With any luck, it won?t be long before they won’t have to do anything. These kinds of scams are terribly familiar by now. At this point, most people have encountered this scam in one of two ways. Many have been a recipient of a scam call. They?ll have their phone ring, and habitually checked the caller ID. Seeing that the call came from a local number, and possibly even one they knew, they?ve answered with a ?Hello?? However, instead of a familiar voice returning the greeting, they are answered with a brief pause, followed by a prerecorded message. Only one thing is certain: that call didn’t come from a local number, much less someone the user knew. Many have also received unexpected calls from furious people, spitting fire as they rage about being called, repeatedly, from ?this number!? even though no calls were ever made. How often have you experienced either, or heard that it happened to someone you know? You aren?t the only one to fall for this scam, perpetrated by clever scammers. These calls have exploded in popularity, as scammers have found some way to cheat the system and leverage its flaws. This has enabled them to defy the controls put in place by the FCC (the Federal Communications Commission). The FCC has already tried to end these calls by utilizing the 2017 Call Blocking Order. This order gave telephone providers the ability to block calls that they identified as fraudulent, judged based on assorted criteria. These criteria included invalid numbers and numbers that weren?t assigned to a service. Unfortunately, these rules didn?t impede robocall scams for nearly as long as we would have liked. Instead, now we have neighbor spoofing, which has proved to be a very real annoyance to a huge segment of the population. Chances are, you?ve been involved with one of these calls, and if you?ve been lucky enough to avoid them, someone close to you have experienced their effects. Of course, before we continue, it would help to explain what ?neighbor spoofing? is. Caller ID is a common enough thing now that many people have gotten in the habit of checking the number before they answer the phone. The rule of thumb essentially dictated that a local number was safe to answer. Unfortunately, neighbor spoofing has broken that rule, and makes it feel like our thumbs are broken with it. Spammers have largely abandoned calling from fake numbers, and now make their calls utilizing an actual, in-service number from the target?s area. In some cases, people have thought their neighbors were calling them, but it turned out to be another instance of neighbor spoofing. Of course, this tactic has had the added effect of people receiving actual, angry calls from people, raging about the calls they have repeatedly received from the person?s number, that person?s number having been spoofed. Some people have even seemed to have their phone call itself, supposedly as the phone company?s method of reaching them to ?verify a hacked account.? Neighbor spoofing is now immensely popular because the protections currently enacted to stop scam calls are effectively fooled, just like a human target would be, and renders the Do Not Call list ineffective. While some apps may help, they don?t come without concerns as well. Smartphone application developers have […]

With the assistance of Microsoft?s Digital Crime Unit (based in Redmond, Washington, USA, and with offices around the globe) the authorities were able to leverage data analytics in order to bust multiple companies with illegal call centers. These call centers were running a tech support scam that targeted American Microsoft Windows users. Typical of a tech support scam, the employees at these call centers would first send their targets a fraudulent notification that claimed that their systems had malware on them. They created websites to further convince their targets of their legitimacy. When a victim called the number provided, the cybercriminals would charge them a sum anywhere between $100 and $500 to ?remedy? the apparent issue. The scammers would steal data and install malware once they were given access. It was through monitoring that an employee of Microsoft India, Nripenda Kashyap, was able to identify and report these activities to the DCU. His actions ultimately led to 10 call centers being raided and the arrest of 24 people, the owners of these businesses included. There are a few lessons that you can take from these events. First, you need to remember that no major technology company, like Microsoft, is ever going to reach out to you and inform you that your device is having issues. The only exception is if you?ve enlisted a service provider like White Mountain IT Services to actively monitor your computers and other devices. Otherwise, you?re essentially on your own. Second, having your own IT monitored isn?t something that you should postpone. Tech support scams like these claim $1.5 billion each year from 3.3 million users (and that?s according to a lawsuit that the DCU filed? in 2014) While you may see the dozens of errors that your computer tracks as some kind of catastrophe, a professional IT resource will be able to tell if something is actually wrong. When you do elect to have your devices monitored and maintained, try reaching out to us. We?ll work behind the scenes, actually preventing issues before they happen and identifying and mitigating threats. If you?re interested in learning more about our services, including our remote monitoring and maintenance solutions, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

Don?t believe us? After all, how can such a necessary task be harmful to your bottom line? Time to crunch the numbers. Eight days of productivity are lost every year due to moving back and forth with a mouse. That?s eight full, 8-hour workdays. Let?s assume that the average worker switches between their mouse and keyboard once a minute, and this switch takes up two seconds of time (or about 0.03 minutes). If the worker is typing for six hours a day (480 minutes) and they work about 240 days a year, we can build the following equation. [2 wasted seconds / min] * [480 min / workday] * [240 workdays / year] = 58 wasted hours / year! This creates a situation where the average worker spends almost 58 hours simply switching between the mouse and keyboard. Thankfully, keyboard shortcuts exist, so let?s dig into detail about how these can help you eliminate the time spent moving your hand back and forth, as well as the time wasted moving your cursor around. Here are some of the lesser-known keyboard shortcuts that can help you better navigate your toolbar, hopefully saving you time that could be put to better use on another task. Pressing CTRL+B will select an item in your System Tray, while the arrow keys can be used to select the one you need. To select an item in the Windows Taskbar, you can press the Windows Key plus the corresponding number to bring it up. When you hold Shift and press an arrow key, you?ll be able to select items without clicking and dragging the mouse. If you have your items selected, press the Menu Key (the one between the Windows key and the Ctrl key). This will work the same way as right-clicking the items. Once you?re done, close the program by pressing Alt + F4. On that note, just about anything you do on a regular basis probably has a keyboard shortcut that you can use to save time. You can also create your own keyboard shortcut by right-clicking on a program?s icon on your desktop and accessing its properties. Under the Shortcut tab, you can provide your preferred shortcut combo. Once you?ve finished, click Apply. What are some ways your organization improves productivity? Let us know in the comments.

Building Your Hosted Solution When you put together a hosted solution, you?re building one that is exactly to your specifications–at least, to the best of your ability. This means that you?re not using the same solution as any other business. It doesn?t matter if you?re the one hosting the solution or not. The end result is still something tailor-made for your business? needs, whether it?s an application, storage space, or connecting your data to applications. Buying a Hosted Solution If you?re not as concerned about getting a customized solution compared to just getting one that works, you can always invest in a prebuilt solution from a service provider. You can think of this as a kind-of template, in a sense. It might not be perfect for what you need, but if you?re just experimenting with what?s possible and you?re not entirely sure what you specifically need in the first place, it?s not a bad place to start. Renting Hosted Solutions If you?re not sure where the solution will be hosted, the option to rent the space on someone else?s infrastructure is always a possibility. Even if it?s not on your network, your solution will be hosted in an environment that allows for all the functionality you need, save for potential security differences as a result of not having the customization you might initially want. You will have to outline the responsibilities of the hosting provider as well as your own, but you could potentially eliminate many of the responsibilities your organization would be responsible for, saving you time and resources. What your business needs will be different compared to all others in your area, but you don?t have to make that decision without first consulting professionals. White Mountain IT Services can help you out with this process. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

Confirm Google Play Protect is on Downloading apps always presents a challenge, as you can never know if there is a risk to downloading the wrong one. Google Play Protect is a system put in place to keep this from happening. This feature can constantly scan your device for threats with the intention of keeping your device as secure as possible. If it?s not activated by default (which it should be), you can do so by going to Settings > Security > Google Play Protect. If all of these toggles are active, it?s already activated, so you have nothing to worry about. Enable Two-Factor Authentication This isn?t necessarily an Android-native feature, but you can enable two-factor authentication for your Google account. This makes it so that your phone has an additional level of security that can prevent some hackers from accessing important information located on the device. You can set up two-factor authentication by accessing your Settings > Google > Security, then following the instructions for 2-Step Verification. Limit Lock Screen Notifications Notifications on the lock screen are helpful for the user, but they can be a breach of privacy for those who don?t want others to see them. You can limit the information displayed by lock screen notifications by going through your Settings > Lock screen > Notifications. You can then toggle which apps you want to display the full notification, or just the app?s icon. Pinning Your Screen If you have other people using your phone every so often, you don?t want them to be accessing your applications or files. To keep this from happening, you can ?pin? your screen to a particular application, meaning that any time the device accesses the application or function, it is the only application that user can access. To pin your screen, all you have to do is access your Settings > Biometrics and security > Other security settings. Once you?ve done this, just scroll to the bottom of the page and toggle on Pin windows. You can enter a menu item and make sure the Ask for PIN before unpinning switch is toggled. Once you?ve activated screen pinning, you can then set it so that the one app they need to use is the only one that they can use until the application is unpinned. You can pin usage to a single app by opening the application and pressing the Recent button. You?ll see a pin icon on the screen. Press it to pin the application. Once you?re ready to allow other apps to be used again, you can just hold the Back and Recent buttons at the same time. This unpins the device and locks it, requiring your PIN to be plugged in before it can be used again. If you?re having trouble keeping your device secure, White Mountain IT Services can help. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.