On January 10, 2016, television producer Sam Esmail stood on the stage at The Beverly Hilton and accepted the award for Best Dramatic Television Series for the show he serves as showrunner on, Mr. Robot. Despite the show?s non-traditional plot, the Hollywood foreign press saw fit to provide it with this prestigious award. The plot focuses on an antisocial and schizophrenic network administrator who spends his evenings as a white-hat hacker. Additionally, Christian Slater, the show?s co-star, took home the Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series award. Other high-profile films explore the stories of hackers, which has prompted the suggestion that the entertainment industry is romanticizing what?s called ?hacking culture.? One example is 2015?s Blackhat, a drama directed by Michael Mann. Chris Hemsworth takes on the role of a federal inmate convicted of hacking, who is given a furlough to help his college roommate, a Chinese cyber warfare officer, solve several high-profile hacking attacks that threaten to cause immense destruction and chaos. Hemsworth is more of an anti-hero, a villain of society who pays his dues by performing the very act that put him in the clink in the first place. This trend–portraying hackers as the good guys or as an anti-hero–has been embraced by Hollywood for the past several decades. As you might suspect, hackers are most prominent in movies about hacking, but they also tend to show up in scenarios such as heists, law enforcement, and even superhero crime-fighting vigilantism. If it has a computer that?s required for the character to meet their goals, there?s probably a hacker–or at least hacking–to some degree. If there?s a hacker, they are probably going to wind up being a do-gooder who will save the day from–get this–ANOTHER hacker. This is a far cry from the actual, real-world hacker. They are criminals who will intentionally break through systems to steal you or your employees? sensitive data. This sort of opportunism is deplorable at best, and since computers are so central to today?s society, it?s no wonder that a hacker?s presence is as deep-seated in Hollywood as it is. In Hollywood?s defense, hacking makes for a pretty boring movie, but human oppression or destruction, themes that you?ll find in nearly every good hacker movie, don?t. Over the past thirty years, there have been dozens of films featuring hackers. Some of them, like Tron and The Matrix, are science-fiction films that delve into the concept of reality. Others, like War Games and Hackers, present hacking as a heroic means to an end. Some of the most noteworthy ?hacker? movies include: Tron (1982) War Games (1983) Sneakers (1992) The Net (1995) Hackers (1995) The Matrix (1999) Swordfish (2001) Live Free or Die Hard (2007) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) BlackHat (2015) How many of these movies have you seen? Do you think that hackers are fairly represented in film, or do you think that Hollywood glorifies them a bit too much? White Mountain IT Services sees hackers for what they truly are–criminals. We take the fight to them with proactive monitoring and management with the intention of keeping them out of your systems indefinitely. For more information, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

These days, who has time to read? For busy business owners, reading is a luxury. This is what makes audiobooks such a valuable tool. They allow busy people to consume information while accomplishing a mindless task like cleaning the house. While this arrangement works wonders for titles found on Audible.com, what about the documents you must read that haven?t been made into an audiobook? For example, what if you have to read a long Word document about a project, or a blog article about an important development in your industry, but, dang it, you just don?t have the time? Thankfully, there are some great text-to-speech tools available online that will do this heavy lifting for you. Granted, the narrator comes off sounding a bit robotic, but when it comes to helpful freeware, beggars can?t be choosers. SpeakIt!SpeakIt! is an extension for Chrome that reads text on a webpage back to you. With the extension downloaded, all you have to do is highlight the text you?d like read to you and then click on the SpeakIt! icon in the upper-right corner of Chrome. Then, just like that, it?s storytime. SpeakIt! boasts of a few handy features, like the ability to adjust the playback speed 10x faster or slower than the standard 330 words/minute, as well as the ability to translate text and utilize different languages. On the downside, a quick read through of the reviews reveal that some users experienced bugs after using SpeakIt! for more than a few minutes. Additionally, while SpeakIt! works great for static web pages, playback is painfully slow for pages in Chrome that allow for text to be edited, like apps in Google Drive, Gmail, Adobe Reader, etc. @Voice Aloud ReaderFor busy audiobook aficionados on the go, @Voice Aloud Reader for Android is a great mobile solution. It?s available for free on the Google Play Store. The app also has plugins available designed to enhance the functionality of reading specific files, like @Voice PDF Crop Plugin. @Voice Aloud Reader works by uploading text to the app, then, with the app open, select play and it will be read aloud to you. The app does a good job at retaining the formatting of the uploaded article. Additionally, while the text is being read, the app highlights the current sentence that it?s on, making it easy to follow along. Like Speak It!, @Voice Aloud Reader lets you adjust playback speed, and it?s compatible with a variety of files, like PDF, DOC, TXT, EPUB, FB2, and more. Overall, @Voice Aloud Reader is a highly-rated app. The biggest annoyance may be advertisements, but you can make these go away by upgrading to the pro version. Plus, the fact that the advertisements only show up in the display and they don?t interrupt the audio playback, makes this a non-issue. So go ahead and download these two free text-to-speech tools, knock out that list of assigned readings you?ve been putting off, and then share your review with us in the comments below!

Granted, it?s highly unlikely that a child will visit your front door this Halloween dressed as a hacker. Nevertheless, the digital doors of your business, i.e., your website and network, are very likely to be visited on Halloween–and every day following. While many of these threats aren?t all that scary and are easily thwarted by security tools like a managed firewall and spam-blocking solution, a threat that?s specifically targeting a user has a greater chance of getting through. If such a hacker successfully breaches your security system, that?s when the nightmare of cyber extortion begins. Cyber extortion comes in many different forms, and it can be very effective when executed properly. The hackers behind cyber extortion prefer using fear to incite unreasonable action from their victims, even if it means using frightful tactics like blackmail and deception. Many of these methods work similarly to ransomware. Most ransomware will encrypt the files stored on a victim?s computer, and they will only provide a decryption key if the victim pays a fee. The idea here is to use fear to get users to hand over money (often in the form of untraceable cryptocurrency) in exchange for their precious files. This can be particularly devastating for businesses, as it means they could potentially lose access to all of their mission-critical data. In the majority of ransomware cases, unless an organization has their data backed up, they?re out of luck and won?t be able to retrieve their data without paying the fine. Now that?s scary! In an even scarier twist on an already sick scam, there are hackers who will steal information from businesses or individuals, and then offer an ultimatum; either pay up, or the sensitive data gets leaked to the Internet. This may be a worse fate because it allows other, more dangerous hackers to access the data and use it for nefarious purposes. This variety of hackers tend to ask somewhere between $250 to $1,200 for the safe return of the victim’s data. IC3, the FBI?s Internet Crime Complaint Center, received a significant number of reports indicating that users who had data stolen through high-profile data breaches received extortion emails demanding that they pay a fee, or suffer the consequences. This data could be anything from personally identifiable information, like Social Security numbers, to financial information, like credit card numbers. In some cases, hackers would claim to have information that could cause catastrophic damage to victims? personal lives, like personal photos and correspondences. Although, we should point out that there?s virtually no way of guaranteeing that these hackers actually have the files they claim to have. They could just be blowing hot air and fishing for a response, hoping that you?ll be gullible enough to give in to their outlandish requests. However, for this same reason, it?s important that you don?t immediately pay the ransom. What guarantee do you have that they?ll give you the decryption key? The answer: none. Basically, you should never, under any circumstances, give in to fear and pay the ransom offered by the hackers. Doing so doesn?t necessarily save your information (if they even have it) from being posted on the Internet. All it does is give in to the hacker?s demands by providing them with exactly what they want. Why should you give them this […]

Security is one of the most important parts of running a business, especially today when organizations rely so heavily on their technology solutions. Some of the most dangerous threats lurk on a business?s network, watching and waiting for an opportunity to do some real damage. With the right preventative measures, your business can catch these threats in the act before they can accomplish their goals. Defining MalwareMalware, or ?malicious software,? is a blanket term for malicious code that?s designed to cause trouble for the machine that it infects. Malware can inject code into applications or execute viruses and trojans. One of the most common types of malware is called ransomware (perhaps you?ve heard of it), in which the files on a system are encrypted until a ransom is paid to the developer. Malware can have far-reaching and varied effects, so it?s best to keep such unpredictable threats off of your network in the first place. Defining RootkitsJust like malware, a rootkit is designed to install on a system. Unlike some types of malware, however, rootkits are designed to allow a hacker to gain control of the system while remaining undetected themselves. In particular, rootkits are dangerous due to their ability to subvert the software that?s supposed to find them, making it optimal to prevent rootkits from accessing your system in the first place. Defining TrojansIn computing, a trojan is a malicious entity that allows a hacker access to a system through misleading the user. While the purpose can vary from data destruction to theft, trojans are often used to install backdoors and allow access to a system at a later date for the purpose of surveillance or espionage. Preventative Security MeasuresJust like how there are various types of threats, there are plenty of ways to keep your organization?s network safe from them. Here are just a few. Firewall: Firewalls act as a bouncer for your network, keeping threats from entering or leaving your infrastructure. They work best when combined with other preventative measures, like antivirus, content filters, and spam blockers. Antivirus: Antivirus solutions detect and eliminate threats that have made it past your firewall solution. Prompt detection is important, as viruses or malware that are left unchecked could cause untold troubles for your infrastructure. Spam blocker: Threats often arrive in your email inbox as spam, and the unknowing employee could accidentally click a malicious link or reveal important credentials. A spam blocker eliminates the majority of spam so that it never even hits your inbox. Content filter: A content filter is helpful for keeping your employees from accessing sites known to host malware, as well as inappropriate or time-wasting sites, like social media. All of the above solutions can be found in what?s called a Unified Threat Management (UTM) solution, which is widely considered to be one of the most comprehensive and useful preventative measures to improve network security. To learn more about UTMs and other topics concerning network security, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

This standing/anti-aging study was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. It links aging with the chromosome ?telomeres? that protects one?s genetic code. This chromosome shortens when a person sits, and lengthens when a person stands. Longer telomeres are better at protecting genetic code by keeping it from wearing and tearing, whereas shorter telomere have been linked to premature aging. The study even makes the claim that standing is better than exercise, seeing that exercise doesn?t have any impact on telomere length. In fact, a top medic from the study claims that, ?Standing up for three hours a day is the same as ten marathons.? Scientific research like this is groundbreaking for anybody trying to live longer by dieting and exercising. To further make our case against sitting at a desk all day, consider these statistics from the Harvard Business Review: As we work, we sit more than we do anything else. The average person sits for 9.3 hours a day, compared to 7.7 hours of sleeping. After one hour of sitting, the production of enzymes that burn fat declines by as much as 90 percent. Extended sitting slows the body?s metabolism affecting things like HDL levels in our bodies (good cholesterol). Research shows that this lack of physical activity is directly tied to 6 percent of the impact for heart diseases, 7 percent for type 2 diabetes, and 10 percent for breast cancer or colon cancer. In the biggest blow to the practice of sitting at a desk, further research shows that if you sit for more than 23 hours a week, you are 64 percent more likely to die from a heart attack. What?s a health-conscious office worker to do? If you?re able to switch to a standing desk, then this simple move may literally add years to your life. Another helpful activity you can do to somewhat offset the negative health effects of sitting is to incorporate regular stretching exercises into your daily routine. To help you out, here are three easy exercises that virtually anybody can do. Get Down and StretchGet down on all fours and slowly rock back and forth. When rocking back, your hips should move down towards your feet, and make sure to extend your back across the lower portion of your spine. Also, make sure to relax the stretch when returning to the forward position. If you?d like to make the stretch more impactful, nod your head as you rock, bringing your chin to and from your chest. Roll Around on the GroundStart by lying on your stomach and then lift your arms above your head. Next, lift your arms and use their weight to roll over a few times on each side. Make sure you?re using the weight of your arm to roll, instead of using the ground to push yourself over. The Benefits of CrawlingIt?s surprising that something so basic as crawling can double as such a good exercise. When crawling on all fours for exercise purposes, be sure to move your hips as much as possible. At the same time, stretch your neck by turning your head from side to side while moving backward. Between standing and stretching, you may be able to offset the damage done from years of sitting. What about you? Would you identify as […]