Personal Data Needs to Be Protected The first thing we are going to touch on really doesn?t have to do with businesses, it has to do with smartwatch users. The smartwatch is a cool gadget and can do a lot of really neat things as long as you remember to charge it. Unfortunately, there is some risk involved in allowing these devices access to your business? network. Some models don?t have completely fleshed out operating systems and could provide hackers an avenue of access to the rest of your business? computing infrastructure if they aren?t kept updated.  Many of the noted security shortcoming of these devices may not mean anything for your business, but should be a consideration. It?s a best practice to create, implement, and enforce a BYOD policy that extends to smartwatches and other wearable technology and IoT devices.  Here are a few tips that you can pass onto your employees to avoid problems with vulnerabilities brought onto your network through wearable technology:  Users shouldn?t use unofficial apps – Users need to avoid ?jailbreaking? a device to give them access to applications that they wouldn?t typically have. Jailbreaking is essentially installing a non-authorized version of an application or operating system on a device. It voids the warranty and can exacerbate the questionable security surrounding smart devices. If the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store can?t always catch malicious apps, importing apps from an unsupported platform is a risky proposition. Don?t jailbreak your phone – This should be common knowledge, but you really shouldn?t jailbreak your phone either, but especially don?t use a smartwatch with a jailbroken phone.  Don?t connect devices directly to your watch – Avoid hooking up things directly to the watch. If your plan was to use your watch as a cool controller for all of your smart devices, you should immediately reconsider. Since there are built-in vulnerabilities for many watches, it?s important to choose options that prioritize security.  Keep your smartwatch OS and other apps updated – Software vulnerabilities can cause major problems regardless of what platform they come on. Smart devices like smartwatches are no different. Keep their OS up to date for the best security.  Build an IoT Security Strategy With the popularity of smart devices, there is probably a pretty good chance that you have plenty of them already at your place of business. In order to get the control you need, you will likely need a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) strategy that also considers the IoT endpoints that are brought in. This is called a Bring Your Own Internet of Things (BYOIoT) Strategy.  By extending your BYOD strategy to a BYOIoT strategy, you not only have the coverage you need to keep threats off of your organization?s network, but you also have the solutions in place to scale that platform as your employees plan on bringing in additional smart devices. Securing endpoints and monitoring data flow will be important strategies to consider in the days and years ahead.  Securing the endpoints on your network is extremely important. For more information about what White Mountain IT Services technicians can do for you, give us a call today at (603) 889-0800.

E-commerce In a world where you are literally taking a risk when you come into contact with someone, solutions that allow people to steer clear of one another tend to be popular. One method that has been used to expand an organization’s reach has been ecommerce, but with the world as it is today, companies that traditionally didn?t embrace that strategy are now on board with it. If your organization would like to bring your business online, here are some tips:  Use a powerful backend system – Setting up e-commerce may not be the monumental task you?ve built it up to be, but it is involved. The first thing you need to ask yourself is ?do I have the right tools to make this work?? Just like any other job, if you don?t have the tools you need, you will be trying to shove a square peg in a round hole. You will need a secure platform that allows you to get the data that will allow you to make fast and reliable decisions. A backend platform that provides analytics, conversion stats, revenue management, customer retention strategies and more will put you in a position to succeed.  Make a good impression – For companies with little to no online presence, one of the cardinal rules when moving your business online is to engage potential customers immediately. If your website looks dated, is clunky with broken links, and doesn?t provide the ease of use (for browsing, purchasing, and support) you are likely going to find e-commerce to be more of a headache than a benefit to your business.  Make it mobile-friendly – A majority of the people that are going to be coming to, and interacting with, your website will be doing so from their smartphone. That?s just a fact. If your website and store doesn?t support mobile customers, your business will have a hard time finding its footing online.  Use social media – Obviously, once you commit to an e-commerce business, you need to create engagement. Nowhere is that easier than on social media. With social media platforms you can do about anything as far as getting people to take notice of your business and the more that you invest time and resources into social media engagement, the more noticeable your brand and your business will be.  Ultimately, if your business is just beginning a new strategy because of the COVID-19 pandemic, or if yours is a new business, e-commerce is going to be extremely important for you for the foreseeable future.  Supporting Remote Work  For a decade you?d hear stories of companies attempting to go remote and then pulling the plug after a few months because of a lack of productivity, a lack of control, or both. As 2020 progressed, however, it became obvious to many business owners that their fear was unfounded. For the first couple of months after the stay-at-home orders came down, productivity seemed to be down significantly, but as the summer wore on it became evident that businesses could benefit from supporting remote workers.  Now that around two-fifths of the workforce works from home full-time, companies can rest assured that if you wanted to cut the brick and mortar costs, you could and still have a productive workforce. Studies keep reinforcing the notion that remote […]

Use the Internet to its Full Extent The Internet offers businesses of all sizes a huge number of benefits, of all different kinds. Not only can you use social media to interact directly with your customer base, you can also attract their attention and pitch your business as an option to them by maintaining a website. Operationally, the Internet can also support you by enabling you to access cloud-based services and data storage. The advantages to leveraging these services cannot be understated. With cloud-based software, you aren?t committing to repeated investments into your software solutions to make sure they are sufficiently updated and secure. Cloud storage allows you to mitigate the risk of data loss by keeping a copy offsite? a key component to our recommended business continuity planning. As soon as possible in this coming year, figure out what is out there that would benefit your business the most, and take advantage of it. Simplify Your Business Management On the topic, there are many software solutions out there that can help simplify?if not outright automate?many of the processes and procedures that your business relies upon to function. How well do you track your relationships with your individual clients and customers? How cohesive are the systems that allow you to manage the many facets of your business? Are your team members using the most efficient means to complete their workflows, whatever they may be? From Customer Relationship Management, to Enterprise Resource Planning, to various other productivity-focused software solutions, your business? operations can be made easier and more productive by embracing the tools now accessible to you. Investigate your greatest needs and find the software that can help you fulfill them. Be More Secure Regardless of how much (or how little) your business relies on technology, cybersecurity needs to be one of your biggest areas of concern. Remember how we mentioned solutions that could automate your processes? Cybercriminals have those, too, making no business too small of a threat to pique their interest. Due to this, you need to proactively establish and enforce security parameters to counter these activities? which will require you to invest in cybersecurity-focused solutions. In addition to this, you?ll also need to establish a security policy to match. Enforcing solid password practices, access limitations, and other rules for your team to abide by will result in a more secure business moving forward. Keep Your Team ?In the Know? Finally, for any of these improvements to take, you need to keep your team updated and bought into these concepts. By focusing on the benefits that these improvements will offer to the business, and by extension their workplace experience, your team will be more likely to adopt them. Without this crucial step, your business? capacity to improve will be limited. White Mountain IT Services can directly assist you with many of these steps, in addition to providing our ongoing IT maintenance and management services. To learn more about what we could do for you, reach out to our team at (603) 889-0800. Happy New Year!

Cloud for Business For the longest time there was a misconception out there that the cloud would never work for business. This notion was reinforced by technology hardware giants Dell, HP, IBM, and Oracle, who stated quite matter-of-factly that cloud computing was a niche technology. It wasn?t secure enough. It wasn?t reliable enough. While it is laughable now, 15 years ago these hardware manufacturers, who were obviously looking to protect their business model, aligned to sell the notion that hosting business servers is a nightmare waiting to happen. People listened…for a while.  At the same time companies were using AWS (Amazon Web Services) to make huge jumps. Netflix and Dropbox were two of the huge companies that championed that use; and it grew, and grew, and grew. Now cloud technology, whether hosted on a data center in some other location or hosted onsite, is one of the most utilized and popular technologies in contemporary times. In fact, the global cloud computing market is expected to exceed $620 billion by 2023.  The Types of Cloud Computing There is some confusion out there about how businesses utilize cloud computing, but really there are only three ways the cloud is set up. They are: Public cloud – When a business takes advantage of a public cloud, they?re using services provided over a publicly-accessible network, usually by an external third-party vendor. Public clouds are particularly useful for start-ups or smaller business ventures, as they are often affordable and readily accessible. This also means that the responsibility of a self-hosted cloud isn?t placed on your business? shoulders; however, there?s a notable lack of security and control provided by the public cloud. Private cloud – In direct contrast to the public cloud, the private cloud is generally hosted in-house on a private network. This allows for greater data security through the use of security-augmenting devices and applications. Hybrid cloud – A hybrid cloud solution is like the middle ground between both public and private clouds. An example of a hybrid cloud is one which allows your business to host confidential corporate data on-premises in a private cloud, while taking advantage of a public cloud for the rollout of mission-critical applications (i.e. software-as-a-service). These are really the only deployments there are, but with a hybrid setup it adds in many more variables such as a control layer and how storage is used between cloud solutions. Either way, many businesses use the cloud today for their core operations. Let?s take a look at some of the most popular cloud options:  Line of Business – Many businesses have chosen to host their line of business software in the cloud. While they lose control over the management of the software, they do pick up some serious benefits including anywhere/anytime access to the software with an Internet connection and cost stabilization provided by the hosted environment. Productivity – Today there are numerous software titles developed just for productivity. Titles like Microsoft Office 365 and Google?s Workplace are two of the most utilized cloud productivity options. They provide the software needed to be productive with integrations designed to enhance collaboration. Communication – Solutions like Hosted VoIP have revolutionized business communications, providing businesses with the telephone system and conferencing features they need to connect remote and in-house teams, alike.  Security – Today, there […]

 How Did the Attack Happen? In short, an IT management company known as SolarWinds was breached back in March, affecting a massive number of organizations?18,000 in all. These organizations include the likes of Microsoft, Cisco, and FireEye, as well as many states and federal organizations, including: The U.S. Department of State The U.S. Department of the Treasury The U.S. Department of Homeland Security The U.S. Department of Energy The U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration The National Institutes of Health, of the U.S. Department of Health The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration When the attackers gained access to SolarWinds? network, they were able to use what is known as a supply chain attack to introduce their malware to these departments and organizations by pushing it through the company?s automatic software update system for their Orion products. These kinds of attacks can be particularly effective since the threat is introduced to an environment via a trusted application. Making this situation worse, many SolarWinds customers had excluded Orion products from their security checks on SolarWinds? recommendation to prevent their other security products from shutting them down due to the malware signatures that these security products contain. While (at the time of this writing) it is unclear what the attackers responsible used this access to do, the potential ramifications are truly terrifying. While government departments were targeted, it also needs to be said that this attack could have potentially continued from the major providers like Microsoft and Cisco to their clients, and so on and so forth. That?s why there is still no estimate of this attack?s true scope. This attack was seemingly only discovered when an employee at FireEye received an alert that their VPN credentials had been used from a new device, and a little digging revealed the much larger situation playing out. This Wasn?t the Only Attack, Either Another attack was also discovered on SolarWinds? network when the company performed an internal audit of its systems. On December 18, a second malware was found to have used the same tactic to infiltrate SolarWinds, but as of this writing does not seem to come from the same source. What This Needs to Teach Us Frankly, the most important lessons to be learned here are painfully obvious. First off, cybersecurity needs to be prioritized above all else, and all potential threats should be considered a likelihood. After all, the U.S. government was warned about the viability of exactly this kind of threat back in 2018 by the Government Accountability Office. Secondly, the concept of your employees being a huge part of your cybersecurity strategy needs to be reinforced. This was only discovered when an employee was alerted of unusual activity and took that alert seriously. Your team needs to know what they are looking out for, and how to proceed if they spot it. While we likely will not know how deeply this threat went for some time, you can at least be sure that White Mountain IT Services is here to help keep your IT as safe as possible. If you have any questions for us regarding your business? technology, do not hesitate to give us a call at (603) 889-0800.