For example, let?s assume you?re in the market for a new piece of business software, but you aren?t sure what your available options are. You?ve done some research online, but you?d really rather talk to someone one-on-one to understand what is potentially available to you. While your conversation seems promising at the start, you soon realize that it has continued far longer than it should have. Making matters worse, it turns out that the solution isn?t the right fit, meaning that you just wasted valuable time for essentially nothing. For a moment, let?s take a step back and assume that you don?t realize what a poor fit the new solution is until it?s already been implemented. You don?t want to waste your investment into it, so you seek out support from the provider. Before you know it, you?re spending more time than ever trying to sort out issues with your provider, playing phone tag and composing emails to them as you try and explain your situation, so it can be fixed. Going through this for one solution would be bad enough – just think what it would be like to go through it for each one you leverage. Do you really have that much time to waste? Plus, each vendor will have their own set of particular contacts and a preference for how you get in touch with them. Don?t you have enough to deal with without keeping track of each vendor and their offering for you, plus all of their points of contact? Of course, you do, which is why you could benefit from a vendor management strategy from White Mountain IT Services. We?ll keep track of your solutions and contacts and handle your wishes on your behalf. We?ll also keep careful documentation of every detail of your arrangements – which vendors you use, the software you have licensed, and the devices you have at your disposal – and take over their management on your behalf. Therefore, the number of contacts you ever need to reach out to concerning your vendors is one, without the chance of being put on hold or just told to repeat the same troubleshooting tasks you?ve already gone through. Rather, one of our technicians will be able to access the information they need to expedite your support process, getting you back in business with minimal time wasted. To make a long story short, with White Mountain IT Services?s vendor management services, you?ll only ever have to call one trusted source to resolve any of your technology and support needs. Give us a call at (603) 889-0800 for more information.
How to Set Up Canned Responses The first step is to log into your browser version of Gmail. Next, click on the Gear icon in the top right corner under your profile image to access the Settings. You should then see a horizontal menu that will show you the option for Advanced. You?ll then see the option to enable canned responses. Click on the radio button to enable them, then save your changes. You can now begin using your canned responses for email. Creating and Using Your Canned Responses Of course, you can?t use canned responses without having any responses saved. First, open up the message composer and build out a message. Once you?re finished, access the message window options by selecting the button in the bottom-right corner. You should now see a Canned Responses option, along with a sub-menu that lets you save a New Canned Response. Gmail will ask you to name your new response so that it can be found again in the future. For more great tips and tricks, be sure to subscribe to White Mountain IT Services?s blog.
The Equifax Problem During the months of May and July of 2017, a credit-reporting firm called Equifax fell victim to a data breach that exposed a whopping 148.1 million records containing personally identifiable information. To put this in perspective, the Equifax data breach exposed almost half of the population of the United States of America. In the wake of this breach, the former Equifax CEO Richard Smith was cross-examined by Congress. Smith?s defense argued that ?human and technology errors? were at the heart of the issue. Ultimately, the Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Greg Walden, came to the following conclusion: ?I don?t think that we can pass a law that fixes stupid.? How to Fix Your Data Security While it?s true that there is no guarantee legislation would resolve the issue, you still need to make sure that your organization is doing the best that it can to keep threats from infiltrating its network. You can begin by implementing specific standards on a company-wide level or a case-by-case level. Here are some ideas that you can start with: Start with compliance: Compliance regulations don?t always have data security in mind. That being said, it?s still an important part of managing your data security, as you could potentially be subject to fines and other troubling regulations. Resolve vulnerabilities: 99 percent of exploits rely on vulnerabilities remaining unresolved in network infrastructures. These exploits also often exploit vulnerabilities that are at least a half a year old. You should make patching these vulnerabilities a priority so that you can best protect your data. Centralize your data security: There needs to be someone at the helm of your data security endeavors. If there isn?t, you make protecting your data much more difficult. This person should be responsible for implementing access control and making sure that nobody can access data that they wouldn?t need for their ordinary workday. Encouraging Employee Security Employees hold more sway over your business? security than they may realize. This makes it difficult to protect important assets, because if you?re overly cautious, you could be compromising your business? ability to operate as intended. For your benefit, here are a couple of ways that your organization can help employees remain cognizant of their responsibilities. Lazy credential habits: Password problems have persisted in business for a long time. Employees should never reuse passwords or usernames for every account that they have. Each password should be a complex, containing letters, numbers, and symbols to maximize security. You can use a password management system if this gets to be a bit too much for your employees. Oversharing information: You should help your employees work toward limiting just how much information they share about themselves on social media so that passwords are not as easily predicted. Avoid using personal anecdotes whenever possible, and restrict who can see what information to minimize the chances of this happening. You also don?t want information to spread outside of the office, as an invoice or receipt with a customer number could be all a hacker needs to cause trouble. Using the wrong Wi-Fi: Public Wi-Fi is dangerous and therefore, not the ideal way to access secure data. You should work together with your employees to make sure that they have secure access to company documents whenever they […]
The cloud provides all manner of benefits to your business, including user productivity and efficiency. Here are some of the best ways you can take full advantage of the cloud. Asset Virtualization If your organization uses lots of different hardware and software, you can create virtual environments where they are stored and accessed as needed. This can be anything from a server operating system to a software solution. Basically, you?re storing these assets on someone else?s computer where they can be accessed at a later date from any of your connected devices. It?s definitely easier than installing an application on each of your workstations or purchasing multiple servers for each individual operating system. Software that is stored in the cloud is much more accessible to your organization?s employees. Basically, you store the application in the cloud so that it can be accessed on just about any device. In most cases, this can be anything ranging from a smartphone to a full-fledged desktop. Some applications like Gmail and Microsoft Office 365 can be accessed on just about any device, allowing for seamless productivity. Hardware virtualization also provides your organization with the opportunity to consolidate your server infrastructure, further enhancing operations. Data Access and Storage Data storage is also one of the other primary functions of cloud computing. Without cloud storage, none of its other functions would be possible. Cloud-based data storage is much more accessible on connected devices, allowing for productive use of data as long as the device has a way to interact with the data itself. The cloud also plays a pivotal role in data backup and disaster recovery. What?s the best way to take advantage of the cloud for your business? You can find out by calling White Mountain IT Services at (603) 889-0800.
What Are Computer Forensics, and What Are They Used For? Computer forensics is generally considered the application of special processes and techniques that can be used to analyze information on a computer or network. Forensics are also generally meant to protect evidence that could potentially be used in a trial. Once the warrant required has been issued, a forensic technician will go on-site to isolate the device from the Internet or other attached networks that could influence its contents. They then copy over every file on the device and dig through them for anything of note. It?s important that the investigator makes a copy of each file so that the original evidence can be preserved. Even something as simple as accessing a file can lead to slight alterations, making the evidence of little consequence in a court of law, civil or criminal case. Computer forensics can be used for any number of different cases. Depending on the nature of the crime, any device could be used to obtain evidence of what is, was, or will be happening. These types of investigation take an extremely close look at the data, including not just the files that are currently there, but at the metadata for just about any items on the device. This includes looking at when the file was first created, when it was edited and saved, and who might have been the one to carry out these actions. This process can be used to solve any number of cases. Here are just a couple to look at as an example: Intellectual Property Theft and Industrial Espionage Employment Disputes Bankruptcy Investigations Inappropriate Email and Internet Usage in the Workplace Regulatory Compliance Forgeries and Fraud Investigations Alternative Sources of Analysts Law enforcement agencies are certainly not the only ones that place an emphasis on computer forensics. There are many others that also have accredited laboratories. You might be surprised to hear about a couple of these, as they include Walmart, American Express, and Target (which is kind of hilarious in the wake of the Target data breach not too long ago). There are also numerous independent labs that, while lacking accreditation, can potentially outperform law enforcement agencies under the right conditions. Independent labs are often onboarded by law enforcement to help with crime solving. The perfect example of this is Target, whose labs have helped with ?felony, homicide, and special-circumstances cases? in the past. These claims come from a spokesperson who, in 2008, claimed that about a quarter of cases managed by Target?s forensic laboratory were external and had nothing to do with the company itself. How Does Your Technology Compare? If your organization would like a team on your side to ensure that security is always a top priority, reach out to White Mountain IT Services at (603) 889-0800. We aren?t a dedicated computer forensics agency, but we know all about network security and compliance issues.
