Recent Blog Posts
To begin, it?s important to acknowledge how severe and prevalent cyberattacks can be. How Common are Cyberattacks? Based on the data returned by this survey, just over half of surveyed respondents saw an increase in cyberattacks, 53 percent confirming that there was an increase in attacks throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. 84 percent of these respondents have seen a significant cybersecurity incident sometime in the past two years. These attacks broke down as follows: Email compromise attacks (42 percent) Data breaches (39 percent) Mobile malware (37 percent) DDoS attacks (36 percent) Phishing (33 percent) Ransomware (31 percent) Compliance and regulation violations (28 percent) Costs Associated with These Cyberattacks Of course, these various attacks can result in an equal variety of consequences and costs to the businesses impacted by them. For instance? 40 percent of surveyed businesses stated that the cost of the time spent by IT to resolve the impacts of security incidents was the largest expense that these incidents caused. 36 percent cited lost productivity as their primary cost. 35 percent blamed system and application disruption. 32 percent prioritized the disruption that their business processes experienced. 28 percent were most concerned about breaches of confidential data (with 19 percent concerned about disclosing these breaches). 18 percent stressed about their employees being prosecuted or terminated. It also should be said that security leaders and professionals alike have reported their jobs becoming more challenging, 49 percent reporting in the affirmative. Furthermore, they specifically cited a shifting landscape in terms of threats (48 percent), transitioning a business? workload into the cloud and the challenges that this process brings about (32 percent), and workplace hiring (28 percent). Furthermore, the rushed adoption that the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged of cloud-based solutions has led to a few shortcomings and challenges related to cloud usage. Therefore, Businesses Need to Ensure their Cloud Solutions Are Properly Secured With more threats leveraged against businesses via cloud solutions, it is all the more important that these solutions are properly secured. White Mountain IT Services can help your business accomplish this. To find out how our team can assist you in terms of your security, give us a call at (603) 889-0800.
A Necessary Shift For years, workers had been chomping at the bit to be allowed to work remotely. Some companies made it work for them, while others attempted it only to realize that it was too difficult or in some cases costly to permanently utilize the strategy. The lion?s share of companies axed the idea from the get go. This all changed when jobs that could be done remotely were moved offsite due to health concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies that for years had been denying their workforce the ability to work from home, now needed people to. Obviously, some businesses weren?t set up for this. Others, that had invested in cloud-hosted tools as a way to control capital costs, were miles ahead. Most businesses needed to make adjustments, as did most workers. Regardless of how management viewed the work-from-home model, the sustainability of many businesses was at stake, and as a result, it was clear how the situation had to be approached. Business owners and managers needed remote workers to keep their businesses running. Workers From Home For many workers there was some excitement when they were forced to work from home. Over time, however, some workers have shown fatigue. Others have prospered. Workers with children who were also home for much of the time due to the same health concerns, found it to be both a benefit and a curse. As regulations start to ease some workers, who have thrived during this period, are afraid that the good work they put in during the pandemic won?t be rewarded as their management teams bring people back to the workplace. Others just want to get out of their houses and are looking forward to the personal interaction they typically have at work. There are a lot of different situations and a lot of different perspectives. Ultimately, given the flexibility that remote work provides, a lot of workers simply don?t want to go back to how it was before. The studies that have been conducted over the past several months make this clear. In fact, one survey found that 87 percent of workers that worked remotely over the past year would like the ability to continue to do so in some fashion after the risks subside. The Compromise With the lack of concert expectations from management and the workforce, the workforce of the future will likely adopt some type of hybrid model. What this means is that workers will be asked to be in the office on certain days and be able to continue to work from home on the others. This is not just because workers want to work from home. It is also because people are going to be worried about going back to work with the COVID-19 pandemic still an issue, even if they are vaccinated. It?s just an uncomfortable situation, especially as tens of millions of people outright refuse to get the vaccine. The hybrid model still needs to be hashed out for a lot of businesses, including who would work from where when. Do you need to schedule specific days for people to be in the office, or would it be more about who needs to collaborate or use internal resources that are more secure and more readily available from the confines of the office? […]
How Distractions Impede Productivity Did you know that the average worker in the United States gets distracted from their work every 11 minutes? When this happens, it also takes them 25 minutes to refocus on their tasks. This all adds up in the long term, and it can even bleed into the quality of work that does get done. More complicated tasks naturally take even more time to refocus. Workplaces naturally want to get as much productivity out of their employees as they can reasonably expect, so this turnaround is not particularly great. Therefore, it is in the employer?s best interests to minimize distractions in the workplace. The first step is admitting that distractions are a problem; only after this has happened can you begin to take the next steps toward resolving the problem. There are two different types of distractions: external and internal. Identifying Internal and External Distractions Most distractions are bad and counterproductive, but it?s worth understanding the difference between external and internal distractions, as well as how they can influence productivity. First, let?s define external distractions. These are all over the place in the business environment in the form of emails, phone calls, instant messages, pop-up meetings, etc. These external distractions can all happen when we least expect them, forcing the user to shift focus and away from the task at hand. While external distractions come from external issues, internal distractions are those that the user creates from within themselves, such as mental blocks, an inability to prioritize tasks or weigh options appropriately. It?s like looking at a restaurant menu; too many choices makes the decision difficult, whereas fewer choices expedites the decision-making process. Some workplaces build-out schedules for employees, so this is not necessarily a perfect comparison, but it is a fair concern to have. In this case, the internal distractions that come from an inability to prioritize tasks are not their fault. If everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority. Employees will be forced to make their own tough calls in these situations, and their thought processes regarding these tough calls might lead to doing tasks out of order or in an inefficient way. Internal distractions can also manifest themselves in the form of wandering thoughts or planning for future tasks rather than focusing on the current one. When internal and external distractions are combined, even the most dedicated employee might have trouble focusing on their work. It is possible to overcome these distractions, though; it just takes some hard work and best practices. How to Minimize Distractions Eliminate Options If we look at the above scenario with the menu, the problem of having too many options can be mitigated by removing some of them. Eliminating options means that less time is spent on decisions and, therefore, fewer distractions get in the way of making up your mind. One way you can eliminate options is by simply cleaning up your area and eliminating distractions. If you spend a little time doing this, you might be surprised by how much time it actually saves. Set Limits A clear goal in mind can help you stay focused on it, but identifying the specific endpoint can have the same effect. Give yourself a set amount of time to work on a task, then transition to the […]
An IT services provider can effectively take over most, if not all aspects of a business? IT management. Here are some of the major ways that managed IT services can provide value for your organization. Remote Monitoring and Management An IT service provider like White Mountain IT Services can help your business keep its technology in proper working order. Hardware failure might be devastating, but assets like devices can be replaced; the time thrown down the drain as a result of hardware failure cannot. Instead of reacting to hardware failure and other problems related to your IT, our certified technicians can use the latest technology to monitor your infrastructure for telltale signs or oddities that must be addressed. This proactive approach allows us to keep a close watch on your technology so you don?t have to, preventing downtime and keeping you focused on running your business. Cyber and Network Security You don?t need us to tell you (or maybe you do) that malware and other hacking attacks are major causes for concern. Security should be top-of-mind for any organization that wants to get anything done. White Mountain IT Services understands the importance of business security, and we want to help you keep your organization safe as can be with the latest security tools and solutions. We can help you implement security measures, develop policies and procedures to augment them, and monitor your network for any signs of threats. You can rest easy knowing that we?ve got you covered. Tool Procurement and Deployment The IT technician is much more than the occasional office visitor who stops by to resolve computer problems. While this makes up a good portion of what we do, our technicians understand that IT bleeds into every other facet of your organization. This includes the procurement of new technology solutions and the support required to make the most of them. We?ll make sure that any new tech deployment is successful. From design to implementation to support, you can count on White Mountain IT Services to help make sure any additions to your IT infrastructure are carried out in a competent and professional manner. As you can see, the right IT solutions can improve your organization?s productivity and efficiency in spades. Don?t wait any longer to get started with managed services; give White Mountain IT Services a call today at (603) 889-0800.
How Much Worse Has Ransomware Gotten? Let?s look at this somewhat casually. Ransomware was never something to be trifled with. However, compared to the attacks we?re seeing today, the attacks of the past seem to be small potatoes at their worst. Having your business? data encrypted is bad. However, crippled supply chains and interrupted national infrastructures (as we?ve seen in the recent attacks on JBS SA and Colonial Pipeline) are undoubtedly worse. The dangers that such ransomware attacks pose cannot be understated, and no business is truly safe. The White House recently said as much in their warning to companies in regards to their cybersecurity preparations. This is Why the US Justice Department is Speaking Out Understandably concerned about the ramifications such threats could easily pose to national security, the Department of Justice has joined with the White House to draw a line in the sand. As their way of responding to what they accurately described as a ?growing threat,? investigations into ransomware cases will now be handled similarly to how terrorism cases are? all stops taken out in terms of what tools are used. Other Governing Bodies are Following Suit Likewise, in response to the JBS hack and the potential economic ramifications it will likely cause, the US Congress is now considering the lack of federal oversight into the cybersecurity protections implemented by meat processors. Such oversight could help to create a more unified strategy to help prevent and mitigate these kinds of attacks and their widespread impacts. Ransomware Threats are Also Getting Worse In addition to many ransomware attacks being waged on bigger, higher-value targets, the strategies involved across the board are evolving. Just consider the ideal progression of a ransomware attack from the attacker?s perspective. Use ransomware to encrypt a targeted system Threaten to delete all contents of a targeted system if a ransom isn?t paid Profit Understanding this, the consensus amongst security-minded businesses was that keeping an isolated backup was the perfect failsafe against such an attack. After all, with the backup to fall back on, the encrypted data could be deleted and replaced with relatively minor cost to the business. This is one of the many, many reasons we always recommend a business to keep a backup squirreled away. Unfortunately, as will always be the case with cybercriminals, these practices encouraged them to adapt their processes. Lately, more and more attacks are following a slightly different method than what we?ve been seeing: Steal data from a system, using ransomware to encrypt it after the data has been harvested Threaten to delete all contents of a targeted system if a ransom isn?t paid Profit Threaten to leak or sell the stolen data unless a second ransom is paid Profit again This double-whammy approach to ransomware first came onto the scene in late 2019, and has exploded since. One recent survey found that 77 percent of ransomware attacks now come with threats to leak data if a ransom isn?t paid. This same survey also revealed that such attacks are increasingly directed against SMBs, who have considerably fewer resources than enterprise-level targets. So, if keeping a backup no longer helps to squash the entire threat, what can a company do? How a Business Can Resist Ransomware First, it will help to understand how the majority of modern ransomware […]
