Everyone knows that everything in the break room fridge needs to be replaced after a certain amount of time, but that?s not all that?s at your business that needs regular updates. The solutions you use every day will also need maintenance, for quite a few reasons. While their offerings are quite different, there are actually quite a few similarities between a software developer and a food producer. Both offer something that many rely on in the modern world, and both put quite a few resources into improving what they have to offer. However, this is where the two begin to differ. While a food producer may focus on things like taste and marketable nutritional content, a software developer is responsible for making other improvements. These improvements are usually directed towards the solution?s security, to fight the improvements that cyber criminals constantly make to their methods. Improvements like these are why there are frequent updates available for your solutions. They are also why it is so important to implement these updates. To explain why, we?ll return to the break room fridge for a moment. Let?s say that each of your employees keep a yogurt in the fridge. However, let?s say that these yogurts go uneaten, and are just left in the fridge to spoil. If your employees eat them anyways, there are likely going to be problems: employees could get sick and productivity will take a hit. Now we?ll just replace the yogurt in that example with your software, the fridge with your network, and spoiling with becoming vulnerable to issues and threats. Your employees? applications are kept on your network. If they were to become vulnerable to some threat or create some issue, your employees would not be able to do their jobs properly, resulting in a productivity deficiency. What if someone was there to check for outdated yogurt/software and keep the contents of your fridge/network up-to-date? If this was the case, your employees wouldn?t have to worry about suddenly becoming vulnerable without realizing it. Here at White Mountain IT Services, we keep an eye out for any updates that your business may require and install them so that they will cause minimal interruption to your day-to-day operations. While we can?t keep the contents of your break room refrigerator from expiring, we can maintain your software to preserve productivity. Give us a call at (603) 889-0800 to find out more.

This is the result of one year of training where Watson sifted through immense amounts of data to find information pertaining to cyber attacks. Watson can dig through various news sources and online databases to take the good fight to the latest security problems, and by taking a look at what the industry?s current best practices are, it?s even capable of prioritizing the most dangerous threats out there. Granted, Watson wasn?t built from the ground up to be the best detective in the world. At first, it couldn?t even identify what ransomware was. It actually thought that ransomware was the name of a place, rather than the nastiest threat that you could run into on the Internet. Thanks to Watson studying a ton of data, the supercomputer can now take the next step in its journey to end all cybercrime. The computer will look through security events from all kinds of companies in an attempt to find patterns or trends that hint toward actual threats, and ones that are caused by simple user error. Of course, any new technology will suffer from the same faults as you might expect, including the learning curve. However, the capabilities of Watson to find potential threats can only increase as development continues. Unfortunately, not all organizations have the luxury of relying on a supercomputer to manage their network security, so you need to make arrangements to ensure that your business isn?t vulnerable to potential threats. Network security is something that all businesses need to consider. White Mountain IT Services can equip your organization with what?s called a Unified Threat Management (UTM) solution. A UTM includes a firewall, antivirus, spam blocker, and content filter, allowing your organization to detect threats and eliminate problems in a prompt manner. It?s a great way to protect your business from the dangers of the web without hindering operations. Furthermore, it?s an automated solution, so while it?s certainly no Watson, you?ll have your own detective-like security solution looking for dangerous entities on your network. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

Too many businesses find themselves in this exact situation, suddenly left “up the creek without a paddle” as they discover their data has been lost. There are plenty of causes for data loss, such as user error, malicious invaders, and hardware failure. These circumstances can have catastrophic effects on a business; effects that often lead to the business in question closing its doors for good. Fortunately, this doesn?t always have to be the case. A good way to avoid this data-loss scenario is to have a backup solution implemented by a trusted provider. They can ensure that your data is backed up incrementally, allowing data redundancy as often as every 15 minutes. That way, even if your systems fail, the amount of progress you have made on a task will not be completely lost. Today is World Backup Day, and at White Mountain IT Services we dedicate a lot of time and effort to implementing and managing comprehensive data backup and disaster recovery protocols for New Hampshire businesses. To that end, we have the solution your business needs to protect and preserve your information. For more information about data backup, business continuity, and hardware and network management, call us today at (603) 889-0800. One of our knowledgeable professionals can work with you to procure and deploy the technology solutions your company needs to forge ahead.

Set Up and Utilize Private VLANsA Private VLAN (virtual LAN) gives your organization?s IT administrator more control over your hosted VoIP solution. It acts as a single access and uplink point to connect a device to a network or server. By partitioning your network, you present your administrators with the ability to secure specific devices, essentially creating separate networks. By being able to single out devices, it makes it easier to group devices together, even if they don?t share the same network switch. A private VLAN gives your organization’s another layer of security while allowing access to the same feature-rich phone system; and, it helps mitigate risk, something every business is looking for in their security solutions. Track Your UsageNo matter what platform VoIP solution you use, there is a chance it may get hacked. Most of the hacks that businesses see are ATO attacks, or traffic pumps, which aim to utilize the target organization’s phone system for calls that will cost them capital. To be sure to avoid this type of interference, tracking your organization?s call usage is a solid practice. Having an up-front conversation with your VoIP vendor about what they are doing to protect your business can be a good strategy to secure it from taking on parasitic users that drain your company?s resources. Enable Strong Authentication ProceduresYou can?t talk about security today without mentioning access control. To ensure that only your users are able to access your hosted VoIP solution, there are several practices you can implement. You can go ahead and implement a two-factor authentication strategy, or go for the gusto and deploy a powerful identity management solution. Whatever you decide, securing your solution through all applicable manners of entry is important. This includes the physical phones on your desk, mobile applications, and anywhere access can be granted. A hosted VoIP solution is a great service to implement for the growing business. It allows you to save money while receiving all the dynamic features you are looking for in a business communications solution. For more information about hosted VoIP, communications, or how to better secure your company from threats, call White Mountain IT Services today at (603) 889-0800.

Set Up and Utilize Private VLANsA Private VLAN (virtual LAN) gives your organization?s IT administrator more control over your hosted VoIP solution. It acts as a single access and uplink point to connect a device to a network or server. By partitioning your network, you present your administrators with the ability to secure specific devices, essentially creating separate networks. By being able to single out devices, it makes it easier to group devices together, even if they don?t share the same network switch. A private VLAN gives your organization’s another layer of security while allowing access to the same feature-rich phone system; and, it helps mitigate risk, something every business is looking for in their security solutions. Track Your UsageNo matter what platform VoIP solution you use, there is a chance it may get hacked. Most of the hacks that businesses see are ATO attacks, or traffic pumps, which aim to utilize the target organization’s phone system for calls that will cost them capital. To be sure to avoid this type of interference, tracking your organization?s call usage is a solid practice. Having an up-front conversation with your VoIP vendor about what they are doing to protect your business can be a good strategy to secure it from taking on parasitic users that drain your company?s resources. Enable Strong Authentication ProceduresYou can?t talk about security today without mentioning access control. To ensure that only your users are able to access your hosted VoIP solution, there are several practices you can implement. You can go ahead and implement a two-factor authentication strategy, or go for the gusto and deploy a powerful identity management solution. Whatever you decide, securing your solution through all applicable manners of entry is important. This includes the physical phones on your desk, mobile applications, and anywhere access can be granted. A hosted VoIP solution is a great service to implement for the growing business. It allows you to save money while receiving all the dynamic features you are looking for in a business communications solution. For more information about hosted VoIP, communications, or how to better secure your company from threats, call White Mountain IT Services today at (603) 889-0800.