First off, know that the appearance of an eye icon doesn?t mean that you?re being watched by a hacker. It?s a Samsung feature called Smart Stay, and when you see the eye, it means that the feature is activated. What is Smart Stay?Smart Stay is a clever feature that uses your device’s front camera to sense when you are looking at the device. Once your face (or any face) is detected, Smart Stay will then prevent the screen from turning off, overriding any screen timeout setting. As you can imagine, this is a very helpful feature that prevents your screen from turning off while you?re reading a blog or an email, which can be a frustrating experience. You can adjust the feature from the Android home screen by going to Menu > Settings > My Device > Smart screen. From here, check or uncheck Smart Stay to turn the feature on or off. Of course, it?s such a helpful feature that you?ve really got no reason to turn it off. That is, unless you want to conserve battery power. How Do I Know if My Phone is Compromised?Now that we?ve established that Samsung?s Smart Stay feature is not spying on you, let?s go over some symptoms that you?ll see on your phone if it is hacked. Depending on the nature of the hack, some of these symptoms could even mean that someone may actually be spying on you via your phone. Unfamiliar charges on your carrier?s statement. Data access patterns that you don?t recognize. Your battery drains quicker than normal. You find apps that are downloaded from a third-party app store. Strange notifications start appearing, especially related to finding and downloading new apps and games. Your device has been rooted (aka jailbroken). Your antivirus has been disabled. You actually see the hacker?s remote actions of opening apps and navigating your phone. Of course, if you have any suspicion whatsoever that your phone is hacked, then it?s a smart move to turn off the device?s Internet connection, or even power it down completely. You?ll then want to take your phone to an IT professional like the friendly technicians at White Mountain IT Services for us to confirm or deny your suspicion, and then remove the threat entirely should we find one. In today?s hack-happy world, it?s good to be suspicious when you see something on your device that you don?t understand, like perhaps the Smart Stay eyeball. White Mountain IT Services is standing by to assist you when you encounter your phone doing something that you don?t understand, because when it comes to your personal data, it?s better to be safe than sorry!

It?s the nature of every problem relating to business to include consequences that extend far beyond the timeframe of the issue?s initial impact. This is especially true for data breaches; an all-too-common problem that hurts organizations in many more ways than one. To give you an idea of just how much damage a single data breach can cause a business, consider a new report by Cisco saying that, out of all the companies that experienced a data breach in 2016, more than one-third lost more than 20 percent of their customers, opportunities, or revenue. This statistic should come as no surprise. After all, let?s say that a store you shopped at experienced a data breach and your credit card information was compromised. Upon finding out about the incident, wouldn?t you be hesitant to return as a customer? Even if the company offered you their assurances that the vulnerability had been addressed, you?d still have hurt feelings and perhaps a hard time taking them at their word. This same attitude exists with your company?s customers as well. While many businesses are able to make amends following a data breach and retain much of their customer base, for the average SMB, having to lose as much as 20 percent of a their clientele may prove to be too large of a loss to bounce back from. One reason for this is due to the fact that a loss of customers, opportunities, or revenue has far-reaching consequences that work against the projected growth of your company. Consider the reality that, if your business were to lose 20 percent of its customers, then that 20 percent compounds over time when you factor in the reality that every person that left could represent a customer that won?t recommend new customers to your company. Thinking along these lines, a loss in revenue represents a loss of resources to draw from that could be going toward growing your business. See now how a little problem like a data breach can turn out to be way more devastating than you may have initially realized? Taking a 20-percent hit is something that few businesses can afford; not initially, and especially not in the long run. Additional findings in the Cisco report are equally concerning. Cyber threats in 2016 increased in power and sophistication. Cybersecurity efforts by organizations aren?t able to investigate all of the alerts they get in a single day (56 percent is the average). However, despite cyber attacks growing in complexity, hackers still utilized ?classic attack methods seen in 2010.? With cyber threats increasing in frequency and sophistication (so much so that the average business struggles to stay on top of them), and considering how costly a data breach truly is (both in the present and in the long run), you can see why investing adequately in cybersecurity solutions should be a top priority for your business. To safeguard your company from the devastating consequences of a data breach, call the cybersecurity experts at White Mountain IT Services for an IT consultation of your network. We can equip your business with the enterprise-level security solutions you need to stay on top of the worst threats of the web, like a Unified Threat Management tool and our remote monitoring service. Call us at (603) 889-0800 and ask about how we can protect […]

Whatever their reasons may be, many companies resort to ineffective measures like these when it comes to implementing changes on their network. The trouble is, they?ll often just add some relatively newer technology to their aging system. That, or they begin to channel Angus MacGyver, cobbling together whatever they have on hand to create a work-around to whatever problem they are experiencing. At White Mountain IT Services, we think that?s a shame, and that?s what makes us so committed to providing a better option for businesses. Many businesses, especially small ones, experience similar issues. They also tend to be unprepared for the full impact of any of the numerous IT concerns that could do harm to their operations, or prevent them from expanding and growing. Other tendencies that plague small businesses and their technology solutions include a lack of documentation outlining the basic procedures for a business resource to follow, as well as the consequences of that lack of documentation. Ultimately, a workforce that has not received the proper training will not be capable of working efficiently enough to fulfill the demands of the consumer or customers. However, without cohesive training or onboarding available to them, the employees who create that workforce will not be able to utilize the resources they are provided to their fullest ability. Instead, your more intrepid employees may take it upon themselves to come up with alternative methods to completing their duties, methods that could very well create a much larger problem somewhere down the line. All in all, workforces like these tend to be disorganized, inefficient, and unmotivated to learn how to become better, electing to do things ?the way they know how to do them.? Clearly, functioning as a small business is no easy endeavor, especially when concerns like these repeatedly pop up in technologies that small businesses rely on to function, distracting the employees and preventing them from achieving efficiency. However, there is help. Providers, like us at White Mountain IT Services, can implement the solutions your business will need to embrace its full potential. This only begins with a managed service implementation, where we will monitor your solutions as part of a proactive effort against the many threats that could strike your systems. If an issue or threat appears on the horizon, our technicians will work to resolve it before it presents you with a problem. The same goes for any security updates or software patches–we will make sure your systems are as advanced and well-protected as possible. Managing your IT solutions is only the start of how we can assist you and your business. For more information about our services, be sure to keep reading our blog, or give us a call at (603) 889-0800.

You only care about how long your device?s battery lasts when it?s in the red, and at that point, it?s almost too late to find somewhere to charge. In situations like this, your first thought is, ?Where is the nearest outlet?? Subsequently, your next thought might be, ?How can I charge the battery faster?? For this week?s tip, we?ll go over your options for getting a faster charge from your battery. Turn Off the DeviceFirst of all, try turning off your device whenever you choose to charge it. This means that instead of powering your device?s apps, your battery will instead be devoted to the singular task of recharging itself. Of course, there will always be a situation when you won?t be anywhere near an outlet, so you?ll need to make the most out of your charging time. Since we know that you can?t always turn off your device to max out the charge of your battery, here are a few ways you can do so without turning off your device completely. Disable Your Internet ConnectionEven if you?re not trying to use the Internet on your device, it still uses some extra battery power to connect. This is mainly due to connected apps that send notifications, like Facebook or your email app. If you don?t want to use your Internet connection, you can turn it off and still get work done by turning on airplane mode. This lets you take advantage of apps like your calendar, calculator, and alarm clock, but comes at the sacrifice of not being able to use your phone function. Disable Your BluetoothYou should only turn Bluetooth on when you need to use it, as it can be a battery drainer. Try a Wall OutletA USB port might be a great way to charge your device while you?re on the move, but the problem with this is that charging via USB is often less powerful than using a wall charger. The reasoning for this is that the outlet typically provides more energy than the device?s port, so you might experience a decrease in battery performance if you choose to use the USB option. In fact, in some scenarios, you may even notice that using a USB port will only slow the process of battery drain, which can be unfortunate and frustrating. When you think about it, this makes quite a bit of sense. PC Adviser explains how various chargers will have different charging capability: ?While a PC’s USB port is specified at 2.5W for USB 1.0 and 2.0 and 4.5W for USB 3.0 (so always use a USB 3.0 port in preference to USB 1.0 or 2.0 when available), a phone charger might be rated at 5W and a tablet charger 10W, for example.? Get a New ChargerJust because you?ve plugged your phone into a wall doesn?t necessarily mean that you will get the best quality charge. A charger might only use 5W when the device can accept as much as 10W, so you could be wasting valuable time to get more charge out of your device. Upgrading your charger to the appropriate wattage can help you best take advantage of your device?s charging capabilities. If you?re unsure of which type of charger best suits your device?s capabilities, check out the owner?s manual. Qualcomm?s Quick Charge […]

Enabling extensions even while in Incognito mode is a great way to make sure that you are getting the most out of browser. Just follow these instructions and you?ll be able to choose which extensions are always turned on, even when you?re in Incognito mode. Click Chrome?s menu button Make your way to the More Tools Click on Extensions Go through the extensions and find the one that you want to enable in Incognito mode Click on the Allow in Incognito Mode button It?s really that easy. Once you?ve followed these steps and open a new Incognito tab, you?ll notice that your selected extensions will be available for use in Incognito mode. Of course, it?s still best to consider that there?s probably a reason why Incognito mode turns your extensions off by default, so use them sparingly when you can. You don?t want to put your company?s data at risk on accident, especially when you?re trying to do the exact opposite by using Incognito mode in the first place. If you want to get the most out of your business?s technology, be sure to subscribe to our blog.