Security professionals have been at war with hackers ever since the Internet was created, but a recent NATO decision has affirmed the fact that cybersecurity is a real-world problem, and one that needs to be fixed. Just like land, air, and sea, cyberspace has become a battlefield, albeit a very different kind of battlefield. The decision by NATO declares that cyberspace can be defined as an ?operational domain,? which is an area where conflict can occur. There have been some incidents of cyber attacks that have transcended from the cyber realm, to having effects in the physical world, such as the recent Ukrainian electrical grid hack, or the supposed Iranian hack of a United States dam control system. The idea is that hacking attacks can have direct effects, such as causing blackouts or turning off critical systems. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg made a valid observation concerning the decision to add cyberspace to the list of operational domains: ?Cyber defence is part of collective defence. Most crises and conflicts today have a cyber dimension. So treating cyber as an operational domain would enable us to better protect our missions and operations.? Technology is so prevalent in today?s world that it?s practically impossible to imagine warfare, of any kind, that?s not assisted by it; and where there are technology systems, there are networks that can be hacked and taken advantage of. If data that?s deployed to bases or war zones is inaccurate, lives can be lost, rather than protected. Another example would be hacking critical infrastructure, like with what happened in the Ukraine, which left countless citizens without heat, electricity, and other necessities. In particular, NATO plans on securing its networks and focusing on helping other countries secure theirs, as well as implementing ways to identify where attacks come from, and why. In 2014, NATO changed its policies on cyber attacks to allow NATO to respond in force to any attacks against nations that are involved with the organization, so defining cyberspace as a grounds for conflict shows just how quickly this situation is escalating. Of course, all of this is easier said than done. Cyber security as a whole is still handled primarily on a state level, and while the US and UK plan on investing in cyber security, other countries find that it?s of low priority, or that it?s too far off to consider at this moment. This decision by NATO should reaffirm that your business needs to take a cautious, proactive approach to network security, as well as leverage best practices in order to minimize risk while working online. If your business falls victim to a hacking attack, you?ll realize far too late that the online world is a dangerous place filled to the brim with malicious entities. Therefore, it?s in your best interest to take a preventative approach to network security. White Mountain IT Services can equip your business with the tools needed to keep your IT infrastructure safe. To learn more, give us a call at (603) 889-0800.

Click and DragIf you have your files placed in one location, like on your desktop, you can click and drag your mouse to create an boxed area of effect. Any files within this box can be moved through a simple click and drag function. Select the files you want to move, then drag any one of them to the location to move all that are selected. Select the CheckboxesIn Windows 10, you have little checkboxes that you can click to select the individual file. If you have several files that you need to move you can click the checkboxes for all of them, then move just one to move them all. This can save you considerable time and effort. The Click-ShiftYou can select files that are horizontal and adjacent to each other by using the Click-Shift method. Basically, you select the file that you want to move, and then hold down the Shift key while selecting the last one you want to move. Anything in between will be selected. All you have to do is click and drag the files to their new location. Hold CtrlWhen you hold down the Ctrl key, you can click on files that you want to move. Once they?re selected, all you have to do is move them to the appropriate folder. Select All FilesIf you decide that your desktop is much too cluttered, and you need to move everything on it to a new location, the same Select All keyboard shortcut that works in most word processors can be used to select all of your files at once. Just hit Ctrl+A to select all files in your current window, or desktop. Just click and drag them, and you?re all set. Just remember that some of these keyboard shortcuts also work with Mac OS X. All you have to do is substitute the Ctrl key for the Command key, and they should work in generally the same way. Fun Fact: You know how Windows is bundled with Solitaire? No, we aren?t assuming that you are playing it at work. Microsoft decided to bundle their OS with Solitaire as a way to get users more accustomed to dragging and double clicking objects with their mouse. For more great tips and tricks, subscribe to White Mountain IT Services?s blog.

The term ?meme? was originally coined by a British evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins, in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene. Its official definition is ?an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture.? Dawkins initially used it to discuss the way that ideas and values are adopted by people within a society, but an Internet meme is somewhat different from the scientific approach (though the definition certainly suits the way a meme spreads around the Internet). While the evolutionary idea of a meme is based on sporadic and seemingly random change, an Internet meme defies this principle, often as the result of a ?hijacking? of the original intended purpose of the image or video that is the subject of the meme. To put it in simpler terms, think of it this way. Internet memes often take the form of popular images that were originally used somewhere else, like in popular culture, TV shows, etc. For example, the ?Futurama Fry? meme takes a silly image of the show?s protagonist in deep thought, and uses it to explain confusion or indecision. Another example is the ?Matrix Morpheus? meme, which uses an image of Morpheus from The Matrix to discuss a revelation that, according to KnowYourMeme, ?belittles futile or petty behavior.? In fact, some memes are funny just because they aren?t funny. Take, for example, the ?Anti-Joke Chicken? meme, which tells the beginning of a joke, and ends with a rather obvious statement, something that makes logical sense, or something completely unexpected. (It?s funny because it?s not funny) Makings memes for your business isn?t difficult, and it?s free. There are many meme generators online that you can use to make memes. In order to effectively use memes for your business (or just pass them amongst your coworkers), keep the following rules in mind: Stay relevant to your goods or services: If you want to use memes, you need to first figure out what theme you want it to follow. It should be aligned with the services that you offer. Use the right image: Once you?ve figured out the theme for your meme, you can proceed to find the right image for it. We recommend doing some research and looking at examples of previously existing memes, but be warned; the Internet has many memes, some of which may be offensive. Keep the audience in mind: Your memes should appeal to your target audience, especially if that audience consists of young people that frequent the Internet. Be funny: At their very core, memes are meant to be funny and humorous. If they aren?t, you?re not doing it right. Share it on social media: The point of a meme is to bring light-hearted attention to your brand and to be shared. You can do both by exposing it to many followers on social media. For an example of how you might apply a meme to the real world, we?ve made this one using the ?Disaster Girl? meme character: Two things to note: 1) Get your point across by finding a meme that?s relevant to your goods and services, and 2) Use an odd combination of humor and terror to inspire action from the viewer. If you came across this on a social media page, would you snicker and give it a […]

The promise of autoscaling for your cloud solution is pretty straightforward. Somehow, workloads automatically know how to scale in size the specific amount of resources needed in order to perform a task. The idea here is that this feature is always-on and always monitoring network activity, thus alleviating bottlenecking issues and traffic spikes without any human intervention. If only this were true. In actuality, achieving autoscaling to this degree requires a whole lot of human oversight and technical know-how, thus, eliminating the ?auto? part of the scaling equation. ITProPortal explains, ?To create a truly automated and self-healing architecture that scales with little or no human intervention requires custom scripts and templates that can take months for a skilled team to get right, and many organizations have neither the time nor those resources to make it work.? Instead, a better approach is to have human oversight of your cloud solution. This is achieved by entrusting IT administrators to respond to increased network traffic with intelligent scaling decisions. Having oversight like this for a cloud platform is important for any business, especially when it comes to the unpredictable nature of network computing. For example, if your website is hosted in the cloud and your business is featured on a spot in the local news, then your website may crash from a spike in unexpected visits. Also, any solution connected to the Internet is at risk of being overwhelmed by a DDoS attack. Proper oversight of a network by an administrator will allow them to take needed scaling actions to safeguard against such an attack. However, having a dedicated IT technician constantly overseeing your network is still a bit of a stretch for an SMB. If you?ve spent any time with an IT technician, you might recall just how busy they are. ITProPortal explains: ?They don?t have time for this either. Couple it with the fact that they are chastised when systems are under-provisioned or fail, that re-starting a system may land it on an unfortunate server filled with noisy neighbors, and that all of this is happening at the scale of dozens or hundreds of servers at a time ? and this feels like a great time to just over-provision everything and leave well enough alone.? Therefore, in view of true autoscaling being difficult-to-impossible to achieve, and onboarding a new IT technician to oversee your servers being out of reach for the average SMB, the most reasonable and effective option left is a managed cloud service. Managed IT provides the best of both worlds; you get oversight of your cloud solution by having an automated system in place to catch any traffic and performance abnormalities, along with a human technician to make the proper scaling adjustments as soon as they?re notified. This affordable option is how White Mountain IT Services manages our clients? technology. To find out how you can take advantage of managed IT, call us at (603) 889-0800.

However, if you?ve already applied the latest security patches, you have little to fear. We thought we?d share some background information on the nature of the vulnerabilities, and why Microsoft had to patch them in the first place. If you haven?t yet applied these patches, it will be good to know what you?re exposing your systems to, and why it?s important to get them fixed. For Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, and Edge, they are critically in danger of being exploited remotely through web pages or Office documents. This could allow hackers to execute malicious code and do your business harm. Read more about these patches on Microsoft?s security bulletin: Patch for Microsoft Office: MS16-099Patch for Internet Explorer: MS16-095Patch for Edge: MS16-096 Even more critical vulnerabilities were found to affect Windows, Microsoft Office, Skype, and Lync, which have to do with the Windows Graphics Component. This could allow hackers to execute malicious code through malicious web pages or documents. Patch for Windows, Microsoft Office, Skype, and Lync: MS16-097 In another security bulletin, Microsoft claims that a critical remote code execution flaw exists in Windows PDF Library, which is bundled with Windows 8.1, Windows RT 8.1, Windows 10, Windows Server 2012, and Windows Server 2012 R2. This vulnerability affected Edge in a different way from usual, and allows attackers to take advantage of malicious PDF documents hosted on a website, and then trick users to loading the file within their Edge browser. Patch for Windows PDF Library: MS16-102 Other patches that have been flagged by Microsoft as ?important,? rather than ?critical,? can be found below. However, it?s important to note that even if they aren?t critical, they certainly shouldn?t be ignored. MS16-101 MS16-100MS16-098 If you haven?t yet updated your system with these security patches, you should reach out to White Mountain IT Services at (603) 889-0800. Our technicians will work with you to ensure that your systems are protected and patched against the myriad of threats that can be found both online and offline. Of course, if you already have White Mountain IT Services?s remote monitoring and maintenance services, chances are that your systems have already been patched. In fact, we apply the patches for any product of Microsoft, so that you don?t have to. It?s just one way that managed IT service can help your business stay focused on what really matters.