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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.

What?s the Issue? The current situation didn?t start recently, but at the beginning of April, some 533 million Facebook records were leaked by hackers for free on the dark web. Over half a billion users have had their personal information, including Facebook ID, corresponding phone numbers, birthdates, some email addresses, relationship status, and bio, dumped into a public database online.  Facebook confirmed that the data was from a 2019 data leak, and that they have long since patched the vulnerability used to obtain it. That?s a good thing, but it?s still concerning that two years after a major data leak, the data, which was for sale for the past two years, was just dropped on the web for free. Obviously, the tech giant wants the narrative to be that this is old data and they have since made the changes necessary to protect their massive amount of user data, but the fact that it is still available is the bigger issue. Once Data is Leaked, It?s Out There Forever We may not really know the tangible value of the data found in this massive database. What we do know is that once data is leaked, it?s going to cause some consternation for Facebook, because: One of Facebook?s major revenue streams revolves around transactions with this data. This data is out there for free. It was likely obtained from a hacking tactic called scraping. Your company doesn?t have the huge amount of data that Facebook has, but you have the same responsibilities with the sensitive data you have. If Facebook wasn?t, you know, Facebook (that being a platform that is typically used to share data) they wouldn?t be able to simply shrug off something like this. We can say with confidence that a data leak of nearly a quarter of your client base?s data would come with massive repercussions for your business.  That?s why you need to ensure that you have the tools in place so that you don?t have to deal with data theft, loss of customer confidence, and all the other negative variables that come with a data breach. If you would like to find out more about how White Mountain IT Services can help you secure your business? and customers? data, reach out to us today at (603) 889-0800.

First, you need to consider what you need the hosted computing for. If, for instance, you plan to host your own infrastructure solutions and have an established history of success in doing so, moving to the cloud would likely only complicate matters unnecessarily. However, this is not to say that the cloud couldn?t be helpful?particularly if you?re introducing new services to your workforce or trying to expand your business? resources. Here, we?ll compare each alternative. In-House Servers Despite cloud technology now giving businesses a real alternative to purchasing and maintaining local servers, doing so can still offer many businesses some serious benefits. First and foremost, you must consider the control that complete ownership brings with it. While expensive, owning your own infrastructure gives you the freedom to approach each element precisely how you want to. An in-house server setup can also be beneficial to a business whose Internet connectivity isn?t the fastest or most reliable. Furthermore, their local nature lends itself well to a business that is held to some compliance standards where data security is involved. While cloud servers certainly don?t lack in security, moving data through an intranet is inherently more secure than moving it through the Internet. Cloud Servers Cloud servers are great for the business that needs to keep its options open without breaking the bank in the process. With virtual environments available to meet every need, the costs of sustaining the physical infrastructure are greatly diminished. This makes the cloud an effective and affordable way for a small business to get whatever resources they need for a more predictable rate. As a result of this, cloud servers are more scalable than self-hosted servers as a rule. With no chance of underutilizing the hardware you invest in; your business can dictate precisely what it needs and pay for that access accordingly. The main impetus at that point becomes ensuring the security of your data as it moves back and forth. Whichever option is right for you, White Mountain IT Services is here to help you make your selection and handle it for you. To learn more about what we can provide, give us a call at (603) 889-0800.

Communication Communication is well-known to be a crucial aspect of any business? success, so it only makes sense that leveraging the capabilities that today?s tech offers is a strategy that so many organizations have embraced. With so many options now available?including Voice-over-Internet-Protocol telephony and video conferencing, email, and other all-encompassing collaboration platforms?businesses have the means to boost their productivity readily available. Many of these communication platforms are unified, giving you and your team access to a comprehensive suite of tools to use. That way, your investment goes much further and is more guaranteed to provide you with the return you need and expect. Automation The easiest way to expand the role IT plays in your business is to embrace automation. Today?s software provides the opportunity to improve your business by shifting its priorities. Automation can take the mandatory tasks that create workflow and coordination within the separate departments of your business and remove the need to assign human resources to complete them. This allows your staff to focus on the revenue generating parts of their job while removing the time and effort that is typically required to support that coordination and efficient operations. This shift in strategy can really provide some stark benefits when trying to create a more effective workflow.  Some of the parts of your business that can be improved by utilizing automation include:  Inventory Management Security Supply chain management Sales and marketing  Customer relationships …and more. By committing to automating certain rote, yet mandatory tasks, you can expect more productive endeavors to be successful. That?s the name of the game in business. Security Security is seemingly everyone?s favorite answer when asked what you should be investing more of your business? capital in. There is a good reason for that: there are more threats than ever. SMBs account for half of all cyberattacks, so it is important to put the solutions in place to solve the cybersecurity problems your organization faces. Some strategies you should consider include: Regular risk assessments Comprehensive staff training Penetration testing Network, server, and website audits Additional software investments Successfully accomplishing those strategies will help you reduce and eliminate: Theft (money, service, data) System corruption Regulatory and compliance fines Legal fees Loss of customer confidence Loss of intellectual property Damage to reputation White Mountain IT Services can help you expand your IT with our multiple services, including comprehensive monitoring and management and our hardware and software procurement services. Our experts can help get your business where you want to go. Call us today at (603) 889-0800 to learn more.