Today?s world is driven by data. As a result, information systems have to be secured. That really is the bottom line. Business is all about relationships and without proper security protocols in place, there are some very serious situations that could completely decimate the relationships you?ve worked so hard to forge. While today?s hackers have a lot of different ways to breach an organization?s network, data breaches that occur as a result of lax security are unforgivable from a customer standpoint. Some organizations can spend more on security than others, but it with the landscape as it is today, it has to be a priority, no matter your IT budget. Here are some of the regulations all business owners and IT administrators should know: GDPR: The European Union?s General Data Protection Regulation is as comprehensive a data protection law as there is. Its aim is to protect the citizens of EU-member countries from data breaches. The GDPR applies to every organization that processes personal information of people residing in the EU. GPG13: Known as the Good Practice Guide 13, it is the U.K.?s general data protection regulation for organizations that do business in the U.K. HIPAA: The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act puts several guidelines on how patients? data is shared and disseminated by insurers and health maintenance organizations. SOx – The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires corporate records to be kept for seven years to ensure that there is transparency in the accounting. For IT this means being able to have access to data to run reports when called upon. PCI-DSS – Payment Card Index Data Security Standard are regulations enacted to try and reduce fraud by protecting an individual?s credit card information. That?s just a few of the regulations business owners and IT administrators have to be cognizant of. For business owners there are several more, like the federal and state tax codes, and the adherence to the Affordable Care Act. All these regulations seem pretty straightforward and necessary until you begin to roll them out for your business. Then they just get expensive. In the first-ever Small Business Regulations Survey conducted by the National Small Business Association, the numbers reported, although not comprehensive by any means, weren?t pretty. To put it frankly, the cost to the small businesses that reported, would sink as many or more new businesses. ?The average small-business owner is spending at least $12,000 every year dealing with regulations,? NSBA President Todd McCracken said, ?This has real-world implications: more than half of small businesses have held off on hiring a new employee due to regulatory burdens.? The report goes on to state that the average regulatory costs to start a new business venture add up to a whopping $83,019. These figures don?t take in to account the dozens of man hours each year spent on these very complex problems. It should be stated that the NSBA has been a long-standing advocate of reducing regulations on small businesses. Regulators are paid to be skeptical, but overall they are put in place for a purpose, as oversight to ensure sustained adherence to data protection laws. How much can they demand from a small business? The question begs for analysis, as to listen to entrepreneurs talk about them regulations are unnecessary, but as stated before, these regulations aren?t […]

This should come as absolutely no surprise. Cryptocurrencies are ideal for cybercriminals, largely due to their high values and equally high levels of anonymity. However, mining even the smallest amount through legitimate means is an expensive and lengthy process that requires specialized computer hardware and significant amounts of electrical power. As a result, there has been a rise in a new threat to users called crypto jacking. Malware will infect a user?s device and hide in the background, leeching off of the host computer?s resources to mine for cryptocurrency. This causes the exact side effects that you would expect: increased electric bills and hindered performance for the user, with an increased rate of wear on their computer components. Worse, this malware only requires a compromised website to be visited for the malware to go to work – and while this once meant that the malware would only work as long as the unwitting host was on the website, cybercriminals have even found a way to work around that. Now, some infected sites will create a pop-up that hides behind the computer?s taskbar, unnoticed, and continues to eat up resources for the cybercriminal?s profit. In addition to malware downloads, crypto-miners are often spread through hidden code on the websites themselves, as well as untrustworthy browser extensions. This variety of the malware has been discovered in the websites for the United States Courts, the United Kingdom?s National Health Service, and the Australian state governments of Victoria and Queensland. It was found in a text-to-speech and translation plugin used on those sites. The developer of the plugin removed it from all websites immediately. Business owners should pay close attention to these events, as they could easily have a direct effect on business operations. After all, you pay a pretty penny for your Internet and its bandwidth – why should it profit some cybercriminal, and not you? Furthermore, mining cryptocurrency is no easy task for any hardware, which means it shortens the life of the machine and the components inside. This ultimately means that you will also be on the hook to replace that hardware sooner, costing your business even more. Fortunately, not all hope is lost. Many browsers are incorporating anti-cryptocurrency measures, and some antivirus programs can block crypto jacking attempts. There are also some extensions available for some browsers that help to stop cryptomining and crypto jacking scripts. At White Mountain IT Services, we?re here to help keep your IT running efficiently. This includes preventing threats and malware. Give us a call at (603) 889-0800 to find out what we can do for you.

What Does a CPU Do? A CPU, or central processing unit, sits atop the motherboard and decodes the instructions that it receives from the RAM, or Random Access Memory, before sending these instructions to the appropriate components of the computer. Whether you?re accessing a document from your computer?s local memory or even starting up the operating system, your CPU is playing a key role. This is not to say that a better CPU necessarily translates into better performance, mind you. What it will do is help your programs, applications, and system-as-a-whole run faster. Other beneficial effects require other components to be improved. How Does the CPU Work? The CPU has worked in essentially the same way since it was first introduced. Its function can be effectively split into three distinct tasks: fetch, decode, and execute. Fetch – First, the CPU receives its instructions from the RAM in the form of a series of numbers. These instructions are small portions of the greater operation that the computer is performing. As the CPU receives each instruction, it is stored in what is called an Instruction Register. Decode – Once the instruction is stored, it is sent to a specialized circuit, referred to as the instruction decoder. The decoder translates the instruction into actionable signals to the rest of the CPU. Execute – Finally, the instruction is forwarded to the part of the CPU that can enable it to be completed. This final version is also written to the memory on the CPU register, so it can be quickly accessed later. Choosing Your Next CPU If you?re considering an upgrade, switching your CPU for a better one can be an effective way to improve some aspects of your computer?s performance. A good rule of thumb to remember: the more cores, the better. While the earliest CPUs only had one, the latest go all the way up to 18 cores and beyond. Most modern PCs have two to four cores. Of course, you should also consider other factors when selecting a CPU. For instance, you may have heard the terms ?32-bit? or ?64-bit? tossed around in reference to CPUs. This determines the size of the data sample that the processor can handle. Frequency is another variable you should keep in mind, as it refers to the operating speed of the processor itself. It isn?t outside the realm of possibility for a faster dual-core CPU to outpace a slower quad-core. On top of all of this, your computer?s motherboard might only support a limited number of CPUs on the market. Want Help? For assistance and consultation into upgrading your systems, the trustworthy technicians at White Mountain IT Services are here for you. Call (603) 889-0800 for assistance.

What Does UCC Do? Once, not too long ago, a team had to assemble in order to effectively get anything done. This was not only due to the limitations of the communication devices available at the time, but also because it was the only way for everyone to contribute to the task at hand. While this method was workable, it was prone to serious delays and numerous hangups. Schedules needed to be synchronized and arrangements made for a meeting to take place, which delayed the process. Furthermore, anyone who couldn?t attend (for whatever reason) was rendered unable to contribute, potentially sacrificing invaluable insight and reducing the manpower actively working to complete the group?s task. While this method was tolerated for years, the development of an alternative has led to a rapid change to the new approach. This development, known as Unified Communication and Collaboration, leverages the Internet and cloud technology to allow employees to work together on the same documents and projects, providing a single communications interface and real-time updates to changes their fellow team members have made that they can access from anywhere they can establish an Internet connection. Why This is So Important There are a few contributing factors to why today?s businesses need to adopt a UCC strategy, especially if they want to leverage the benefits that it can bring to their productivity. Generational Values First, there?s the shifts taking place in the workforces that power these businesses. Rather than those members of the generation nicknamed the Baby Boomers, those referred to as Millennials are becoming the prominent group in the workplace. By 2020, it?s expected that they will make up a full 50 percent. While this may seem to be a mostly unrelated factor, one has to consider the upbringing that the Millennial generation experienced – more specifically, in terms of the technology available to them and how it has shaped their lifestyles. Millennials have been breaking away from the traditional concrete 9 to 5 schedule, instead creating a more organic balance to their work and personal lives. As a result, the odd hours that are committed to doing work may not always line up with those of their teammates. In the past, this rendered collaboration effectively impossible, as the communication tools of the time just weren?t ready to support the needs that a true collaborative experience requires. UCC remedies that deficit by allowing for remote access to shared work. User Satisfaction People tend to like the devices they personally own – otherwise, they wouldn?t own them for very long. They also become accustomed to using these devices very quickly. If paired with a Bring Your Own Device policy, your employees could leverage Unified Communications and Collaboration on a device they are comfortable using, allowing them to work faster and accomplish more. Efficiency UCC can also generally boost the efficiency of employee communications. A study conducted in 2017 revealed that more than two-thirds of the time an employee spends working is taken up by communicating, approximately three hours each day on in-person work conversations, one and a half on email. This study also attributed inefficient communications for a full fifteen percent of lost and wasted work time – costing mid-sized businesses about $11,000 each year, per employee. UCC has been shown to reduce this time considerably. […]

While the banking institutions have to deal with stringent lending regulations, MPLs are relatively new, and use what is known as FinTech (financial technology) to lend, collect, and distribute the capital they have. Consumers are starting to catch on, and in all, over $7 trillion is at risk of being displaced from the financial services market as a result of the growth of these organizations. MPLs are in an advantageous position because they are in a position where they utilize modern technology which insulate them from runaway systemic risk inherent in non-regulated financial transactions. Today, legislators are trying to figure out ways to regulate these organizations that won?t necessarily hinder their ability to innovate, but will work to keep them from taking advantage of consumers. What is FinTech? FinTech is technology used to track and manage finances. Your credit card, your PayPal account, and your personal account dashboard on your bank?s website is all FinTech. Using technology for finances isn?t new, but like many other technologies that have advanced as hardware and software improvements have been made, it?s just being repurposed outside of the traditional banking structure. FinTech today covers a whole lot of ground. So while banks have been doing this for a long time MPLs are backed with enough VC to start a small country and that capital allows these organizations to invest like no independent companies have been able to before. It often provides nice returns for a lot of investors. So while it is an affront to the banks, investors aren?t having to limit their sights to banks for financial services. Nowadays, most of the money is flowing through asset managers who are taking the capital that is entrusted to them by investors and investing it in non-traditional ways through technology. Defining FinTech can be a challenge in itself as the language differs substantially depending on where the company operates and what type of lending facility it is being used for, but as far as the need to adhere to federal regulations, new FinTech models present gray areas that are likely going to have to be addressed at local or state levels as regulations haven?t been implemented yet. Federal investigators have been looking at the sector for much of the past five years. So while the traditional banking structures are threatened by these restrictions on what they can and can?t do with the capital, the new marketplace lenders have been able to do more with less. Payday Loans Independent lenders have been around forever. Tales around the shylock that will come and pay people a visit if you don?t pay their bookie are all over the culture. One lending organization that has been very controversial is the payday loan market. In essence a person that needs fast money can take out a short-term, high-interest loan. If they pay it back by the next paycheck, no harm, no foul, the lender takes its small fee and everyone is happy. The bad things start happening when they can?t pay the whole loan back on time. Once the loan is past due, it is basically renewed with interest added. Most of the people that will utilize this service need a couple hundred dollars quick and can?t wait until their next paycheck. If the borrower can?t pay, they are making […]