case Keeping your workstation?s case clean assists airflow. You will want to use a lint-free cloth to wipe down the exterior to help minimize dust on the outside. Working to the inside, you will want to use a can of compressed air to clean out any dust and debris.  The Peripherals Keeping the rest of your workspace clean is important, even your keyboard, your mouse, and your monitors. You will want to use lint-free cloths and compressed air. If you must, you can use diluted rubbing alcohol to wipe down hard surfaces. At White Mountain IT Services, we continue to provide the information that users need to properly use and look after their technology, call us at (603) 889-0800 today if you have any questions or comments.

An Army of Remote Workers Remote work was always a polarizing topic. Business owners and managers didn?t like it, even though there had been no consensus on how effective the strategy was. Some businesses have been using remote workers from the day they set out their shingle, while others tried it and felt like it took away a lot of operational control that they felt they needed. Many other businesses looked at these case studies and without roundly positive results, they chose not to allow it.  Then a worldwide health crisis hit.  The immediate reaction to the COVID-19 outbreak was to hold the line. Business owners, many of which have been running businesses for decades, shrugged off initial reports. It wasn?t until federal and state governments started imposing shelter-in-place orders that they let their staff work from home. Since circumstances dictated their decision to allow remote workers, there was very little time to plan, which resulted in many organizations dealing with inefficiencies, security issues, and more.  Not-so-surprisingly, workers also struggled at first. With no time to plan, and no way to know how difficult living in the same place that you work would be, many workers who suddenly got their wish to work remotely, couldn?t maintain the focus and productivity levels needed to do their jobs well. Workers? lack of ability to adapt was the major driving force in the sudden drop in  productivity when businesses went remote. After a while many business owners were asking themselves if moving their workforce offsite was cost-effective compared with shutting the business down. For months, many businesses couldn?t sustain themselves and closed their doors. Many of them wouldn?t re-open. Remote Workers Get Busy As months passed, things started to normalize a bit and productivity began to increase once again. Many of the same workers that had problems adjusting, settled in, while businesses were able to fill in the gaps in their IT that allowed their staff to be more productive. Workers responded well and productivity grew for several months.  Of course, a lot of this was a result of the new technology. Communication and collaboration tools boosted workers? ability to be productive. Productivity grew by 25 percent in organizations that prioritize connectivity between employees.  All that had been said about remote workers not being as productive was proven false…for a while. The Winter Unfortunately, the pandemic stretched into the winter months and while productivity generally does take a tick south in the Winter, the Winter of 2020-21 was noteworthy for its drop in productivity. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, productivity dropped a total of 4.8 percent in the 4Q of 2020. So you have to ask, why did this drop in productivity, the most significant drop in 40 years, happen? Here are the most cited reasons: Stress – The pandemic has had a significant effect on public stress. How quantifiable is it? In the past year, America has dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic, racial protests, a contentious election, a riot in the Capitol, and a stumbling vaccine rollout (just to hit the big points) and mental health professionals are suggesting that the people of the U.S. are experiencing collective trauma. People simply don?t have the capacity to continue to be stressed at levels we are now seeing and it […]

What is Phishing? Phishing goes beyond just your email. The term actually covers any digital attempt that someone makes to trick you into revealing important information about your business or personal accounts. A scammer would try to fool you into handing over a particular detail about yourself, like the password you use for your online banking, or your business? client and personnel files. Of course, this kind of fraudster doesn?t have to use email as their preferred phishing tool, but many of them do. With social media becoming such a big part of business and personal life, phishers will pose as people you know and message you to try and extract information. Others will just pick up the phone and call you as someone else, hoping you won?t question them and hand over the information they want. These different methods that a scammer might use can even classify the attempt into a more precise type of phishing. Attacks that are highly customized to one particular target are called spear phishing attacks, and there are all types of different phishing attacks, typically identifying the type of medium used to phish a target.  Regardless of what kind of phishing it is, it ultimately relies on deception to work, more than any other factor. Catching a Phishing Attack Fortunately, while some phishing scams are getting to be pretty elaborate, there are a few practices that can help prevent you from being fooled. Here, we?ve put them together to give you a simple guide to avoiding potential phishing attacks. There are plenty of warning signs to help you spot a phishing attack. Some are found in the body of the email itself, while others are actually based a little bit on behaviors. For instance: Is the message filled with spelling and grammar issues? Think about it this way: does it look good for a business to send out official correspondence with these kinds of avoidable errors? Mind you, we aren?t referring to the occasional typo, rather the tone of the message as a whole. It certainly does not, which suggests that the message may not be legitimate. Is the message written to make you panic about something? Consider how many phishing messages are framed as something you immediately have to handle or there will be dire consequences. While there are a variety of ways that people can be convinced, these types of messages hit on some major ones:  Striking quickly to keep people from questioning you. Removing power from someone who wouldn?t listen to you. Using very definitive and final terms.  There are more, but a phishing message will aim to make you anxious. Does the message do these things? Does it suddenly alert you to a terrible issue that only the sender can protect you from? If so, there is a good chance that it is a scam. Is the message a typical occurrence in general?  Finally, think about the average case when a message like this is received. If you were to suddenly get a message on social media from someone who you really don?t talk to, it?d be a little weird, right? The same goes for your business communications. Getting messages from unknown or random people is always a red flag. Protecting Your Assets Fortunately, there are a few simple ways […]

Cybercrime doesn?t require the skill of a computer programmer, any more than mugging somebody on the street requires the skill of a James Bond villain. It just takes a level of dedication and a huge lack of compassion.  It?s So Easy to Have Everything Taken Away From You Let?s keep the comparison of cybercriminals with street muggers in mind. That?s really what these people are. When my friend (we?ll call him Bob for the sake of this blog post) watched his online accounts systematically get broken into, he wasn?t dealing with a highly-skilled, Hollywood-portrayed hacker. He was likely dealing with a kid who found an easy way to take advantage of others. Here?s the story: Bob received a weird message from a stranger. That message had screenshots of a few of his online accounts?his Amazon account, Netflix, and a few others. This stranger was proving that he had access to Bob?s accounts. A few minutes later, the stranger started to show text messages that were intended for Bob. He logged into Bob?s Facebook account and started messaging Bob?s friends and family.  Bob?s phone wasn?t acting strangely. There was no evidence that it had been hijacked. His computer at home wasn?t showing any signs of malicious activity. Everything worked as normal. This stranger was going through all of Bob?s online accounts and changing passwords, taking over, and locking Bob out. It wasn?t long before he found his way into Bob?s Paypal account. How could this happen? There are actually several possible ways: If you use the same passwords on multiple accounts, it?s easy for a cybercriminal to sift through sites and businesses that were breached and try your username and password on other services. Stolen information is often displayed and sold on the Dark Web, and for a few dollars, anyone can grab loads of personal, sensitive information like this. Another way could be SIM Swapping, which is a term for when a criminal tricks a cell phone carrier to forward your calls and text messages to their own device. It only takes a confident criminal and a misguided support person at your carrier. In this case, however, the criminal didn?t even go that far. They used a legitimate service called Sakari, which is a text messaging marketing service that lets businesses perform mass communication to their customers or subscribers via text.  Anyone can create an account with Sakari, and for a few dollars, seize another person?s phone number. The victim doesn?t lose access to their smartphone. They still get calls and texts. The criminal, however, gets to see everything going on. Since many online accounts will text you if you try to get in without a password, the so-called hacker could intercept these messages and take the steps to gain control over your identity. Once they are in your text messages, they can quickly escalate into your email, and then control everything. We?re likely going to see companies like Sakari increase their security to prevent this from becoming a widespread problem, but it just goes to show you that hackers can be resourceful without actually needing a lot of skill?just dedication to do wrong. To protect yourself from this type of attack, be sure to use strong passwords and never use the same password on multiple accounts. Utilize 2FA that […]

Focus Mode Any interface that has the user interface and the number of features that Microsoft Word has can easily distract people. To combat this inevitability, Microsoft has integrated a Focus Mode into Word.  When activating Focus Mode, the user will then get a version of their user interface that removes the feature bars at the top of the screen. This allows the user to focus on the document without all the ?noise? that is there by default. To enact Focus Mode, go to the View menu tab, go to the Immersive section and click on Focus. Your interface will disappear leaving only the document you’re working on. When in Focus Mode, you can also change the background of your document workspace to a color that better suits your needs. To exit out of Focus Mode, simply hover your cursor near the top of the screen to call the interface back up. Selecting Focus again will return your display to normal. Immersive Reader Another cool feature is called the Immersive Reader. This button appears next to the Focus button and allows the reader to more easily read a document. It temporarily changes the text size and formatting to suit the needs of the reader. It is customizable for each user, as well, so everyone can have the experience they need when using Word.  Immersive Reader also provides a Read Aloud functionality which provides users with a bunch of options to customize the voice and speed in which Word will read back the text inside a document.  Inserting an Online Video Word files are more versatile than ever. Now they can include multimedia from YouTube or Vimeo. Word provides an easy-to-use interface in which to embed a streaming video. Inside the Insert menu, you?ll find Online Video. Clicking this will enable you to paste in a link to insert the video clip into your document. Of course, any video you choose can be moved around and resized as you see fit and can be played within the document itself. There are dozens more useful Word features available to users today. For more great tips, tricks, and an inside look at Microsoft Office, come back and visit our blog regularly.