If businesses adopt technology, there?s this misconception that if it?s not something they need, it will be a waste, but this is certainly not the case. More of a good thing is not going to make your job any more difficult. It can only make your responsibilities easier and more efficient. Whether your organization just wants to implement IT to alleviate weak points in its infrastructure or completely revamp operations, we can help you understand how modern technology solutions can help your business make great strides. Here are just five benefits IT can provide for your organization. Money Management The goal of business is to make money, no matter what that business actually is. Controlling the flow of money and managing it should be a priority for business, as it?s a valuable resource that allows it to continue operating as intended. While a spreadsheet can accomplish this goal, there are other dedicated platforms that allow your organization to save time when managing your finances. Collaboration The traditional way of storing files is not necessarily ideal for collaboration, as paper files demand that everyone has a copy of the file–and you can forget about all edits being made on the same document in real time unless everyone is huddled around one single sheet. IT solutions, with cloud computing in particular, can remedy this issue and make it easier to collaborate during meetings. All team members who need to see a document or edit it can do so in real time on their own devices. These documents are also saved in a location where they can be accessed at any time by whoever needs to work on it, either as a team or individually. Efficiency Your organization has a lot of work that must be done, and any tools to get it done cannot be ignored. If you can use these tools to monitor and schedule time spent on tasks, you can make sure all responsibilities are being met with minimal waste. You might be surprised by how much your organization saves by managing tasks better. Mobile Work and Telecommuting Smartphones, tablets, and laptops are all mobile tools that can help your organization go mobile while also being productive. In fact, smartphones today are more powerful and dynamic than even computers were just a decade ago. By making use of these devices, you can empower your employees to get even more done throughout the workday, whether it?s while away from the desktop or away from the office. Customer Service Customer service is another major part of your business that you can improve with the right technology solution. If employees are constantly being interrupted by phone calls for support or other customer interactions, you can set up automated systems for general inquiries or questions. If you have a more appointment-based business model, you can schedule meetings with clients or customers on a calendar that can provide automatic updates to both parties involved. This is only a small sample of what the right technology solutions can do for your business. To learn more, reach out to White Mountain IT Services at (603) 889-0800.

The Basics: Viruses and Malware Your computer?s operating system is a software solution in and of itself; all devices on your network run an operating system in addition to a myriad of other software that can be exploited by threats. This is where viruses and malware come in. Viruses are little pieces of code that make changes to the code of your software. The results can vary from being a simple annoyance to a major waste of productivity and efficiency. Malware, in particular, can be extremely dangerous to your business. This ?malicious software? can be used by hackers to steal, alter, or destroy data, so it can be quite damaging to your business. The More Dangerous Threats: Ransomware and Spyware More specialized types of malware are used to extort money from companies and steal data covertly without the business knowing. Ransomware has become a major threat to organizations, as it?s designed to coerce money from organizations by threatening to lock data away forever. Hackers like to use ransomware because it can collect a considerable amount of revenue due to the large amount of victims it can reach. Spyware is also in this vein of dangerous malware, as it can be used to install backdoors, keyloggers, and other types of covert threats that give hackers a way to slowly siphon data from businesses. The Vehicle: Spam and Phishing Attacks One of the biggest reasons why threats are so dangerous is because they are concealed in such a way that even the most well-trained employee could slip up and make a mistake. After all, you never hear about brute-force attacks being the main causes of data breaches (or, at least, they don?t happen as often in this way). The biggest and most devastating data breaches tend to occur over extended periods of time in which countless records are stolen without being noticed by security professionals or network administrators. To this end, spam and phishing campaigns are hackers? best friends. How often do you receive emails enticing you to click on links or ?claim your price?? How about messages that pose as others within your organization, or those who your business has a professional association with? These kind of spam and phishing attacks mean that vigilance is key to protecting your organization?s network. Protect Your Business with Proactive Tools and Best Practices While there are more threats these days than ever before, it?s never been easier to protect your business? network infrastructure, especially with all of the great security features that your business can take advantage of. A Unified Threat Management solution combines the comprehensive security tools your organization needs to prevent infections and limit the scope of attacks against your network. You can take advantage of a firewall, antivirus, spam blocker and content filter to prevent and detect threats on your network before they can cause too much damage. By limiting access to data on a user basis, you can also keep specific data much safer than it would be otherwise. In general, it?s best to use industry best practices to only share data with those who need it for their specific roles within your organization. For more information about how to keep your business secure from threats, reach out to the security expects at White Mountain IT Services via (603) 889-0800.

Password Pitfalls Passwords are great tools for managing access to data, but only if they are made properly. If a password is created without knowledge of best practices, it could be figured out with relative ease and used to crack any accounts that the password is used for. It?s not uncommon for those who don?t know any better to use the same password for multiple accounts. It can be challenging to make your password easy to remember while also keeping it secure and difficult to guess. You don?t want it easy enough for someone to figure it out on their own, but you don?t want to forget it yourself. A passphrase is a great way to keep track of your password, and it?s much more difficult to guess than a singular word. If you substitute certain letters for characters and numbers, you can make it even more difficult to crack. So, instead of using ?dorothy? or a random series of letters and numbers, a Wizard of Oz fan might use ?&Ur1i++leD0g2?. Malicious Mobile Applications Applications meant for use on your smartphone aren?t always created with the best quality, and that?s saying nothing of their intentions. Even though smartphone app distributors have made attempts to eliminate threatening downloads, it?s impossible to find them all, and they will occasionally make their way onto the platform. These malicious applications pose a considerable risk for your business. Even the safe apps that you download from the app store could pose a threat, though. Some are quite loose with how they treat a user?s data, so make sure you keep track of what permissions you?re allowing for each of them. Make sure that any permissions you have for your apps make sense. If they don?t, perhaps you?re better off without it. Phony Phishing Cybercriminals will often resort to underhanded tactics and deception to make their way into your business? infrastructure. They might try to manipulate your employees into acting a certain way or making decisions that aren?t the best for the business. These methods are called phishing, and it?s one of the big reasons why your organization needs to be cautious with messages from both known (and unknown) senders. These phishing scams vary in scope and scale, ranging from the classic Nigerian Prince example to the countless messages that are sent out every day warning the user that their system has been compromised, insisting that ?tech support? must be called. Your staff can prevent these messages from making trouble for your organization by keeping a healthy dose of skepticism when going through their email. It?s also critical to confirm the identity of the one who sent the message via a secondary means of communication, particularly if the message seems to have come from someone internally. This might seem like a hassle, but it?s well worth the annoyance of dealing with a phishing scam. Wi-Fi Worries Wireless Internet access has given businesses a lot of freedom in the workplace, providing a way to be productive without sitting in front of a desktop for eight hours or more. Wi-Fi has given businesses more opportunities to get work done, but it also creates opportunities for cybercriminals to access networks and infrastructures if they aren?t properly secured. Some organizations might keep default passwords on routers which makes them prime […]

There are mandates businesses must be aware of if they hope to maintain compliance, and HR functions as the connecting tissue that makes sure employees know and are in compliance with these regulations. If you are like many organizations that don?t have a dedicated HR department, there are options available that can help you manage these roles through dedicated cloud-based platforms; but first, let?s take a look at what the primary responsibilities of an HR department are. We have put together six of them: Employee retention Health and safety Personnel Payroll Training and compliance Employee management Software developers have invested a considerable amount of time into building dynamic human resource software solutions that can make management much easier for small businesses. Some of these services even offer automation for HR directors to control many of their responsibilities in an easy-to-manage way. Here are some of the services this includes: Human Resource Information System (HRIS) Applicant Tracking System (ATS) OnBoarding Benefits Administration Time and Compensation Management Training Management Performance, and Recognition Management HR Analytics Wellness Management It?s safe to say that the majority of today?s tools can accomplish most, if not all, of these tasks. It used to be common practice to host all the applications a human resources department would need on a single computer or network, but a truly hosted solution would include secure storage on servers managed by a provider. These services would also be accessible anywhere through an Internet connection, making them much more dynamic and flexible than your traditional in-house HR solution. Human Resources as a Service Like many services out there, HR as a Service (HRaaS) aims to create a fully outsourced solution to a problem that many businesses face. HRaaS aims to eliminate the need for an in-house HR staff by providing all the services and skills they require in one central location. The benefits of this include a significant cut in spending and resources traditionally needed to amass a human resources department on-site. HRaaS can enable your business to eliminate significant costs associated with HR management. It can both standardize your HR processes and cut down on potential issues you might face through the traditional method, such as finding the right platform and hunting down the right people for the job. White Mountain IT Services can help your business determine the best technology solutions for your organization?s needs. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

Situation #1: A Power Surge Strikes a Server Imagine that your business is struck by a storm that brings with it immense amounts of wind, thunder, and lightning. A tree limb drops and severs the power lines surrounding your office, causing a power surge and frying your server?s hard drive. Just like that, your business is set back by a considerable amount, both financially and operationally. It?s likely that your business doesn?t have extra server hardware on-hand, as the sheer price of this expensive hardware would be enough to deter such a thing. Plus, consider the fact that your business can?t work as it needs to without this server hardware; this downtime can effectively cripple your business and make it much more difficult to recover. A quality data backup and disaster recovery platform like White Mountain IT Services?s BDR solution will give your business the ability to eliminate downtime. Plus, since the BDR device can be used as a temporary server, you can keep your business running while you get your hardware back in proper working order. Situation #2: A Team Member Goofs on an Email With so many emails coming in from clients and customers, it?s easy to click on something without thinking about what you?re actually clicking on. For example, an employee could download an attachment that is infected with malware, hampering your business? ability to function and potentially exposing your data to theft or the threat of ransomware. Ransomware is one of the most devastating threats to your business? future. Locker ransomware can lock access to a specific computer, but crypto ransomware will lock access to personal data and other important files. These ransoms come in addition to a countdown with the hope of expediting the decision process. A backup and disaster recovery platform will give your business a lifeline in these troubling times. A data backup is one of the only ways to get around the annoyance and embarrassment of having to pay a hacker to release your data. Therefore, any methods you can use to prevent such a travesty should be considered. Situation #3: Time Will Always Catch Up Imagine that you haven?t experienced a technological hiccup in a long time. This might seem like the new normal, but when you go for so long without experiencing an issue, you get complacent. This means that you?re not proactively looking for threats, and a business that isn?t preventing attacks and issues will inevitably suffer from them. A hardware refresh can go a long way to help your IT withstand the test of time, and it can help your organization eliminate costs associated with downtime. A BDR solution can make migrating your data to new hardware easier and more efficient by offering you a safety net in the event the migration process doesn?t go as planned. Plus, during the migration process, your data might not be accessible by your employees, so having a backup in the cloud will allow for productivity to continue unhindered. Does your organization need data backup and disaster recovery? White Mountain IT Services can help. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.