A VPN may not be for everyone, but here are a couple of scenarios where having a secure portal to access information can be of great benefit to your business: Scenario 1: Your business has two or more locations, and it?s time to consolidate your infrastructure, data, and other IT efforts. You want staff from all locations to access everything in real time, in one single system that you control. Scenario 2: Things are moving and shaking, and certain parts of your team are starting to travel to work closer with new clients, attend trade shows, and broaden your organization?s reach. However, you immediately identify an issue where your data is getting spread all over, with versions of files on someone?s laptop, someone else?s email, and another on a third person?s cell phone. Plus, your road warriors are requesting extra licenses for the software they need for their laptops and mobile devices. A VPN is basically a secure portal to access your company?s network from any Internet-connected device. Your data, applications, and user policies are all accessed securely, leaving them in tact on your network, even when employees aren?t on the network. With just a couple of clicks, a user can log in to the network from home, a coffee shop, or while on site for a customer and access everything they need as if they were in the office. If your organization doesn?t properly secure its information, you?ll lose out on the security necessary to keep your data as safe as possible from prying eyes. Often times, data is at its most vulnerable when it?s traveling from one location to another. A VPN works by encrypting the data that?s sent and received to and from the network, which helps your business keep hackers from stealing your data while it?s in transit. Here are some of the best reasons to be using a VPN for your business?s network: Secure connections to sensitive data: We mentioned that a VPN helps to keep your data secure when you?re accessing it. The way that a VPN works is that of a secure connection between your device (the endpoint), and your organization?s network. Providing such a direct connection and encrypting the data while it?s in transit helps to keep attackers from stealing your data while it?s moving, rendering it useless to them if they do manage to steal anything. Role-based data access: One of the most valuable features of a VPN solution is that you can restrict the flow of data so that only authorized personnel can access specific information. For example, an HR department should be the only employees privy to the sensitive information of employees, like Social Security numbers, while Account of Finance should be the only department allowed to access credit card numbers and client payment information. Restricting the flow of important information in this manner is an important part of minimizing risk. Remote access to critical data: The great thing about VPNs is that they?re virtual networks, and can be accessed from any approved device. This helps you ensure that your employees always have access to mission-critical applications and data, even if they?re out of the office or on a business trip. If your business wants to take full advantage of VPNs, White Mountain IT Services can help. We can assist you with […]

A VoIP system works by transferring your voice over your Internet connection, rather than through telephone cables. In particular, VoIP helps small businesses that need to grow fast, but even large companies can enjoy the many benefits that VoIP has to offer. VoIP Enhances MobilityDo you remember the struggle associated with corded phones? You couldn?t walk three feet from the phone without getting tangled up in something or another. Even with cordless phones, you still could only move so far from the receptacle before you lost signal or dropped the call. VoIP resolves these inconveniences, making it easier than ever communicate using your company-wide phone system. Using a wireless headset, you can communicate from any Internet-connected device that has the VoIP application installed on it. This includes mobile devices, like your smartphone or laptop, which means that you can even take your VoIP device on the road with you and use it wherever you can find an Internet connection. With a little bit of configuration, you can even use it like an ordinary phone on your mobile device. This means that you can have both your personal phone number and your office phone number to communicate from. How?s that for convenient? VoIP is FlexibleThe last time your business hired new employees, did you have to expand your office and install new cables so they could have a phone at their desk? If so, you know how much work goes into installing new telephone lines. Cables need to be carefully laid out, and depending on the limits of your existing phone system, you may need to perform a major upgrade just to get new staff plugged in. With VoIP, adding new users is as simple as can be. All you have to do is set up a new user account, and as long as your Internet connection has enough bandwidth to handle the traffic, it?s as simple as downloading an application. Integrated Features: IM, Video Chat, Conference CallingThe greatest benefit that your business can get out of VoIP is the immense number of additional features that you can take advantage of. These features are generally designed to augment your current system so as to improve collaboration in the workplace. For example, VoIP can provide an instant messaging medium through which you can communicate with other members of your team. This is great for instantaneous communication that require a quicker answer than what email can provide. Another key part of a good VoIP solution is video conferencing software, which allows your users to add a more personal touch to incoming and outbound communications. It can also be used to communicate with your remote workers. With your team being only a phone call away, it will feel like they?re just a couple of rooms away. With so many great features and benefits that VoIP provides, what are you waiting for? Your organization can save on capital expenses while improving operations. All you have to do is pick up that traditional phone for one last time, and give White Mountain IT Services a call at (603) 889-0800.

Your Data is Backed Up Multiple Times a DayOther backup tools, like tape, can be a drag for modern businesses. It does everything it can to keep your data as up-to-date as possible, but you can only stay so recent when your data is only backed up once a day. Tape backups occur after-hours due to the strain they put on your infrastructure and the time it takes to run the backup, so in the worst-case scenario, you could be looking at data losses equivalent to an entire day?s worth of work. BDR takes this concept and applies a more logical approach. Since many of your files are likely left unchanged throughout the workday, what if you could get by while backing up only files that have been changed since the last backup was taken? By using this approach, BDR is capable of taking backups as often as every fifteen minutes, which significantly decreases the potential data loss risk if an issue were to occur. Your Data Can Survive Most AnythingNatural disasters, user error, hacking attacks, and hardware failure are all threats to your business?s continuity. All it takes is one or the other to completely derail operations. With tape backup, you also run the risk of having your backups wiped out along with the rest of your technology. If you have your tapes stored somewhere that can be damaged by natural disasters, all of your efforts will be for naught. Of course, you can plan on taking yesterday?s tape home with you every night, and hoping for the best. While this is practiced when it?s the only option, you are traveling with all of your company?s data on a small, lightweight, magnetic tape, which introduces more risk. On top of that, you would need to commit to it religiously for it to be effective. One of the best parts of using BDR is that your data can survive just about any adverse condition, provided it?s backed up properly. A fire that scorches your office can?t destroy your data if it?s stored in the cloud or in an off-site data center. A flood can wash away your technology, but if it?s stored in an off-site data center, your data will stay afloat. Your Business Can Function as UsualNormally, when a business loses access to mission-critical data, downtime can break your budget and render your operations obsolete. Businesses incapable of recovering this data and pushing forward are generally known to go out of business within a year following the incident. This is why it?s so important to have a fully functional backup and disaster recovery plan. Consider the time it takes to get back up and running after experiencing a disaster. Tape backup takes significantly longer to restore than BDR, sometimes requiring several days before your data is available. With a BDR, if the device is still intact, the BDR can take over for your downed server temporarily, while a repair takes place. In more catastrophic events where the BDR is destroyed, there are options to spin up the data in the cloud or overnight ship a BDR to a temporary location. This means that even in the worst case, you can set up a temporary office space and be up and running quickly to sustain your business. With BDR, you […]

Ransomware Not Just an Individual ProblemPerhaps you have known someone personally who had to deal with ransomware after clicking on the wrong link or downloading the wrong app. Perhaps you were one of the friends or family members they called frantically asking what to do. You might think that given proper security protocols it could not happen to your business, behind your corporate firewall. Unfortunately, ransomware is getting more clever by the day. Ransomware, a Hidden ProblemTrouble is, much like those pesky human viruses that only go stronger over time, ransomware continues to grow and learn. In large part, it certainly does not help that many companies choose to simply pay up, and that public companies are being especially targeted by custom malware, because attackers hope for big pay offs. To attackers, ransomware is a business. The more often they strike, the more attackers learn about what works – and what doesn’t – and the better invested they are in developing ever newer and better malware. Ransomware, the Zero Day Problem, and How to Deal with ItAs discussed in the Lincolnshire case above, the specific ransomware involved was Zero Day. This means the trojan virus was specifically created and targeted at this server so that it was unknown anywhere else in the world. Traditional antivirus software is powerless against such an intrusion, because traditional antivirus software is designed to look for specific code. Such software will not detect custom-created malware because such malware is unknown, as yet, in any database.Let us say your enterprise software is attacked by a custom-made virus and all you have in place is standard antivirus software. By the time the virus gets added to a database, it will be too late because you were ground zero. For this reason, you need additional protection ahead of time, security software which actively searches for suspicious activity as opposed to a specific, known malicious code, software such as System Watcher. System Watcher, or software like it, is necessary in an enterprise context, because you are more likely to be hit with a specific, targeted attack by an attacker who knows what they are doing. How to Respond to Ransomware?If you have been attacked by ransomware, or if you are filling out a risk assessment matrix in case you ever are, in either case we strongly encourage you to include security consultation as part of your response. Here is why. 1. You really do not know who is asking for money. If you are considering paying off attackers, bear in mind that you do not know who you are going to pay off or what they ultimately want. Perhaps it is a competitor who secretly wants to steal information from you and is looking to exploit your security by pretending to fix your problem. Before coming to any decision, please consult with outside security, someone who knows the business and can – at least – tell you who the attacker is and whether a pay off will make the problem go away. 2. Ransomware really can destroy data. Conversely, if you are hoping this attack is an empty threat, you may be tempted to ignore the threat and hope that after a time the DDOS attack (or however the ransomware is expressing itself) simply goes away when attackers see […]

One of the best ways to dodge these problems is by having your email hosted off-site by a managed service provider like White Mountain IT Services. Doing so affords your business plenty of benefits, and helps to free your business from the pains of maintaining your own technology solutions. What We Mean by Hosted EmailEmail hosting as a service is a great way for businesses to save money and to keep operations moving without comprehensive management on their part. In essence, your email server is hosted off-site in a secure data center and is managed and maintained by our professional IT technicians. The best part of a hosted email solution is that it?s crafted to your business?s specific needs, rather than it being an ?out of the box? solution. This means that you?ll have to spend less time making it work for you because it already does work for you. The Benefits of Hosted EmailYour business can gain a significant advantage by outsourcing the management of your email server to White Mountain IT Services. Here are three benefits of hosted email: Less time spent on maintenance and management: The most notable benefit is that your business no longer has to worry about keeping your email server operating properly. Since this responsibility is being handled by an external party, you?re free to use the time and resources on other initiatives that are more immediate and pressing. Flexibility and scalability: Another huge benefit of hosted email is that it?s scalable to suit the specific needs of your business. Not all organizations have the same needs, and as such, some will require less intensive email solutions. On the other hand, other organizations will need expansive and flexible solutions that are capable of adding users easily. Our hosted email solution has enough flexibility to fit into any business?s budget. Security and redundancy: Your business?s email is an important part of your IT infrastructure, and as such, hackers will try to take advantage of it in order to compromise your network. Spam campaigns and phishing emails are common occurrences that can break your infrastructure if left unchecked. Having your email hosted in a secure data center means that you?ll be less likely to experience hacking attacks. Plus, we also offer a comprehensive spam blocking solution which is designed to provide enterprise-level security to your network. White Mountain IT Services can help your business fully leverage not only email hosting, but also many other communications solutions. To learn more about hosted email, give us a call at (603) 889-0800.