Malware Malware, or malicious software, can be particularly troublesome for organizations. The types vary from both extremely passive to extremely dangerous, with the most notable of which being ransomware. Ransomware can potentially lock down your organization?s network or files located on it using encryption, providing the decryption key only when a ransom is paid. We urge you not to pay the ransom, as it?s only furthering the agenda of hackers by you paying up. Instead, we recommend adequate preventative measures that keep ransomware at bay in the first place. Ransomware tends to spread via email and spam, so be sure to warn your users about clicking on links or attachments that are unwarranted and suspicious. Data backup can certainly help, as well. Phishing Attempts Malware isn?t the only threat to be spread through spam and email. Phishing attacks are often spread in this fashion as well, in which a user accidentally hands over credentials or sensitive information that can be used to access accounts or other data. These phishing attacks can often be elaborate and difficult to detect. Sometimes they can take the identity of your IT department or your business? senior figures. Never hand over credentials for any purpose unless the inquirer can legitimately be identified. Password Hacks By password hacks, we mean any of the high-profile hacks that have been known to spread like wildfire in the media. You may recall some of the major data breaches that have leaked sensitive information, including passwords, to the public. These passwords often wind up on the black market, where they are bought by hackers. If you ever suspect that your users have had their data stolen during these breaches, it?s important that they change their passwords as soon as possible. Denial of Service Attacks Denial of Service attacks are when a server is overloaded with traffic to the point where they are no longer able to function as intended. Distributed denial of service, or DDoS attacks, are often used as weapons to cripple infrastructures and bring services to a halt. Botnets–large groups of infected computers–are used to constantly ping servers with traffic to bring them down. Man in the Middle Man in the Middle attacks can happen when an attacker directly influences or interacts with the communications between two parties. This can happen over an unencrypted wireless network, and it?s particularly dangerous because both parties believe they are interacting with each other rather than the hacker in the middle. Drive-By Downloads Not all downloads that happen on a device are made with the device owner?s consent. Sometimes a piece of malware can trigger a download without asking for the user?s permission, as well as without the user understanding the consequences of downloading said file. Sometimes all it takes is clicking on the wrong tab, download link, or dialog box. Drive-by downloads are so dangerous that steps are being taken to thwart them when possible. Don?t let your business fall victim to these threats. To find out how your business can protect itself in times of danger, reach out to White Mountain IT Services at (603) 889-0800.

Break/Fix For the business that depends on a number of different computers, networking equipment, and other technology, it can be a challenge keeping all of it working for you over any period of time. Components fail, business? needs change, and innovations in technology present different (often better) opportunities. When something breaks, you fix it, it?s as simple as that. In IT this is called the break/fix model. The break/fix model to IT management is precisely the same method that you use with your car. Your car breaks, you take it into the shop, they fix it, you take it home. Sometimes there is enough wrong with your machine, or the break/fix technicians are so busy, that you have to leave it for a number of days. This is not ideal, obviously. It?s one thing to not have a car for a few days as there are definitely options in which to get around while your car is in the shop. If you business? server is broken, however, the time that it takes to get something fixed is all downtime; and, it is expensive. Downtime Just how expensive is downtime? There are all types of figures bantering around, but the cost of downtime is specific to your business. If you run a small five-chair hair salon and your point-of-sale computer goes down, it may hinder your ability to conduct business as you normally would (e.g. you may not be able to accept payment cards), but it’s not going to stop you from cutting hair. If you run a 40-person design firm and your server breaks, however, then you are in a real bind. If you don?t have a contingency, you might as well send everyone home for the day, because every dollar being spent on payroll is probably going to not yield much productivity. You may be thinking, ?what are my options? If technology is going to fail at some point anyway, how can I keep downtime from happening?? The answer is by outsourcing your IT management. Companies like White Mountain IT Services can do a lot of things to keep your organization?s downtime to a minimum. Outsourcing When you outsource your IT, you aren?t reacting to broken technology any longer – you are being proactive. White Mountain IT Services?s technicians remotely monitor your network and infrastructure around the clock using state-of-the-art monitoring and management tools. With these tools? built-in automation, we are able to keep a constant watch over all of your technology investments. This provides a degree of foresight. There are very real signals when any piece of technology is trending toward failure. Most of the time, our certified technicians can make adjustments and keep your technology working properly, but if a failure is imminent, we know it. This gives you the time you need to put your contingency plan in action BEFORE you see any downtime. Additionally, our technicians are experts at dealing with IT for business. This puts them in the position to find you the right solutions at the right price, and the experience needed to implement major IT alterations proficiently. The best part is that this service is billed as a flat monthly rate. Instead of trying to drum up the money to pay for IT support, you have a figure that is predictable for a reliable service. While it true […]

Physical Signs When your technology starts to grow older, you might notice some signs of physical wear and tear, even if you can?t see it immediately. You might hear your hard drive humming a little louder than you?re used to, or you might hear a fan working a bit too hard. All of this could mean that your machine isn?t doing so well, especially if there is a considerable amount of dust buildup and it?s quite old. The older your devices get, the more you should be on the lookout for these warning signs–especially if it?s a hard drive over a solid state drive. Digital Signs Digital signs are one of the easiest ways to identify whether your computer is suffering from some kind of issue. If a good restart doesn?t affect the issue at all, then there might be something on the digital end that?s complicating it. Check to see how your computer handles its average workload. Sometimes all it takes is opening up too many tabs in your web browser, too many software solutions being open, or frequent crashes to clue you in that something is wrong. What You Should Do As soon as you notice something out of the ordinary with your device, you should reach out to your business? IT resource. The issue with this is that some small businesses can?t afford on-site resources for this purpose, so critical maintenance might be ignored for too long. Downtime and data loss could occur if you wait too long to address issues with your business technology. Therefore, we recommend that you reach out to White Mountain IT Services as soon as you think your technology might be on its way out. We can even remotely monitor your devices for operational deficiencies so you?re never surprised when your device is finished. You might even be prepared for it, too! To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

Remember, a data backup and disaster recovery solution still has value and returns on your investment, even if it?s not in use. You should focus down what your goals are for your recovery point objective (RPO) and recovery time objective (RTO), which gives your business the greatest chances of successfully recovering from a disaster. Recovery Point Objective RPO is a reflection of how much data you want to recover to get operations back to an acceptable level. It?s important to keep in mind that not all data is the same. Some of it will be more important than others. It?s up to you to make this distinction so that you can restore an acceptable level of data without having it take too long. Recovery Time Objective On that note, RTO is how long it will take your organization to recover its data for operations to return to some semblance of normalcy, or at least to the point where you?re not operating at a loss. Using a cloud-based data backup system can cut down on the time your business is knocked out of action following a data loss incident, as you can effectively prevent downtime and limit loss in this way. Downtime is defined as any time your organization isn’t working as it?s supposed to, so it doesn?t even have to be the result of a disaster. How Do They Work Together? These numbers work together to make sure your business suffers the least amount of data loss and downtime, as a combination of the two can be fatal for businesses of all kinds. If you don?t have data, there?s no point in performing the restoration, so the two go hand-in-hand to make sure your organization continues to run smoothly with the least amount of damage done. White Mountain IT Services can equip your business with the best data backup and disaster recovery plan out there. To learn more about RPO, RTO, and how it all fits into place for your business, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

Connecting Solutions A business utilizes several different software solutions to connect your employees to each other. Some might utilize a video chat system that has built-in communication features to facilitate productivity. Others might use Dropbox or other file sharing services to ensure anyone who needs to can access files. Either way, communication between various services is needed if your business wants to innovate and make progress. Integrating solutions with APIs can give your organization the edge to get as much done as possible with your in-house and cloud-based solutions. These APIs are largely responsible for making sure that all of your technology plays nice with each other. Collaboration Suites More businesses than ever before are relying on software to get work done. Collaboration suites take a lot of common features and create a single access point for them. One great example of this is Slack. You can create channels for each of your different departments to collaborate and communicate with one another. Of course, this is barely scratching the surface of what?s capable of being done with collaboration suites, but it?s essentially what can be called a workplace intranet. It?s a single application that allows access to all of your most needed information, the communications your business used, and the other applications it needs to effectively complete all of its tasks and projects. Virtual Assistants While one could argue that interacting with a virtual assistant over real human people is less fruitful overall, virtual assistants do provide a certain level of innovation to the workplace. For example, imagine telling your phone to inform you of meeting times or events throughout the workday. Imagine setting reminders for important tasks that need to be done. Virtual assistants can allow your organization to scour emails for important information that must be addressed, set up a to-do list, and so much more, making them great for not just collaboration, but overall workplace productivity. Does your organization want to innovate through the use of technology? White Mountain IT Services can equip your business with all the tools it needs to succeed. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.