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The coronavirus outbreak enhanced the demand for services and increased the likelihood that smaller businesses would consider them. Over a year later, it seems that the innovation that experts predicted was going to happen over the course of the next three or four years, accelerated, and now businesses of all sizes are operating over the Internet. Internet-Based Companies For quite some time there have been companies that operate solely over the Internet. Of course, retail companies come to mind when you think of ?Internet business?. Amazon, eBay, and the like have made billions of dollars without the use of any storefronts (ironically, however, now they have some). Besides these retail behemoths, many other businesses moved their way online in efforts to open new revenue streams and tap untapped markets. Over the past several years we?ve begun to see a paradigm shift toward digital services happen pretty rapidly. Financial services were one of the first service providers to really embrace the benefits of providing online services, but they weren?t the only industry looking to make the whole new digital ecosystem work for them. The truth is, however, where money goes, everyone follows. The Growth of Digital Systems As mentioned above, the COVID-19 pandemic did the one thing that no other event could have done. It brought those companies who were reluctant to embrace the digital transformation into the fold; and many of those companies that came late to the party are extremely unprepared. While these companies scrambled to migrate their information systems and strategies over to ones that can be accessed online, other companies, who got out in front of this were well-positioned to succeed during these times. Even some companies who weren?t wholly prepared, but were able to transition to digital-only by already using cloud-based software and hardware, were able to flank slower-moving competitors. Additionally, many smaller businesses that didn?t have the liquidity to hold up against the tide of decreased consumer demand, found themselves closing their doors. Unfortunately, this was the fate for over 100,000 U.S. small businesses in 2020. This major crisis was always going to have a marked impact on SMBs, but seeing so many businesses failing, and the entire economy in a major downturn, you can?t help but think that if it wasn?t for the Internet, the whole world economy would be in tatters. The one thing that digital systems accomplish is that they can sustain mission-critical business processes while the workforce is in flux. Part of a business? strategy at this point is to cut redundant and unnecessary costs and the digital transformation of a business can help do that in ways that could save millions of jobs and tens of thousands of businesses. One could make the point that businesses that are looking to cut spending should still be pushing money toward IT because it?s the most cost-effective way to keep from compromising business health. What Digital Systems are Being Used? With all that?s happening, one question that has to be answered is: ?what digital systems are being used by today?s businesses to keep from going belly up?? It?s not as easy as telling you which tools you need to use as it is to explain why certain tools can be useful. As we mentioned above, the digital tide was already turning before the […]
Document Sharing This is the foundation of any collaborative process: the capability to share a file and allow others to edit it. Google Drive provides you a few means of doing so: From My Drive, click one of your various documents to highlight it and click on the Share icon in the toolbar at the top-right of the page. Right-clicking the document and selecting Share will provide you with the option to do so. Google Drive?s assorted applications, like Docs, Slides, and Sheets, each feature a prominent Share button at the top of the page. Each of these options pulls up the same window: The Share with people and groups panel. Let?s examine the options that this panel provides. The ?Share with people and groups? Panel This panel allows you to select who can access your document, and what they can do with it afterward. As a result, it is simple to share with anyone from a single coworker to an entire department?all you need to do is type in the appropriate name or email address, add a quick message if needed, and determine the access you?re granting: Editor??Someone with editor-level access privileges can make whatever changes to a document that they see fit, as well as extend permissions to others to share the document in question. Commenter?A commenter has much more limited capabilities, as they are not able to directly change the content of a given document or share it out, but they can leave their feedback and suggestions for an editor to review and approve or deny. Viewer?A viewer can read through a document but can leave no feedback or send it along to others. You can also adjust these settings even more, taking away or adding capabilities as you need to (or even taking away permissions entirely). In the Share pane, click the field that specifies the user?s access and make the changes you need to. From there, you can set an expiration date to their access to match your needs. The Share pane also allows you to generate a link that allows your document to be shared that way. Under Get Link, you can select the option that gives anyone with the link the appropriate privileges, whether that be edit access or the ability to comment. This access can be removed whenever you need it to be. Determining Which Documents Have Been Shared Finally, Google Drive also simplifies the process of establishing which documents have had their access shared. A small icon will appear next to the filename that looks like two silhouettes, so long as you aren?t working in Grid view. Hopefully, you now have a better idea of the capabilities that Google Drive offers in terms of collaboration. There are plenty of other ways that your business? IT can help to facilitate teamwork, too, so give us a call at (603) 889-0800 to learn more today.
Your Network Security To protect your network, you need to ensure that you have the proper solutions in place. Between network security appliances, virtual private networking (VPN) clients, and firewalls, any potential points of egress can be covered against issues. These defenses will help to minimize the number of threats and other risk elements that enter your network. Once coupled with the following solutions provided by White Mountain IT Services, you can know that your business data and network security are strong. Network Monitoring In case any threats do manage to breach your defenses, you need to ensure that you are able to detect and identify them. By equipping whatever IT management resource you have with the tools to keep an eye on your network and its health, your security will be improved through vigilance. This is one of the best-known advantages of enlisting a managed service provider, as an MSP will take it upon themselves to proactively work to prevent threats by keeping an eye on your technology infrastructure and its health. Mobile Device and Endpoint Management As many people are working remotely, especially nowadays, the capability of your business to retain some control over its data is a necessity. Utilizing solutions like mobile device management and endpoint management can give you this control, enabling you to dictate the data and applications that these devices can access. This way, you can better ensure that your data is protected, and your resources are secured. Security Training and Management Of course, you also need to be sure that your team knows how to protect your business to the best of their ability, and that they understand how to respond to any threats that make their way in. This will require you to evaluate your team?s preparedness and test them in simulated events to ensure that they are able to protect your business. You?ll also need to figure out how to meet the compliance standards that your industry is beholden to, specifically in terms of the security that is demanded for you to uphold. Threat Management and Detection Finally, you need to do everything you can to minimize the amount of threats that materialize and catch those that have slipped by. Using the solutions available today, you can reduce the amount of threats that darken your door in the first place. There are also tools that can help you to locate any threats that have slipped past your defenses so that they can be mitigated. White Mountain IT Services is ready to assist you in implementing these solutions. To get started, reach out to our team by calling (603) 889-0800.
The Importance of Broadband Access Consider how prevalent the Internet is in everyday life right now: more and more is now handled online. This makes it challenging for many people in areas where broadband Internet connectivity is limited (or even nonexistent) to do very much at all?let alone shop, communicate, or as we tend to focus on, work remotely. The past year or so has made the severity of this lack starkly apparent, with many people and businesses struggling under their current connectivity limitations. This is part of the reason that the FCC is reinvigorating an application that was originally launched back in 2013 and asking the public to install it on their mobile devices. The FCC?s App This application, fittingly called FCC Speed Test, will assist the FCC in evaluating which areas have the most prescient need of better Internet service quality, enabling them to more effectively fund the areas that need more help. Available on both Android and iOS, this app tests your mobile device?s upload and download speeds, as well as its latency, on either a Wi-Fi or cellular connection. By default, these tests take place once every 24 hours?although you can configure these tests to occur when it is most convenient, and how much data that can be consumed during these evaluations. This app also allows you to test your connectivity speeds, plotting them out over time and by geographic location. In terms of privacy, the app collects a few different identifiers?location, IP address, operating system, device type, and ISP?but no personally identifiable details are recorded. You?re also able to complain about your Internet speeds to the FCC directly, enabling them to collect even more actionable data. Check out the FCC?s FAQ page about the application to learn more. Hopefully, this resurgence in interest in accessible and equitable Internet access will prove fruitful, bringing the utility of the Internet?s full capabilities to more people and organizations. In the meantime, we?re here to help New Hampshire companies do as much as they can with the IT that is available right now. To find out what your technology could be helping you accomplish, reach out to White Mountain IT Services at (603) 889-0800.
Let?s consider how the implementation of insider threat detection methods could have minimized the damages that You allegedly inflicted on these companies. You?s Story Xiaorong ?Shannon? You, a naturalized US citizen and PhD in Polymer Science and Engineering, has worked in the industry since 1992. From December of 2012 to August of 2017, she worked for Coca-Cola as a principal engineer for global research, moving to the Eastman Chemical Company to work as a packaging application development manager from September of 2017 until June of 2018, when her employment was terminated. During her tenure at both companies, You had access to secrets that a limited number of employees were privy to. In the case of Coca-Cola?s secrets, You had retained them (despite affirming that she hadn?t in writing) and submitted them to the People?s Republic of China as part of her application for the country?s The Thousand Talents program in 2017. This program has been used before to introduce advanced technologies to China, with the Department of Justice having had some success in prosecuting these cases. What Xiaorong You Allegedly Did According to the case that You now faces, she retained this information by simply uploading data to her personal Google Drive account?or when dealing with particularly sensitive documents and physical lab equipment, she simply used her smartphone?s camera to capture images (bypassing the scrutiny of her employers? information security teams). Once she had secured this information, You worked with a Chinese national named Xiangchen Liu to form a company in China that would use these trade secrets to generate its own profits, using an Italian BPA-free manufacturer to incorporate the stolen technologies onto their own products. The theft of this technology has had an impact on various companies, including Coca-Cola and the Eastman Chemical Company, as well as AkzoNobel, Dow Chemical, PPG, TSI, Sherwin Williams, and ToyoChem. Originally brought up on charges involving the theft of trade secrets in Tennessee?s Eastern US District Court in February of 2019, You was subject to another indictment in August 2020 that filed charges of economic espionage. How You?s Employers Could Have Stopped Such Activities Let?s take another look at some of the dates we just went over: You?s employment at Coca Cola ended in August of 2017, while her indictment for crimes that allegedly took place during her time there didn?t happen until February of 2019. This suggests that the discovery of her activities at Coca-Cola didn?t occur until long after the fact. This fact is indicative of two reasonable hypotheses: Coca-Cola lacked the tools to detect such activities in real-time, making it far more difficult to prevent protected and sensitive data from successfully leaving the corporate environment. Coca-Cola also lacked the policies that could have prevented non-authorized devices from entering the workspace or otherwise being kept in proximity to sensitive company data or infrastructures. While old-fashioned, the concept of taking photographs of such information is no less effective for its age. By comparison, You?s considerably rapid termination from the Eastman Chemical Company would suggest that their data protection standards were much more robust than Coca-Cola?s were at the time, enabling the company to identify a security issue and properly investigate it much faster. Just imagine how much the total damages?which now equate to about $119.6 million, as a reminder?could have inflated […]
