Many smaller businesses look to a niche market for sustainability; and, while this seems like a decent strategy on the surface, if demand falls in that niche, you could quickly be faced with some very disheartening questions. Other businesses decide to forgo this strategy and continue as intended, relying on their people?s expertise or experience to guide them through rough patches in business. This is a great strategy until your larger competitors pilfer your organization?s talent with offers of more pay and better benefits. The truth is that there are no easy answers on how to sustain a small business through turbulent times. For this reason, one avenue almost any small business can venture down is to make improvements in technological resources to try and mitigate the gaps in financial and productivity deficits. Technology, if leveraged properly, can build additional efficiency to your offering, making business move faster. The problem for the modern small business owner or manager is ascertaining what technology investments make the most sense for you. Where Do Mobile Devices Fit?Mobile has been a popular discussion point in every technology-of-the-future discussion for the past ten or twelve years. This means that the future is now for mobile and while there are a lot of things to love about mobile devices, for small businesses they may do more harm than good. For the small business that has already covered their bases with a thorough mobile device management platform and a BYOD strategy, leveraging the positive attributes out of mobile will be simpler than those who are starting from scratch. Of course, it?s easier to build a bridge if you?ve already procured the materials you need, but without some idea of what you?ll use it for, what?s the point? For a small business, mobile devices can have some positive effects on employee engagement, awareness, and for cultivating the relationships you depend on. On the other hand, mobile devices can be a hopeless waste of time, which just happens to be one of the most critical resources to manage for the small business owner. With well over 90% of a smartphone?s utility wrapped up in distractions, it seems like that is an endless amount of monitoring and management for a very little return. As long as your organization has clear rules in place to manage data dissemination, access, and communication, mobile will continue to work for your business. But, if you are just getting on the mobile bandwagon, be sure to create your mobile policies before relying on mobile as a way to build more revenue. The Internet of ThingsThe Internet of Things is what mobile devices were a few years ago: a wild new frontier filled to the brim with entrepreneurial ideas. Where there are a pool of entrepreneurs there is capital, so expect the Internet of Things to continue to come on fast and produce experiences like nothing you have ever seen before. For the small business owner, it will be difficult to pinpoint which solutions will be of benefit to your company. Since many of these devices are going to be marketed to ?build efficiency? in some kind of task, it will be on you to determine which products will work for your organization. There has been some technologies that have already been developed that are sure […]

Before we dive into this week?s tip, it has to be said: if you have a choice, you should probably avoid using a public computer. As a rule, these machines feature minimal security precautions, along with maximum risk to any data accessed by the PC. Although, if a situation ever arises in which you have no choice but to use a public computer, be sure to follow these security best practices. Browse PrivatelyIn the interest of a user?s convenience, most web browsers are configured to store informative things like browsing history, passwords, and downloads. On a private machine, these features can be pretty useful. However, if a public-access machine saves this data and you?re not careful, a stranger could access it and piece together your sensitive information. Using a private browser helps to keep your personal browsing safe, even on a public computer. Private browsing is a function that?s built into many browsers that will erase any tracks you leave behind on the machine itself by wiping the local data. Although, be warned that private browsing only prevents the machine you are using from recalling what you accessed, but Internet providers, advertisers, and search engines still keep track of this information. Make Use of a VPNVPNs, or Virtual Private Networks, are great for private web browsing. Once you?ve logged in to your VPN, it shields your IP address and conceals your activity in a virtual tunnel, hidden under layers of encryption. Your identity and even your location are kept anonymous, thanks to the use of proxy servers the world over, protecting you from opportunistic attacks. VPNs come in both free and reasonably-priced varieties. Additionally, if you plan on accessing your office network from an outside location using a VPN, it?s important to first setup your network so you can do this securely. For more help securing your business assets in situations like this, as well as many other scenarios, give White Mountain IT Services a call at (603) 889-0800.

First off, know that the appearance of an eye icon doesn?t mean that you?re being watched by a hacker. It?s a Samsung feature called Smart Stay, and when you see the eye, it means that the feature is activated. What is Smart Stay?Smart Stay is a clever feature that uses your device’s front camera to sense when you are looking at the device. Once your face (or any face) is detected, Smart Stay will then prevent the screen from turning off, overriding any screen timeout setting. As you can imagine, this is a very helpful feature that prevents your screen from turning off while you?re reading a blog or an email, which can be a frustrating experience. You can adjust the feature from the Android home screen by going to Menu > Settings > My Device > Smart screen. From here, check or uncheck Smart Stay to turn the feature on or off. Of course, it?s such a helpful feature that you?ve really got no reason to turn it off. That is, unless you want to conserve battery power. How Do I Know if My Phone is Compromised?Now that we?ve established that Samsung?s Smart Stay feature is not spying on you, let?s go over some symptoms that you?ll see on your phone if it is hacked. Depending on the nature of the hack, some of these symptoms could even mean that someone may actually be spying on you via your phone. Unfamiliar charges on your carrier?s statement. Data access patterns that you don?t recognize. Your battery drains quicker than normal. You find apps that are downloaded from a third-party app store. Strange notifications start appearing, especially related to finding and downloading new apps and games. Your device has been rooted (aka jailbroken). Your antivirus has been disabled. You actually see the hacker?s remote actions of opening apps and navigating your phone. Of course, if you have any suspicion whatsoever that your phone is hacked, then it?s a smart move to turn off the device?s Internet connection, or even power it down completely. You?ll then want to take your phone to an IT professional like the friendly technicians at White Mountain IT Services for us to confirm or deny your suspicion, and then remove the threat entirely should we find one. In today?s hack-happy world, it?s good to be suspicious when you see something on your device that you don?t understand, like perhaps the Smart Stay eyeball. White Mountain IT Services is standing by to assist you when you encounter your phone doing something that you don?t understand, because when it comes to your personal data, it?s better to be safe than sorry!

It?s the nature of every problem relating to business to include consequences that extend far beyond the timeframe of the issue?s initial impact. This is especially true for data breaches; an all-too-common problem that hurts organizations in many more ways than one. To give you an idea of just how much damage a single data breach can cause a business, consider a new report by Cisco saying that, out of all the companies that experienced a data breach in 2016, more than one-third lost more than 20 percent of their customers, opportunities, or revenue. This statistic should come as no surprise. After all, let?s say that a store you shopped at experienced a data breach and your credit card information was compromised. Upon finding out about the incident, wouldn?t you be hesitant to return as a customer? Even if the company offered you their assurances that the vulnerability had been addressed, you?d still have hurt feelings and perhaps a hard time taking them at their word. This same attitude exists with your company?s customers as well. While many businesses are able to make amends following a data breach and retain much of their customer base, for the average SMB, having to lose as much as 20 percent of a their clientele may prove to be too large of a loss to bounce back from. One reason for this is due to the fact that a loss of customers, opportunities, or revenue has far-reaching consequences that work against the projected growth of your company. Consider the reality that, if your business were to lose 20 percent of its customers, then that 20 percent compounds over time when you factor in the reality that every person that left could represent a customer that won?t recommend new customers to your company. Thinking along these lines, a loss in revenue represents a loss of resources to draw from that could be going toward growing your business. See now how a little problem like a data breach can turn out to be way more devastating than you may have initially realized? Taking a 20-percent hit is something that few businesses can afford; not initially, and especially not in the long run. Additional findings in the Cisco report are equally concerning. Cyber threats in 2016 increased in power and sophistication. Cybersecurity efforts by organizations aren?t able to investigate all of the alerts they get in a single day (56 percent is the average). However, despite cyber attacks growing in complexity, hackers still utilized ?classic attack methods seen in 2010.? With cyber threats increasing in frequency and sophistication (so much so that the average business struggles to stay on top of them), and considering how costly a data breach truly is (both in the present and in the long run), you can see why investing adequately in cybersecurity solutions should be a top priority for your business. To safeguard your company from the devastating consequences of a data breach, call the cybersecurity experts at White Mountain IT Services for an IT consultation of your network. We can equip your business with the enterprise-level security solutions you need to stay on top of the worst threats of the web, like a Unified Threat Management tool and our remote monitoring service. Call us at (603) 889-0800 and ask about how we can protect […]

Whatever their reasons may be, many companies resort to ineffective measures like these when it comes to implementing changes on their network. The trouble is, they?ll often just add some relatively newer technology to their aging system. That, or they begin to channel Angus MacGyver, cobbling together whatever they have on hand to create a work-around to whatever problem they are experiencing. At White Mountain IT Services, we think that?s a shame, and that?s what makes us so committed to providing a better option for businesses. Many businesses, especially small ones, experience similar issues. They also tend to be unprepared for the full impact of any of the numerous IT concerns that could do harm to their operations, or prevent them from expanding and growing. Other tendencies that plague small businesses and their technology solutions include a lack of documentation outlining the basic procedures for a business resource to follow, as well as the consequences of that lack of documentation. Ultimately, a workforce that has not received the proper training will not be capable of working efficiently enough to fulfill the demands of the consumer or customers. However, without cohesive training or onboarding available to them, the employees who create that workforce will not be able to utilize the resources they are provided to their fullest ability. Instead, your more intrepid employees may take it upon themselves to come up with alternative methods to completing their duties, methods that could very well create a much larger problem somewhere down the line. All in all, workforces like these tend to be disorganized, inefficient, and unmotivated to learn how to become better, electing to do things ?the way they know how to do them.? Clearly, functioning as a small business is no easy endeavor, especially when concerns like these repeatedly pop up in technologies that small businesses rely on to function, distracting the employees and preventing them from achieving efficiency. However, there is help. Providers, like us at White Mountain IT Services, can implement the solutions your business will need to embrace its full potential. This only begins with a managed service implementation, where we will monitor your solutions as part of a proactive effort against the many threats that could strike your systems. If an issue or threat appears on the horizon, our technicians will work to resolve it before it presents you with a problem. The same goes for any security updates or software patches–we will make sure your systems are as advanced and well-protected as possible. Managing your IT solutions is only the start of how we can assist you and your business. For more information about our services, be sure to keep reading our blog, or give us a call at (603) 889-0800.