If we asked you to count the number of mobile devices in your workplace, would you be able to do so? This includes smartphones, laptops, tablets, and others–anything that?s not a workstation or hardware tied down to your location. While mobile devices can be beneficial for any business, it?s still important to keep security at the top of your mind. Here are three topics that you need to be sure you?ve considered before allowing mobile devices in the workplace. Data SecurityOne of the main ways you can optimize mobile device use in your organization is to keep security a top priority. When you add new devices to your network, you add more ways for hackers to breach it. The reasoning is simple; that means more devices that need security updates, and more users who could be exposing your organization?s data. Adding new devices can also lead to more work, and more work means a higher chance that there will be times when the work can?t be completed on time. Also, devices that aren?t up-to-date can become security risks. You can resolve this issue with a mobile device management solution. It?s capable of monitoring your mobile devices to ensure that all of them are using the latest versions of applications and operating systems, as well as giving you an easy way to provide access to important data, whitelisting and blacklisting functionality, and the ability to remotely wipe compromised devices. ConnectivityThe main draw of mobile devices is that they can be taken out of the office and used on the go. How will your employees use their mobile devices to access company data? The option to use a public Wi-Fi connection might be attractive at first, since it can let your users access your cloud solution. Yet, even this convenience can be considered a detriment, as public Wi-Fi is a well-known attack medium for hackers. You can never know who else is on the network, or what kinds of nasty threats are waiting for you to slip up and make a mistake. This is a situation when you?ll be happy to have a virtual private network (VPN) at your disposal. You can access your network?s data via an encrypted connection, which keeps hackers from tampering with your data while it?s in transit. A VPN works by encrypting the data (turning it into a jumbled mess that?s impossible to decipher) using military-grade cryptology. Cloud AccessCloud solutions let your organization collaborate and share files across a number of different mobile devices. Most important of all, you can take these devices on the go so that you can be productive anytime, anywhere. Depending on the solution, you can have tight control over who can access files, and protect your data from getting picked up if the mobile device gets lost or stolen. There are several different types of cloud solutions, so if you?re serious about finding the best one for your business, you should reach out to White Mountain IT Services. To learn more about how to get the most out of your organization?s mobile devices, call us today at (603) 889-0800.

In the past, break-fix IT was the way to go. Businesses would take their broken technology to a provider only when it needed to be fixed. While this used to work, it quickly became a time sink that led to decreased productivity and increased data loss. Businesses lost money through replacing mission-critical technology that could have been preserved through preventative maintenance, and the downtime that resulted, crippled their IT budgets. Managed IT services is an option that all SMBs need to consider. Rather than taking the traditional break-fix approach to IT, where technology solutions are only fixed when they?re not working properly, managed IT solutions desire to take preventative measures to guarantee functionality and prevent major problems from happening in the first place. Managed services is an all-encompassing term that refers to solutions that can be hosted and managed by a third-party so that your organization doesn?t have to worry about them. A third-party MSP makes sure that your technology gets the attention that it needs, when it needs it. Consider this analogy: your automobile starts to make strange sounds. You hear the sound of grinding and the engine is spitting and sputtering. You want to get it checked out, but you just don?t have the money to do so. You continue to drive it until it breaks down in earnest, and you have to purchase a new automobile. However, if you took the time to get the maintenance that the vehicle needs in order to stay functional, you might have avoided the immense cost of replacing it. You can think of a managed service provider as your own personal crew of mechanics that work on your car overnight, allowing you to drive a vehicle that?s as good as new day-in and day-out. This is what managed IT seeks to accomplish. Through preventative maintenance, you can stave off a hardware failure for as long as possible. When a server does inevitably fail, you?ll have a fallback plan to rapidly restore data in a moment?s notice. Or, better yet, just replace the device before it falters, and keep operations moving forward without experiencing a major downtime incident. You?ll have ways to keep your business functioning smoothly even when the world is against you. White Mountain IT Services can provide your business with managed services designed to optimize operations and minimize the opportunity for downtime and other wasteful IT expenditures. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

In fact, considering all of the holidays enforced by the Catholic Church, and life events like weddings and births that required celebration and time off from work, the medieval peasant worked, on average, a mere 150 days per year. This translates to more than half of the year being spent not working. To be sure, working only 150 days sounds pretty sweet. This leads us to ask a tantalizing question: given the chance, would you give up modern conveniences and adopt the medieval lifestyle in order to gain an extra 110 days off? When approaching this hypothetical scenario, the first thing you must realize is that, for medieval peasants, these were not paid days off. Therefore, adopting the medieval work schedule would mean not having enough funds to travel or do the pricy leisure activities afforded modern workers. To give you an idea of your time-off options as a medieval peasant, consider how they spent their downtime. Essentially, they tried to make the best of it by attending local events (sort of like a staycation). Also, the pace of life for the medieval peasant was much, much slower; they would take their sweet time when it came to eating meals together (fast food and microwaves were obviously not a thing), and afternoon naps were super common. Lynn Parramore of Evonomics gives this assessment of how peasants spent their time off: ?Weddings, wakes and births might mean a week off quaffing ale to celebrate, and when wandering jugglers or sporting events came to town, the peasant expected time off for entertainment.? Okay, so this poor-yet-pleasant life of leisure doesn’t sound too bad, and perhaps even appealing for most. But you might change your mind when you consider the treacherous downsides of, you know, being a medieval peasant. Here?s a short list of medieval dangers from History Extra magazine: Plague: The deadly bubonic plague caused oozing swellings (buboes) all over the body. With the septicaemic plague, victims suffered from skin that was darkly discoloured (turning black) as a result of toxins in the bloodstream. Famine: Faced with dwindling food supplies due to bad weather and poor harvests, people starved or barely survived on meagre rations like bark, berries and inferior corn and wheat damaged by mildew. Childbirth: Giving birth was incredibly perilous. Breech presentations of the baby during labour often proved fatal for both mother and child. Labour could go on for several days, and some women eventually died of exhaustion. Infancy and childhood: Infancy was particularly dangerous during the Middle Ages ? mortality was terribly high. Based on surviving written records alone, scholars have estimated that 20-to-30 percent of children under seven died, but the actual figure is almost certainly higher. Violence: Medieval violence took many forms. Street violence and brawls in taverns were not uncommon. Vassals might also revolt against their lords. Likewise, urban unrest also led to uprisings. Early or sudden death: Sudden or premature death was common in the medieval period… Peasants in the English manor of Halesowen might hope to reach the age of 50, but by contrast poor tenants in the same manor could hope to live only about 40 years. Those of even lower status (cottagers) could live a mere 30 years. So, from a civilization standpoint, there appears to be a trade off. A […]

With these two technologies, your organization can maximize its security and ensure that hackers have a difficult time brute-forcing their way into your network infrastructure. Two-Factor AuthenticationWhat two-factor authentication entails is using secondary credentials to protect your network or online accounts. This could be in the form of an SMS message, a phone call, or an email, which has a constantly-shifting credential that?s required to log into your online accounts. Anyone who doesn?t have these credentials cannot access the network or your account. The main idea with two-factor authentication is to make it as difficult as possible for hackers to break into your accounts. By implementing physical devices like your smartphone, you make it virtually impossible for hackers to access your account, as they would need access to both your physical device and your other account credentials. With a two-factor authentication solution from White Mountain IT Services, your organization can better protect its important information and limit your data?s exposure to potential threats. Password ManagersThe average complex password is usually very long, and has several different upper and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols. Naturally, passwords like these are difficult to crack for hackers, but impossible for users to remember. Furthermore, you should never use the same password for more than one account, which means that you?ll have even more trouble than usual remembering all of these passwords. The best way to keep track of passwords is with a password manager solution, a great tool that makes it easy to store and utilize complex passwords. With an enterprise-level password manager from White Mountain IT Services, you can equip your business with complex passwords that are necessary to protect your critical assets from potential danger. Password managers store your credentials in a secure database, and then retrieves them individually when it comes time to use them. This keeps your credentials both secure and easily accessible for when you need them. It?s the easiest way to reap the benefits of complex passwords without having to remember multiple credentials for each account you have. If your business is having trouble with passwords, give White Mountain IT Services a call at (603) 889-0800. We can equip your business with the solutions necessary to optimize network security and ensure minimal data risk.

This is primarily due to the fact that file storage systems are becoming increasingly reliant on connected digital systems. Traditional file storage systems are inefficient and susceptible to all sorts of problems; primarily user error, document destruction, and theft. While digital systems are now capable of more efficiently storing sensitive patient data, this comes at the major risk of hacking attacks. Cyber criminals understand how valuable personally identifiable information is, making healthcare institutions lucrative targets. In particular, hospitals are feeling the effects of hacking attacks–mainly due to the crippling effects of ransomware. Hackers understand how crucial a hospital?s data is to its operations, so they?re more likely to shell out huge amounts of revenue in order to save their data from ransomware. In most cases (this goes for larger enterprises too), hospitals have little choice but to comply with a hacker?s demands. To protect the data of patients in healthcare networks and systems, HIPAA governs guidelines for how organizations protect sensitive data. Here are some tips to help you keep your business HIPAA compliant. Use a quality data backup and disaster recovery solution. You want to make sure that your business is equipped with tools to not only back up, but also restore, your critical and sensitive data. This includes making sure that you have an optimal recovery point objective, as well as a quality recovery time objective. Lastly, you need your data stored not just on-site, but also in the cloud or an external data center for safe keeping. Implement enterprise-level security solutions. Regardless of whether or not your business handles sensitive data, you should always be using security solutions like firewalls, antivirus, and spam blocking technology. A Unified Threat Management solution is a great way to take advantage of preventative security solutions. Use encryption. Often times, organizations won?t see the need to encrypt their data specifically because they?re already using other security measures. They don?t think that there?s a chance that their data will be stolen. While HIPAA doesn?t necessarily call for encryption, we highly recommend it. Encryption makes any stolen data practically impossible to decipher–or, at least, not worth the hacker?s effort. Consult professionals in the IT field. Your business or organization specializes in a particular craft–not IT security. Therefore, it makes sense to bring in IT professionals who have been around the block a time or two to guarantee that you don?t overlook the details of HIPAA compliance. If your business is having trouble keeping up with HIPAA compliance, White Mountain IT Services can help. We understand the ins and outs of HIPAA compliance and want to ensure that your practice doesn?t get stuck with budget-breaking fines from failing to adhere to HIPAA standards. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.