The marketplace in question, according to WIRED magazine, is known as TheRealDeal Market. Similar to other questionable online marketplaces, it takes advantage of Tor, an anonymity software that masks the identity of all users and administrators, and the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. However, WIRED specifically mentions that TheRealDeal differs in the sense that it?s attempting to provide rare, high-quality code rather than stolen credentials and hacking tools. This essentially transforms TheRealDeal into a ?code market? of sorts, where hackers can turn to in order to find code that?s either difficult to find, or is simply worth more to the upper ring of cybercriminals. Of course, there?s no telling whether any of these supposed exploits being sold are ?the real deal.? According to WIRED: Any of the listings could instead be attempts to scam gullible buyers. The $17,000 iCloud vulnerability in particular, which claims to offer access to virtually all of a user?s sensitive mobile data including emails and photos, seems like an unusually good bargain. For comparison, zero-day salesmen told me in 2012 that a working iOS exploit could sell for as much as $250,000. The next year The New York Times reported that one had sold to a government for a half million dollars. So, for all we know, these might be scammers who are out to steal from would-be hackers. Ironically, TheRealDeal appears to have some sort of fraud protection system put into place, though it?s unclear how it works. Despite this, it?s clear that the market?s practices are questionable at best; especially because they sell other contraband under the radar, including stolen identities, LSD, and amphetamines. This behavior is deplorable, but in a way, it?s somewhat innovative. If this tells us anything, it?s that the buying and selling of online exploits is becoming a serious, organized business. With rare code becoming more accessible (for the right price, of course), hackers will be able to take advantage of it more often. This makes protecting yourself from advanced threats more important than ever before. Comprehensive security measures are necessary to make sure that your systems are always up to date and effectively preventing threats from accessing your information. This is precisely what our Unified Threat Management (UTM) solution accomplishes. Through use of antivirus software, firewall, content filtering, and spam blocking measures, your network can stay as secure as possible. Reach out to us at (603) 889-0800 to learn more.

It may be a pain point for Excel users to view a spreadsheet that?s larger than their screen. It can be annoying to try and scroll up, down, or sideways, only to have a crucial piece of information that you want to reference scroll off screen. The best way to prevent this is to freeze a needed row or column into place so that it doesn?t move while you scroll through your spreadsheet. Here?s how you do it: The first thing you?ll do is select the cell that?s in the first column and row that you don?t want to be frozen. Next, go to the View tab and click Freeze Panes. A drop down menu will appear. From here, click on the first option, Freeze Panes. This will freeze multiple rows and columns in place, which means that they?ll stay in place and visible when you scroll. With your selected rows and columns now frozen, test this out by scrolling sideways, up, and down on your spreadsheet. When you?re ready to unfreeze your rows and columns, simply select any row or column and then go to the View tab. Now go to Freeze Panes > Unfreeze Panes. By freezing columns and rows, you?ll find Excel to be easier to navigate. Check back with White Mountain IT Services?s blog every week for more time-saving tips.

Tethering with Mobile WiFiAdvantagesBy using your smartphone to broadcast a wireless signal, you can easily connect your device using your new mobile hotspot. Also, depending on the quality of your phone?s reception, your device can emit a wireless signal that?s on par with those produced from an actual wireless router. In fact, most smartphone hotspots are able to connect up to five different devices, adding to the versatility of the feature. DisadvantagesThe biggest concern when using your smartphone as a mobile hotspot is security. Your phone?s signal is vulnerable to hackers within range. This means that you should take the same precautions with your mobile device that you would with your office?s in-house router. Another disadvantage is that your device?s battery can get drained pretty quickly when using your device for tethering, which might leave you tethered to an outlet instead of WiFi. Tethering with USB CablesAdvantagesWhen tethering with USB, you don?t need to worry about your battery life. Your phone receives a charge while it?s plugged into your device, meaning that you?ll only have to worry about one battery instead of two. Plus, when you use your USB cable for tethering, the WiFi signal is only pushed through the cable. This means that the only device using it is yours. DisadvantagesAdding one more cable to what you already carry around with you might not feel like a significant addition, but it can be a minor inconvenience. The same can be said for keeping your device by your side, which can be distracting. USB tethering often requires special software or configurations, depending on the device being used. This simply means there are more steps to go through, which can be irritating. Still, despite these minor disadvantages, tethering via a USB cable is probably worth it when possible. Tethering via BluetoothAdvantagesBluetooth, just like WiFi, is capable of using a wireless signal to provide your device with an Internet signal. Bluetooth is specifically designed to use up less battery power, so it?s perfect for use with a mobile hotspot. Additionally, Bluetooth isn?t nearly as common as a mobile hotspot as wireless, so it has better security. DisadvantagesThe disadvantage to Bluetooth is that it?s not as easy to configure as WiFi. According to Pocketnow: It?s a little more involved to set up than WiFi, and a little more involved every time you want to use Bluetooth tethering. If power consumption is a concern, Bluetooth is probably the way to go, if you?re willing to configure it. So which tethering option is the best? It really depends on your needs. If you?re not entirely sure how to tether your device, or need help deciding which method is best for you, give us a call at (603) 889-0800. 

The primary expectations that today?s consumers look for in a cloud service is that it?s available and reliable. In fact, the expectation of a cloud service?s availability seems to trump even that of preferring one piece of hardware over another. This is one example of just how much cloud computing has completely changed the way that consumers view technology. Think about it, not too long ago computer users were driven to have their home PC be the fastest and most powerful machine they could afford. For most consumers, their home PC was their only computer, and forget about accessing work-related files on the average cell phone in the days before the iPhone. Today, the average consumer compliments their home PC with multiple mobile devices, and having the best desktop possible is no longer a status symbol. The cloud changed this computing paradigm by allowing users to easily access and work on important files from any device, anywhere. Subsequently, the reliability and availability of cloud software is what?s making all of this possible. Today, the average user could care less about what kind of device they?re working from, so long as it can easily connect to their cloud account and has enough resources to allow them to work on their cloud-hosted project with minimum downtime. Once someone experiences just how much easier cloud computing makes everything, it?s hard to go back to a bulky system like transporting files via USB thumb drive and manually syncing devices. Essentially, the ease of the cloud has raised the bar of consumer expectations so that users now cringe if a software issue can?t be resolved by just a few clicks, and consumers become absolutely befuddled if a necessary software application isn?t available in the cloud or if it doesn?t have a mobile app. To give you an idea of what today?s consumers expect from the cloud, we want to share this list of consumer expectations from ZDNet tech blogger David Gewirtz. In this list, Gewirtz is speaking on behalf of the average tech consumer. Some cloud services are free, but we expect premium upgrades. If paid services are involved, we expect to easily and smoothly add or remove services merely with a mouse-click and a credit card. As soon as a service plan’s capacity is reached (or just before), we expect the service to offer us an upgrade, not require us to go hunting to make things work. We also expect fees to be tiered, so that each new tier provides more value than the last, with an incremental fee or jump. Fees are usually all-you-can-eat for a year or smoothly scalable as soon as more capacity is needed. We expect to be able to use the service on any compatible machine. And we generally expect the service to work on pretty much anything. We expect all our service-related data to just be there, wherever we are. How that happens is not our problem. Installation is a click or a login. That’s it. It’s just there. There are no longer installers, updaters, zip files or other things to download and run on the desktop. Just click and run. There you have it. Cloud computing has made everything so easy that we?ve come to expect the availability and reliability of the cloud to accompany virtually every […]

Contrary to what some might think, that free 15GB you get when you start using Google Drive isn?t used by just Drive itself; it?s used across several other Google services, including Gmail and Google+, for email attachments and photos alike. Here?s how you can find what?s eating up all of your Google Drive storage. Analyze Google Drive?s Storage PageThankfully, there?s a really convenient way to see what?s taking up all of your Drive?s storage space. By visiting Drive?s Storage Page, you can see a simple pie chart of what?s using up most of your storage space. As you can see, it tells you exactly how much storage is being used, and where it?s being used. This lets you see what needs cleaning up. For example, if most of your storage is being used for your email and attachments, it might be a good idea to weed that out. Similarly, if you have too many photos on Google+, it might be a good call to go through them and see which ones you can do without. What Uses Up Your Drive?s Storage?The storage page is actually very helpful in informing you of what takes up space in your Drive account. At the bottom of the screen, underneath the pie chart, you?ll see a section that tells you what exactly uses your Drive storage. Surprisingly, any files created using the core Google Apps (Docs, Sheets, Slides) don?t take up any storage at all, while just about anything in your Gmail inbox takes away from your Drive storage. As for Google+, only photos larger than 2048×2048 pixels, and videos longer than 15 minutes, eat up your Drive?s storage. Take Back Your StorageNow it?s time to go through all of your stored files and find the ones that are taking up the most space. One way of doing this is by sorting your files by quota used. On the lower left-hand side of the screen in Drive, right above the link that says Buy more storage, you?ll see your current storage use. Hover over it and a box will appear with more specific numbers. Click Drive. This sorts your files by Quota used, meaning how much space they?re taking up. This can help you manage your Drive?s storage more efficiently. As for sorting out your email, it can be tricky to delete files, as some of them might be better off archived somewhere for later viewing. Contact White Mountain IT Services for help establishing an email archiving solution for your business. You might have plenty of space being taken up by your Google+ photos, too. Plus, if you have an Android phone, there?s a good chance that you?re syncing your device?s photos to Drive, effectively backing them up. To make sure your photos don?t exceed the designated maximum, open the Google+ app on your Android phone. Click Settings > Auto Backup > Photo Size, then select Standard size. This keeps them from being uploaded as larger files that actually take up space in Drive. Keep in mind that there may be instances where you don’t want Google scaling down your images automatically. By taking these steps, you should be able to minimize the amount of storage you?re using in Drive, and maximize the amount you can store without needing to upgrade. For more tips and best practices […]