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We think that connecting well-known Internet viruses with classic monsters is a fun Halloween exercise that?s sure to strike fear into the hearts of IT technicians and casual users alike. Read on (if you dare!) to find out White Mountain IT Services?s take on what it would be like if these four well-known monsters were computer viruses. The Fly is an Overwrite Virus What an overwrite virus does: This virus infects a file and deletes its information while overwriting it with new information. The only way to rid a computer of this virus is to completely delete the original file. Why The Fly is an overwrite virus: Before The Fly was a hideous monster buzzing around and eating people, he was a brilliant scientist working on teleportation. One day, he volunteered himself as a test subject for his own teleportation machine. Little did he know, but a small fly found its way into his teleportation pod too, causing his DNA to become overwritten with fly DNA. Unfortunately, the only way to end The Fly?s reign of terror was to permanently ?delete him.? The Wolfman is an Executable VirusWhat an executable virus does: This is a non resident computer virus that stores itself in an executable file. When the file is executed, it then infects other files. However, until the file is executed, it will sit dormant on a user?s PC, awaiting orders to strike. The activation of the virus could come from the launching of a specific application, restarting of the PC, or even a direct command from a remote hacker. Why the Wolfman is an Executable Virus: In order for Wolfman?s transformation to take place, something has to activate it that?s outside of his control–a full moon. Until his werewolf side is ?executed,? nobody knows that he?s a werewolf and he doesn?t pose a threat. Then, like a hacker remotely activating an executable virus, a full moon appears in the night sky and Wolfman does unspeakable acts of violence that are outside of his control. Zombies are Botnets What a Botnet does: A Botnet is designed to spread its malicious malware to other systems, and its traffic can be masked as regular network traffic. These newly infected systems will then create more Botnets, which can then be utilized as one makeshift system with a singular purpose, predetermined by a hacker. Often times, Botnets are used for malicious purposes, like stealing data, spamming, and DDoS attacks. Why it?s a zombie virus: A zombie infection spreads from person to person by completely overtaking their system. Sometimes, an infection isn?t discovered until it?s too late. Once a person becomes a zombie, they?ll then join forces with other zombies in a Botnet-like horde to bite people and turn them into zombies too. Also, like a Botnet, zombies are united with a single, malicious goal–braaaains! Hostile Aliens are RansomwareWhat Ransomware Does: A computer that?s infected with ransomware will have its data compromised and taken over by a hacker, who will then hold the information ransom and demand payment from the PC?s owner. The most well-known form of ransomware is CryptoLocker, which encrypts a user?s computer and locks them out of their system. If the ransom is not paid by a stated deadline, then the user?s data will be deleted. Why Ransomware is Aliens: What makes ransomware so […]

Blue Jeans Network is a cloud-based video conferencing company. For this study, they crunched the numbers of more than five million video meetings that took place in 177 countries, of which more than a third had an in-person component. For Blue Jeans Network, this is an annual exercise, and when they compared their latest study to studies of previous years, some pretty interesting trends begin to emerge. The Majority of Meetings Take Place at the Most Unproductive TimeAt what time of the day are you most alert and at your very best? If you?re like most of us, it?s not during the middle of the afternoon–which is the world?s most popular time for meetings (somewhere around 3 p.m.). This time of the day happens to be after the coffee has worn off and people feel the most dull-brained. Solution: Schedule your meetings in the morning when alertness is at a peak so that everyone will be engaged. Late Meetings are the NormMeetings wouldn?t be so bad if everyone showed up on time. Yet, at almost every meeting, there seems to be that one late person who causes everyone else to sit around and twiddle their thumbs–and get paid for it! In fact, according to the study, 81 percent of meetings start late, up 30 percent from the previous year. When you multiply every person?s time wasted while waiting for Johnny-come-lately, you might conclude that the benefits of the meetings are offset by everyone?s downtime. Inc. describes how starting meetings late is a self-perpetuating problem: If you arrive five minutes late to a meeting and it hasn’t started yet, you’ll figure you haven’t missed anything, so you’ll likely do the same next time, or maybe show up even later. Meanwhile, the punctual people who’ve sat around waiting for you will figure they have better uses for their time, and next time they’ll come five minutes late as well, or maybe even later. Solution: Be strict about your meeting?s start time and have consequences for latecomers. Miserable Weather Means More MeetingsOne revealing trend from the study shows that, when the weather?s bad outside, you?re twice as likely to find yourself in a meeting inside. This shouldn?t be too surprising; after all, few people want to be indoors when the weather is gorgeous outside–much less sit in a meeting. However, what?s surprising is that, according to the study, more meetings take place when the weather is really bad. ?Meetings were up by as much as 26 percent during the recent Texas flooding, and an impressive 35 percent during the Boston blizzards last winter.? Solution: Apparently, if scheduling meetings are left up to feelings, more meetings than perhaps are necessary will take place when the weather is poor. Instead, make sure to have regularly-scheduled meetings and resist the urge to have extra meetings, simply because it?s cold outside. Workers spend so much time in meetings that it?s in your company?s best interest to manage how they?re run and how often they take place. Otherwise, you?ll end up having ?meeting for the sake of meetings,? and nobody wants that. By taking advantage of technologies like VoIP, video conferencing, and cloud-based collaboration tools, you can run your meetings as efficiently as possible. Schedule a meeting today with White Mountain IT Services to learn more.

What is a VPN?Your network is an infrastructure where your business?s data and applications can be accessed in an instant. It?s designed to offer access to aspects of the workplace that are necessary for operations to continue. A virtual private network allows users to remotely access the network across an Internet connection. As defined by Gartner?s IT Glossary: A virtual private network (VPN) is a system that delivers enterprise-focused communication services on a shared public network infrastructure and provides customized operating characteristics uniformly and universally across an enterprise?. Technology providers define a VPN as the use of encryption software or hardware to bring privacy to communications over a public or untrusted data network. As you might expect, this type of communications solution is designed to help users access information in a secure manner from potentially unsafe connections, like hotel WiFi or Internet connections found in public places like cafes, restaurants, airports, and more. What are the Benefits?As with most technology solutions, a VPN offers significant benefits that improve operations and increase your data security. Here are some of most important benefits that a VPN can offer for small and medium-sized businesses: Restrict access to information on a per-user basis: Not everyone in your network needs to have access to the same information. For instance, your accounting department is the only one who needs access to the pay rates and financial information for your organization, and human resources should be the only one with access to personally identifiable information of your employees. A VPN allows you to set up barriers for how you want your information to be accessed by employees. Allow secure network access for remote workers: As previously mentioned, public WiFi and hotel hotspots aren?t the best ways to connect to private or sensitive information. Viruses and malware are often commonplace on these connections, as they are easy ways to infiltrate unsuspecting users. Multi-device compatibility: VPNs can be accessed by users of all types of devices, from laptops to smartphones. This allows users to access information on your private network from multiple avenues, allowing them to access this information in a way which allows them the most productivity. A VPN can go a long way toward improving the way you tend to your day-to-day responsibilities. In fact, it even has the potential to change the way you work entirely. Give White Mountain IT Services a call at (603) 889-0800 for more information about how you can take advantage of VPN technology.

For reference, we don?t expect you to shell out this huge amount of dough for network security solutions. Still, the fact that large businesses feel this threatened by malicious online entities should be enough to convince the small business owner that hackers mean business. While a large business might have the funds to integrate powerful security solutions, the small business owner is often at the mercy of a limited IT budget that might not accommodate the up-front costs of integrating high-level security protocol. To make matters worse, hackers use all kinds of malware, viruses, and other threats to make their movements diverse and somewhat unpredictable. According to a recent study, ZDNet reports: Attacks involving malicious code, malware, viruses, worms, trojans, and botnets accounted for 40 percent of this cost, followed by 16 percent for denial of services, 14 percent for phishing and social engineering, 12 percent for Web-based attacks, 10 percent for malicious insiders and 7 percent for stolen devices. It?s clear that hackers are taking advantage of numerous avenues to infiltrate and infect the mission-critical systems of businesses. Therefore, the need for a comprehensive security solution cannot be stressed enough. Protecting the sensitive information of both your clients and your employees is an investment that you, as a business owner, cannot skimp on. The issue with this kind of protection is that businesses often cannot afford the up-front costs of such an investment. Thus, the best way to handle network security is by taking a proactive stance that prevents issues from turning into huge problems in the first place. This means keeping threats out of your system using tools that are designed to detect and eliminate issues before they become bigger problems. The security solutions you integrate should be compounded with the proper education of your staff, including giving them ample training to identify and respond to threats. A Unified Threat Management (UTM) solution is a quality answer to this conundrum. A UTM offers a firewall solution to analyze the data that flows in and out of your network, ensuring that no viruses or malware easily infiltrate it. It combines this with an enterprise-level antivirus solution that?s designed to detect and eliminate threats before they bring harm to your network. Additionally, the UTM comes with features designed to limit your employees? access to insecure content with a web content filtering solution and comprehensive spam protection for your email. For more information about security solutions designed to protect your business and its critical assets, give White Mountain IT Services a call at (603) 889-0800.

While there are plenty of risks involved with using mobile devices in the workplace, this shouldn?t dissuade you from trying to take advantage of a technology that can help your organization achieve greater productivity. Here are three ways your business can protect its data while still taking advantage of mobile devices in the workplace. Virtual Private NetworksEmployees often need to access sensitive information while on the move, and this can be a problem if there aren?t relatively secure WiFi connections available. Any normal motel connection could be compromised by a skilled hacker, so it?s a best practice to outfit mobile devices with access to a virtual private network that it can be connected to, even while out of the office. This mitigates the chances that a mobile device accidentally gives away any important information. Remote Device WipingIf you?re allowing employees to use their own mobile devices in the workplace, you have to consider the ramifications of losing these devices, or having them be stolen. Smartphones are fairly hot targets for thieves simply because of how compact they are, and because they often hold sensitive information and access to accounts like email. Hackers will go to great lengths to steal information from mobile devices, even so far as physically stealing your device if they can get their hands on it. If you have the power to remotely wipe your company?s mobile devices, you can get rid of any data on lost or stolen devices before hackers steal it. Whitelist and Blacklist ApplicationsIf your employees are using smartphones to get more work done outside the office, they?ll naturally be using certain applications that help them complete their workload. However, they might also download apps that aren?t used for work, like games, social media apps, and more. The issue therein is the possibility that malicious applications, or those that could hurt your business?s reputation, gain access to your sensitive data. Apps ask for permission to access this information, and if the user agrees to terms that are absolutely ridiculous (like a flashlight app asking for your physical location), chances are that there?s something fishy going on. You want the ability to limit which applications have permission to access important data. White Mountain IT Services can equip your business with a comprehensive mobile device management solution that allows you to get maximum productivity out of your mobile devices, without compromising the integrity of your data infrastructure. Give us a call at (603) 889-0800 to learn more.