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Why Do Good Password Habits Matter? You might think, ?Eh, it?s just my Facebook (or Netflix, or Google, or Amazon) account, what do I really have to lose?? As it turns out, there is a lot to lose, and it could affect your employer as well. Poor password habits are one of the leading causes of cybersecurity issues today. People are using the same passwords across multiple accounts, and often use passwords that can easily be guessed or brute-forced (a process where a hacker tries thousands of common passwords and combinations to gain access to an account). Using the same password across multiple sites is a huge problem, and responsible for many recent high-profile cyberattacks, such as the Disney+ attack we saw last November. If someone uses the same password on their Netflix account for their work email (or some other work account) then they are putting their company?s security in the hands of Netflix. If Netflix is involved in a data breach, that user?s business is compromised as well. There are No Shortcuts Unfortunately, there is no easy, secure way to check to see if a particular person?s password is unique. There is no network policy that will somehow know if the user is using the same password for their Hulu account or their personal email or their eBay account. We can force strong passwords all day long, but users will make it easier for themselves by using common shortcuts that will make it easier to remember passwords. That includes using common password terms and putting an exclamation mark at the end to satisfy the ?use a symbol? requirement. If many people do it, it doesn?t help security. Remember, hackers can see password trends when big data breaches happen. Password Rules Every Person NEEDS to Live By Rule #1 – Don?t Use the Same Password Twice Today, this is the most important rule. You might feel like a savant with a very complex password memorized, but if you use it across multiple platforms, you are putting yourself at risk. Data breaches happen all the time, and as soon as a company like Netflix, Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, or literally any other online entity gets breached, hackers start to try all those accounts everywhere else. They might be trying your password on other services before you learn about the data breach. Rule #2 – Use Strong Passwords That Can?t Be Guessed If I know you reasonably well, would I be able to guess your password? If you are using your dog?s name and your birthday as a password (daisy032271) to lock down your bank account, you aren?t doing much to keep anyone out. On top of that, common phrases and words are often guessed pretty quickly when a hacker uses their tools to try to force their way into an account. Most sites require numbers in their passwords. Maybe your favorite baseball player is Mookie Betts, so you use his jersey number as a go-to for your passwords, or you use the number 42 because you are a big fan of The Hitchhiker?s Guide to the Galaxy. If someone knows you well enough, would they be able to guess that? All you are doing is leaving tiny chinks in your armor. Rule #3 – Use 2-Factor/Multi-Factor Authentication 2FA (also known as […]

The first thing that you need to know is that there are many examples of failed businesses due to a lack of continuity strategy. That alone should peak your interest, but there is more. Business continuity means just that, and sometimes there is something innocuous that knocks your business off schedule. Having a plan helps you avoid confusion, which in normal situations isn?t great, but when operations are down can be extremely bad.  What Should Your Plan Include? To most people, a flood hitting their place of business isn?t the same as having an employee or co-worker accidentally delete an important file. How could they? They are two completely different situations, right? Not so fast. When concocting a continuity strategy for your business, these two completely unrelated situations are functionally the same. Any situation that threatens your business? operational integrity needs to be planned for, even if the downtime you experience is measured in minutes rather than hours or days. Here are some crucial elements your business continuity plan should include: Organizational lists – A list of names, addresses, and contact information of people who have access to the continuity plan. This includes making up primary and secondary contact lists for all affected areas of your business.  Staff responsibilities – Each primary and secondary contact will have a set of responsibilities that they need to carry out. Any off-site recovery locations – You?ll need to include the address, equipment inventory, and any other relevant information. Your action plan – This is an in-depth process for returning every element of your business to satisfactory functionality. You need plans for the first hour, the first day, the first week, and for long-term disruption. Primary and alternate suppliers – This is a list of all your current and backup suppliers. Vendors typically play a big role in returning your business to normal.  Customer data – You?ll need a process to inform clients that have personal, financial, or other sensitive information stored with you. This plan will go a long way toward helping you retain your clientele once continuity is restored.  All relevant documentation and insurance policy information – Keeping accurate records will help the insurance process if a claim needs to be filed.  Technology inventory – What technology requirements does your company need in order to retain continuity? Here you will want to create contingencies for remote work, failover, and more.  Data redundancy – You will need to identify the details of your data backup system to ensure that all of your digital assets are backed up and can quickly be restored.  While this is a basic list of what a company needs in their business continuity plan, larger businesses with more moving parts will have more in-depth continuity plans. You will want to consistently review and update information that you deem necessary for your plan. The good rule of thumb is that two times annually you will want to update your plan. Keeping on top of these updates will go a long way toward getting you back up and going after a breach in continuity.  Moreover, you will want to test the parts of your BCP that you can test. Ensuring your backup system is working as intended, making sure you have a complete inventory of your hardware and software needs, and […]

Keep Solutions Up to Date One of the lesser-discussed benefits of the cloud is the fact that you can be sure that your team is working with all the advantages that fully updated software brings. Without relying on each user to install the needed updates on their own, or for your IT department to see to each device individually, your service provider will keep your solution up to date and ready to go. If you happen to be hosting your own cloud solution, you can push these updates at will and give your team the best tools available. Remote Access In the past, if a certain bit of data was kept on a spreadsheet in the second drawer of a filing cabinet, any user who needed access to that data would need to go and retrieve the spreadsheet to find it. This meant that people who were working from home for whatever reason were pretty much out of luck if they needed it. The cloud can remove that challenge, as well as make work in general easier to complete while out of the office. By hosting data, applications, or even entire virtualized environments in the cloud, your team can presumably access whatever they need from the comfort of their own bed (which, comfy as it is, is not recommended for productivity). Scalability Unfortunately, many businesses have found it necessary to scale back their operations, in many cases, considerably. While this is far from ideal, the cloud could also make this process simpler for the business looking for a bit of relief. With sliding services based on need, a business can reduce their investment into cloud solutions as their operations slow, with the ability to pick them back up again as necessary. This scalability can help prevent businesses from overinvesting at a time when each cent matters even more. If you feel that the cloud is your business? best option right now, don?t hesitate another moment and call (603) 889-0800 today to discuss implementing cloud solutions into your operations. White Mountain IT Services is here to help you.

The Technology of Communication Most businesses provide their employees with email. This is typically the central hub of any business?s communication strategy. If you need to send out a company-wide announcement or if you need to interact with your team, clients, or vendors, email is a great way to do so. Unfortunately, when using email, and to a lesser extent, instant messaging, signals can get crossed and the context of certain statements can cause a great deal of inefficiency.  One of the best ways to keep this from happening is to use a video conferencing solution. It works like this: Using video conferencing software and the use of webcams and microphones, you can hold meetings that allow people to pick up all the non-verbal cues that they may miss though written-only correspondence. Additionally, you can hold regularly scheduled meetings, catch up with your team, and do so right from your home.  Pay Attention People have a tendency to gloss over some important facts when conversations are filled with redundant information, or if they are expected to keep up with hour-long forums or instant message streams. If you are one of these people, you should try to thoroughly read through any work-related conversations, and don?t bog the conversation down with unnecessary memes and emojis. It will help everyone stay on the same page. If the correspondence doesn?t have clear instructions, it is okay to reach out to get clarification. Collaborative work requires a certain degree of clarity. Some messages you?ll receive will be filled with directions that need to be followed and questions that need to be answered. The more conscientious you are, the easier it will be on your whole team. Another thing you should always consider is proofreading your messages before they are sent. Taking a few moments to ensure that you are saying what you want to say and that the message is clear and concise is important. If you send messages that are filled with grammatical errors, misspellings, and poorly thought out sentences, you might just find that you will be spending a lot of time clarifying things. As a final suggestion, you will want to try to avoid using sarcasm in work-related messages while working remotely. Some people are more literal than others and it can cause a lot of headaches and inefficiency to clear misunderstandings that result from the use of sarcasm.  If working remotely is your new normal, ensuring that you are using solid communication practices and tools are crucial to keeping your staff on-point and your business working productively. If you would like help setting up a communications platform that fits your business call, the IT professionals at White Mountain IT Services today at (603) 889-0800.