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When you last were at the office, you had everything that you needed to do your job: your work PC, all the accessories, access to the Internet, printers, and other internal resources. During the pandemic?s stay-at-home orders, you didn?t have access. You may be back at your office today, but if you aren?t you are probably using the mandatory COVID-19 home office technology. Let?s take a look at it. Laptop The home office isn?t like the real office. First of all, going into March 2-in-3 people didn?t have a dedicated workspace. If you tried to work from the couch, your favorite chair, or worse yet, your bed, you may have found productivity hard to come by. Once it was clear that nobody was going back to the office for a while, most people made a solid effort to dedicate a small part of their living quarters into a makeshift office. If you are like millions of other people that had to work from home (or are still working from home), having a PC was essential to getting your work done; but, if you don?t have a lot of room, a laptop is perfect. Not only can you take it with you, but many laptops are more powerful than the typical workstation that your company would give you. Smartphone For a sudden shift to telework, no piece of technology has been as important as the smartphone. At first, many companies were just trying to figure out if they could run their businesses remotely. The mobility provided by smartphones largely made the shift possible. Not only could the smartphone be used as a business phone (through a VoIP platform and its softphone app), it can be great for collaboration. Today, most smartphones can be configured with work profiles, which provides a dedicated app drawer for all your business apps. This not only allows the company to manage their data better, it also is advantageous for users who can turn access to work on and off with a tap of their finger. Collaboration Apps Software is important for almost every business, but for the business relying on remote workers, it is quite literally a business? saving grace. With a remote staff, collaboration becomes even more crucial and software of all kinds are adding in cooperative options. Productivity software like Microsoft 365 or Google?s G Suite have collaborative options baked right in; management software like Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), or Professional Services Automation (PSA) provides end-to-end operations management, supply chain management, and support options; and, collaboration platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams provide communication options and software integrations to keep teams on-point. COVID-19 has put a big damper on business, but if you can have the right tools, you can still get your job done. If you would like to talk to one of our expert technicians about getting the right technology to keep your business profitable while the new normal forms, call White Mountain IT Services today at (603) 889-0800.
Why This is a Concern Here?s the issue in a nutshell? Let?s say that you?re a reporter, and you get a news bulletin from an overseas country. This bulletin reports that a different country has committed horrible atrocities against its neighboring nations. What do you do? Well, if you trust the source, you take it as fact and run the story. This is how propaganda works. It twists public and private beliefs based on purported evidence supplied by a source that the intended audience trusts. This exact scenario was used in World War I. The United States press was reporting on the events overseas based on falsified reports sent over by the British government. To build support against the other side, these reports fabricated tales of the German army taking despicable actions against their European neighbors. Modern Applications Today, the same process has been adopted, taking advantage of the latent trust so many have in online information (especially that which lines up to one?s personal beliefs). Rather than feeding information to news outlets and other established media figures, however, social media gives those responsible for bending the facts to their favor a direct line to their audience. These capabilities now give people, regardless of where they fall on the political spectrum, an underhanded way to amplify their own agenda? but over time, and at great cost, some people have taken notice. This has led to increased and more intense scrutiny of these online platforms and their policies. Many social media platforms and online services have reacted by taking steps to better ensure the validity of political information that their audience members share and consume. Let?s look at some of these steps and how they might make the political discourse?as well as the overall process?more fact-driven and secure. Facebook Facebook has been at the epicenter of many of these controversies. They were arguably responsible for the attention that all mainstream online platforms are now receiving. Lately, Facebook has seen pressure from both sides of the political aisle and has needed to also focus on the validity of the information it helps to amplify. To do so, Facebook has begun a few initiatives. The Election Information Hub The most obvious one is the online hub that was launched on both Facebook and its acquired photo-sharing platform, Instagram. Intended to minimize the impacts of shared election misinformation, this tool is supposed to help potential voters find the information they need to participate in the process. Adding to this complexity, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has caused no shortage of concern and confusion in recent months, and the election is now only exacerbating the concerns. The social network has been the focus of quite a bit of criticism based on the COVID-19 content that has appeared on its platform, primarily due to the misinformation that has spread as a result. Similar issues with political content have also been present in the past. Depending on the political affiliation of who you ask, Facebook has either been amplifying misinformation shared to the benefit of a certain party or has been actively censoring the speech of certain political ideologies. So, it stands to reason that Facebook would be particularly concerned with election security this year. In addition to past events, Facebook now must deal with other highly politicized […]
First, it will help to briefly review how each attack works. How Ransomware Works Imagine for a second the surprise you would have if you tried to log into your computer and you were presented with a message telling you that your files have been encrypted and that you need to pay in Bitcoin before the clock runs out or you will lose those files forever. Then you noticed the clock clicking down. Would you panic? You probably would. That is ransomware, a particularly ugly malware that could cost you everything. How Phishing Works Do you ever get emails that seem to come in randomly from the government, your bank, or your insurance company? Do they want you to take action now and provide links or attachments to make that possible? The truth is most professional organizations that you depend on will never want you using email to do anything other than verify your identity. That means that the emails you get that say you have to act now to avoid going to jail for owing money are as fraudulent as they seem. These are phishing messages. They can come in through email, social media, or via SMS or phone call. Unfortunately for the modern user, they are constant, often sophisticated, and can be especially problematic if handled improperly. Phishing + Ransomware = Major Trouble Since today?s hackers can?t just hack their way into an account, they use social engineering tactics to do so. If they are able to expose their fraudulent message to someone that is less than vigilant, they may gain access to a computer (or worse yet a computing network), and then deploy their ransomware payload. Not a good situation for any individual; and, a major problem for any business. This is why it is essential that your staff understands phishing tactics and can spot fraudulent emails and messages when they come in. Let?s take a look at some telltale signs that you are dealing with a phishing message. Identifying Phishing Phishing tactics are a lot more sophisticated than they were even a few short years ago, but they can?t do anything for the one variable that matters: legitimacy. Here are a few ways you can tell that you are dealing with a phishing attack. The details in the message are suspect – Many people don?t pay much attention to the email address an email is sent from, or if a word here or there, is misspelled. This is how phishing attacks get you. If you receive a message that has spelling or grammatical errors that you wouldn?t find in professional correspondence, you probably are dealing with a scam. You can also look at the email address itself or best yet, mouse over any links found in the text of the email. If it seems fishy, it?s probably phishing. Don?t click on it. The tone is desperate – One telltale sign that you are dealing with a phishing attack is that the message written to you seems urgent. No reputable financial institution or government entity is going to demand immediate action from an email. There?s a link or an attachment – Using phishing to deploy ransomware (or any kind of malware), you will typically see an attachment or be asked to follow links in the message. If […]
Understanding What a VPN Is A VPN is a tool that enables you to encrypt your internet traffic. An analogy that can be used to describe a VPN is that of a subway, as compared to a street on the surface. Let?s say that you?re traveling from point A to point B. If you choose to ride in a car on the surface, you are visible to anyone who might be on the street as well. Not only can people see who is in the car, they can see where the car is going. This is what the ?typical? Internet connection is like, as far as your Internet traffic and information are concerned. On the other hand, using a VPN is more like using the subway. When you ride the subway, someone on the surface may be aware that there is a subway traveling below them, but they cannot see it inside its underground tunnels. More importantly, they cannot see you in it. This lines up to how a VPN works: by encrypting your data and identity while in transit across the Internet, everything you do is hidden from hackers and even your Internet Service Provider. This is commonly used, especially now, to enable secure remote work to take place. By using a VPN, an employee who is working from home can securely access resources that exist on the business? private network. This helps to protect this data from snooping eyes. How Well Does a VPN Protect Your Data? Frankly, it depends, and it depends on a variety of factors. The first factor is how you are defining the word ?protect.? There are a lot of different ways that your business? computing in general needs to be protected. A VPN?s purpose is to prevent your history and Internet connection from being snooped upon. That?s basically it. You can still download spyware, malware, and/or viruses while you?re using a VPN, especially if you visit a malicious website or allow in infected files. There is nothing particularly secure about a VPN in its concept. Rather, the security behind the VPN?s protocols is where the real difference is. Some protocols, like the heavily exploited point-to-point tunneling protocol, just aren?t secure enough nowadays. Others, like OpenVPN or WireGuard, are considerably more secure, due to the ciphers that are in place to protect them. Turn to us for assistance with your Virtual Private Networking. White Mountain IT Services can assist you with your VPN, assisting you in selecting a provider and implementing the solution that best fits your business? needs. There is far more to consider than what we?ve covered here, so make sure to give us a call and talk to our team. Give us a call at (603) 889-0800 today.
1. Know What Your Needs Are, and What to Expect of Your Devices Before you even acquire the Wi-Fi access points that will make up your networks, a little clerical work will be helpful. To accurately identify your needs, you need to crunch a few numbers. How many people will need to access the Internet, with which devices? Which of your systems will rely on an Internet connection, and how many of those cannot be hardwired? What will people be doing while they?re on the Internet? Having an idea of these points will tell you what your business will require, and then you can make an informed decision regarding your wireless network configuration and the equipment you will need. 2. Be Strategic About Your Access Point Placement You also want to think about where your wireless access points should be placed, because it isn?t necessarily always in the most central location. Instead, it is often dependent on where the most demand is coming from. You also need to consider if your access points will serve you best mounted on the wall or ceiling, or if they will be most effective while placed on a desktop. Make sure that you account for obstacles that may cause signal interference, like HVAC vents, wires, and other devices. As you make these deliberations, it will be very helpful to identify where your signal is strongest and weakest with your access points in different configurations. That way, you can place them in the optimal position for connectivity. There are various mobile applications available that will allow you to analyze your available Wi-Fi signal, so be sure to take advantage of one. 3. Don?t Forget About External Factors Unfortunately, the strength of your Wi-Fi signal doesn?t succeed or fail based solely on whether there?s an obstruction in the way. There are plenty of other potential reasons that your network performance is detrimentally impacted. Access points can interfere with one another, especially if they are operating on the same wireless channel. If you?re sharing space with other businesses, this could especially be the case. Don?t leave your business at the mercy of its wireless Internet signal. White Mountain IT Services has years of networking experience to draw upon as we address these challenges and needs. TO learn more about what we can do for you, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.
