Social engineering attacks are highly dangerous, especially since they can come in many different shapes and forms. Hackers tend to appeal to human emotions that are easily exploitable, but the primary concern for social engineering hacks is the fact that these vulnerabilities can?t be patched or augmented with security solutions. The only thing keeping your data safe from social engineering hacks is how your team deals with them, and whether or not your employees are gullible enough to hand over sensitive information. Types of Social Engineering HacksThere are many ways that hackers can take advantage of end users. It?s important to keep in mind that social engineering hacks are almost always in the form of phishing attacks, which are targeted attempts designed to garner information from specific individuals. The following types of social engineering attacks are most common: Familiarity: Humans have relationships with other humans. It?s part of what makes us who we are. Hackers will use these relationships to lure users into a false sense of security, persuading users to hand over sensitive credentials. Information: Hackers will pose as reputable organizations, like banks, colleges, financial companies, and so on, in an attempt to get you to hand over personal information. These institutions will never ask for your credentials through an email, so if you receive a message that asks for information like this, you can identify it as a scam. Authority: Some users have reported receiving messages from government institutions or local authorities that they have been accused or found guilty of crimes, and that there?s a fine that must be paid. This appeals to the fear people have that they will get in trouble, and people tend to make irrational decisions when under the duress of fear. Consultation: In many cases, the user will be contacted by someone who claims to be a member of their company?s IT department. They might abuse their false identity to pull information from your employees. Since your employees are likely to trust your IT department, they?ll be more willing to hand over sensitive information. The best way to counter social engineering and phishing scams is to educate your staff on how to handle potentially dangerous situations. They should be educated in how to approach spam and suspicious phone calls. One particularly important detail that you should always emphasize to your staff is that important information, like Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, and other personal credentials typically won?t be requested via email. Another great method of discerning potential social engineering scams is by cross referencing phone numbers and email addresses with those you currently have on file. This helps you identify fakes before it?s too late. For more information on security best practices, White Mountain IT Services is always here to help. Just give us a call at (603) 889-0800 to learn more.

What is Safe Mode?Safe Mode is a way of booting your computer with limited configuration in an attempt to troubleshoot basic issues, like device driver complications. You may have witnessed the option to boot Windows in Safe Mode before; for example, when you experience an unexpected power down, you might see a black screen that prompts you to either boot Windows normally, or boot it in Safe Mode. Windows 10 reportedly boots up too fast to allow for the normal Safe Mode access, so you have to take a roundabout way to activate Safe Mode. Enabling Safe Mode in Windows 10By default, Windows 10 will boot in Safe Mode if it?s having a consistent problem while booting up. In order to allow the option for Safe Mode, however, you need to set it up in Settings beforehand. Select Settings from the Start menu, and select Update and Security. Click in the Recovery tab and you?ll see an item titled Advanced startup. Click the Restart now button and your system will restart, allowing you to open your PC in safe mode. Once your computer reboots, you?ll be prompted to Choose an option. Here, you want to click on the Troubleshoot option. Then, select Advanced options. Navigate to the Startup Settings, which will prompt you to restart your computer and make changes to the following options: Enable low-resolution video mode. Enable debugging mode. Enable boot logging. Enable Safe mode. Disable driver signature enforcement. Disable early-launch anti-malware protection. Disable automatic restart on system failure. Once the computer restarts, you?ll be prompted to use the function keys (the F keys at the top of your keyboard) to navigate the list of Startup Settings. For example, to enable Safe Mode, you would use F4. If this process sounds confusing, we?d be happy to walk you through it. Of course, if you?re experiencing trouble with your PC, why not let the tech experts at White Mountain IT Services give you a hand? It?s much easier and less time-consuming to let our trusted technicians handle your technology troubles. To get started, give us a call at (603) 889-0800.

BYOD is a great new trend that can improve innovation, employee morale, and the productivity of your staff. This is only true, though, if you approach BYOD in a safe and secure way that manages to contain and control the flow of your business?s data. Implementing such a plan isn?t easy, and there?s much that needs to be checked off before you can confidently start using BYOD. There are several factors that need to be considered before implementing your own BYOD strategy. Identify potential risks: The first step to integrating a BYOD plan is to identify what parts of the plan can pose a problem for your business. Where is there potential for data leakage to external parties? More often than not, your team will be using devices that they already own, so it?s important that your organization doesn?t run into security discrepancies. Define a clear BYOD policy: If you?re going to implement BYOD, then you need to map out a complete plan that encompasses your entire infrastructure. Consider why you?re implementing BYOD in the first place. Is it to improve workplace productivity, or is it to make your network more mobile? Whatever the reason for your BYOD policy, it should be designed to optimize your goals. Consider regulations and compliance issues: Certain data needs to be protected and secured from hackers, or else your business will become the target of major fines from violating PCI, HIPAA, and other compliance regulations. This means being prepared to deploy your business?s information in such a way where this data is at minimal risk. Keep track of used devices: You can?t have devices entering and leaving your network on a whim. If your team is going to be bringing their own devices to use for work, you should keep track of who brings in what devices, and how they are accessing data stored on the network. Train your staff: Perhaps most important of all is that you take the time to properly train your staff on what it means to bring their own devices into the workplace. You should be clear that, if they?re going to be using their mobile devices, you expect them to make intelligent decisions about how and why they use the data stored on these devices. Regardless of how you decide to implement BYOD, there will be a couple of technologies that you won?t want to leave behind. For example, a mobile device management solution is a great way to limit access to information on the company network, while allowing you to remotely wipe devices that may be compromised, lost, or stolen. Another technology crucial to allowing your team to get the most from BYOD is cloud computing, which lets them access important information and applications via the Internet from any approved device. If your business is ready to take on the challenge of implementing BYOD, White Mountain IT Services would be happy to help. Give us a call at (603) 889-0800 today to get started.

Be Future-Minded and Appreciate TechnologyFirst off, you?re going to have to come to grips with the importance of being future-minded regarding your company?s technology. For business owners who don?t specialize in or oversee their technology, this can be a difficult mindset to adopt, especially if you purposely avoid it in order to focus on other aspects your company. Just because you?re primarily tasked with overseeing the administrative side of your business, doesn?t mean you can afford to ignore your tech. Otherwise, you?ll look around one day, only to discover that you?ve got an office filled with outdated IT equipment. Todd Nashville explains to IT Knowledge Exchange: Don?t get into a rut and get too comfortable. The IT field is forever changing and changing faster than ever before. It?s easier to stay current with technology than trying to play catch up after many years of being stagnant. That learning curve can be hard to overcome. Be Equipped for Future IT NeedsIn addition to keeping up with IT trends, you?re going to want to predict your own company?s growth and IT needs, within reason. Having a good grasp of where your business will be in one, two, or even five years will make it so you can implement the right technologies for the future, today. For example, if you have a good idea of approximately how many users and devices your business will have five years from now, then you can purchase and implement an IT infrastructure with that will have enough open access points to accommodate such growth. Otherwise, growth will find you unprepared and you?ll have to upgrade your infrastructure at the worst possible time, and most likely be hit with a major, unplanned expense. White Mountain IT Services offers IT consulting to companies just like yours in order to best prepare them for future growth and IT trends. Be Prepared for Future Security ChallengesJust as technology is always changing and benefiting business in new ways, so too are the security threats that challenge these new technologies. Network security is something that you?re going to need to stay on top of; it?s not a task that can be completed and forgotten about. Take for example one of the hottest IT trends for businesses, the Internet of Things. In order to take full advantage of dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of new devices accessing your network, you?re first going to want to have in place every network security measure possible. Todd Nashville explains: Without strong authentication, firewalls, and other measures, we are heading for a heap of trouble. The more devices we add, the more vulnerable we become. To support all the various types of devices, we should have some standards. Modifying our connections so each new device will work is a major obstacle. By preparing your company in these three areas, you will be equipped for anything the future throws at you. Of course, having White Mountain IT Services guide you through any and every upcoming IT challenge will go a long way to ensure your company?s success. Give us a call today at (603) 889-0800 to learn more.

Install Super Auto Refresh This is done through the free extension Super Auto Refresh. It?s a great way to save yourself from having to click refresh a million times. You can download Super Auto Refresh in the Chrome Web Store by going to the above link and then selecting + ADD TO CHROME. Once the extension is downloaded and installed, an icon for it will appear at the far right side of Chrome?s address bar. By clicking on it, a drop down menu will appear. Next, you?ll be able to select how often you want the page to be refreshed. It can be as little as every two seconds, to as much as every 60 minutes. When you reach a point where you?re done having your browser refresh itself, simply click the Super Auto Refresh icon again in the address bar, and then select the red Stop tile at the top of the drop down menu. An additional feature of Super Auto Refresh is that it allows you to easily manage the various tabs that you have the extension activated on. Online Tech Tips explains how to do this: If you click on the little green hamburger icon to the right of the word ?Refresh,? a new tab will load that will list out all the pages that are currently set to refresh along with the set time intervals and the amount of time remaining before the next refresh. Note that if you close a tab and then reopen it later, the extension will remember and apply the same refresh settings. We should also mention that a page with Super Auto Refresh activated on it only applies to that particular tab. Other open tabs won?t be automatically refreshed unless the extensions is activated for that tab. Therefore, you can easily open a new tab that?s unaffected by Super Auto Refresh by selecting the hamburger icon > New tab. For more great tips to help you do more with your technology, subscribe to White Mountain IT Services?s blog and check back every week! DISCLAIMER: Constant refreshing will eat up your bandwidth, so be mindful of this when using Super Auto Refresh on your company network.