Recent Blog Posts

Control Internal Access For a long time, every person on a business? computing network had access to every file and application hosted on it. Over time, this caused a lot of problems with data security. There is absolutely no reason why every employee needs access to every file on your network. In fact, it can only end poorly. Partitioning certain parts of your network and implementing access controls to get the tools (and access to files) to the employees that need them, while also minimizing your risk by limiting access to some is a best practice that all organizations should employ.  Control Vendor Access Every single business has a myriad of third-party vendors that they use. While you may know your sales representatives well, you don?t know everyone that works with them. This presents significant potential risk. Nowadays, with data privacy laws beginning to pop up regularly, businesses that don?t have some semblance of access control for their vendors could stand to face civil or even criminal legal action, let alone compliance fines and reputational harm. If your vendors demand access to your network, you have the right to demand transparency in return. If they cannot (or won?t) offer that, you need to rethink your business agreement. Train Your People One of the most important parts of having a strong cybersecurity posture is implementing a comprehensive cybersecurity training regimen for your employees. This includes how to properly create passwords that protect their employee accounts, how to spot potential phishing messages, and why they need to be active participants in protecting your business? network and data. Nowadays, a majority of outside threats are aimed at getting employees to grant access to accounts so that cybercriminals can plant malware, siphon data, and even steal money. The better prepared your employees are for this eventuality, the more secure your business? network and data will be.  Patch Your Software Another major avenue of attack is through vulnerabilities created by software that hasn?t been updated properly or timely patched. Most software your business relies on is constantly developed by the company you get it from and if you don?t consistently make an effort to keep every server, workstation, or networking device updated, new vulnerabilities will form. This can be a real problem for your business.  Develop a Security Plan Finally, not every threat is going to be caught by security software and not every vulnerability is going to be consistently caught by infrequent penetration testing. You need to have a dedicated cybersecurity response process in place that will direct your organization in the right direction should there be a network breach. It takes an average of three-quarters of a year for most network breaches to be detected. By then, it is difficult to mitigate the damage done. A business? reputational damage is significant if a data breach happens, and if you don?t have a plan of attack to get out in front of it by evaluating what happened, what was taken, and resolve it quickly, things will certainly get worse.  At White Mountain IT Services, we work with New Hampshire businesses to help them secure their network and data, come up with policies, procedures, and training platforms to help mitigate the chances of a data breach, and manage the lingering negative effects that a lack of network security can […]

COVID Has Been Tough for Everyone, Especially Businesses With massive repercussions across the board for society, businesses have seen so many of their standard operating procedures fundamentally change?and a survey by McKinsey & Company reveals that these trends are expected to continue in the near future. In fact, nine out of ten surveyed executives believe that their operations will in fact change as a result of the COVID pandemic?with 85% sharing concerns that their customers? needs and wants will continue to be influenced by the pandemic for the next five years or so. However, most executives across most industries also see the situation as a growth opportunity. As a result, many organizations took advantage of the pandemic as an opportunity to modernize their processes. Multiple trends are arising as a means of maintaining operations that are more and more likely to continue moving forward, such as: As-a-Service offerings, as cloud-based tools make remote work easier to facilitate Hybrid work approaches, as they help to boost employee satisfaction while enabling work from more places Supply chain resilience, as a means of avoiding the challenges that we are facing currently This Kind of Innovation is Nothing New As it happens, disasters and other challenges have spurred innovation throughout history. Consider that some of the biggest private companies were created in the midst of two recessions in the early 1980s, with many citing the uncertain times as their motivation to pursue their own business ventures. This trend goes back a lot further, too?Isaac Newton created his law of universal gravitation while sheltering at home as the bubonic plague kept Cambridge University closed. Technically speaking, the famous apple tree story could be seen as a work-from-home story. Technology Can Help Overcome Challenges We can help you implement this technology and accomplish more?even during hard times. Find out what we can do for you by calling (603) 889-0800.

One look at the statistics is all it takes to understand the breadth of cybersecurity issues facing the world today. According to Accenture?s Cost of Cybercrime Study, 43 percent of all cyberattacks were aimed at small businesses and only a fraction of those businesses were ready to defend themselves.  This is why it is so important to have a dedicated network and cybersecurity strategy. If you neglect this part of your business, particularly in regards to training your staff on procedures and policies you might put in place, you are hindering their ability to go about their tasks in a secure and productive way. Here are four tips you can use to get your staff on-board with cybersecurity practices. #1 – Get Them to Relate Network security is not the most interesting topic in the world, especially for people who might not understand how it directly ties into their lives. You might have to get a little creative with this, but generally speaking, it is easier for someone to relate to the content of a security training session if they can see themselves or others they care about as the victims. Use real-life examples, like identity theft or data leaks due to negligent behavior, to reinforce why they need to take security seriously. Ultimately, their adherence to these policies is what will keep themselves and others safe from hackers. #2 – Always Promote Security People are impressionable, so if they are surrounded by a specific message, they will be more likely to pick up on it. You can leverage this trait with your cybersecurity messaging. If you are promoting cybersecurity and best practices in the workplace, you can create a culture surrounding it, one that sticks long-term. #3 – Consistent Training While pushing security might get you so far, consistent training will be the key to ensuring everyone remains aware of how important it is. You should hold training sessions on a regular basis which encompass the following topics: How to avoid becoming a victim of phishing What network resources they have access to The importance their role has in protecting company and customer data Solid password management and best practices What to do if they make a security mistake If every employee you have has a good handle on these five concepts, there is a great chance that there won?t be a network security disaster coming from your staff. #4 – Lead By Example If you want your team to take security seriously, you can start by taking it seriously yourself. If you implement policies and procedures, then you need to stick to those policies and procedures so employees know that it?s not just them who are responsible for sticking to them. If you implement security measures like firewalls, antivirus, multi-factor authentication, and others, you should be prepared to advocate for their use. People often look at these solutions as methods to protect the business from themselves rather than a means to protect the business from external forces, so be sure to foster the latter mindset. Remember that being a security mentor is something that involves listening to people and supporting them rather than demanding specific actions from them. It?s unlikely that everyone will understand the importance of cybersecurity policies at first, so take time to educate them so […]

What is Proactive Maintenance? The fact of the matter is that all your IT maintenance will fall into one of two categories: proactive and reactive. Reactive maintenance is your typical break-fix approach where you only address problems as they arise. Proactive maintenance relies on constant monitoring of your infrastructure to prevent problems from occurring in the first place, resulting in fewer costs and much less downtime. Perhaps now you see why there is such a big benefit to proactive maintenance; it prevents problems from shutting down your operations, resulting in greater profits and fewer expenses. Besides Greater Uptime, What are the Benefits of Proactive Maintenance? Cutting downtime is a great benefit, but the greatest benefit you can expect from proactive maintenance is that you can completely avoid hardware failure in most cases. Technicians like those at White Mountain IT Services who have been trained to identify issues with technology systems can address the issues as they show themselves, and thanks to various tools on the market, our technicians can resolve most of them remotely on the spot. It sure beats throwing away thousands of dollars on a new server unit, right? We can further break down proactive maintenance into two categories: predictive maintenance and preventative maintenance. Predictive maintenance anticipates issues that could occur with your technology and plans accordingly, whereas preventative maintenance follows a set schedule. Basically, there will always be tasks you can do to keep your technology lasting as long as possible. These are mostly preventative maintenance tasks that include monthly audits, software updates, and various other things that are scheduled and handled according to that schedule. Predictive maintenance has a more variable timeline while also including overall quality control and root cause analysis. No matter the type of technology maintenance your business needs, White Mountain IT Services has your back. We can proactively monitor your infrastructure for issues that could lead to downtime-causing problems, thereby addressing them before they cripple your operations. We can also set up a maintenance schedule and predict technology failures that could occur in the future. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

Baseball?s Data Revolution Baseball is one of America?s longest standing institutions and has been evolving along with American society for over 140 years. That?s why it is not that surprising that the increase in data collection would coincide with a major shift in the sport. You have to go back about 30 years to see where this all starts. For a long time, baseball statistics were viewed at face value. You had your home runs, your runs batted in, your win-loss record. Along came some baseball fans that were also looking to measure players differently. Known as SABRmetrics (named after the Society of Baseball Research), new statistics were created that helped fans, and more importantly, a set of innovative front office executives measure every part of the game. This information then started to be used to construct baseball teams. If you?ve read the book (or have seen the movie) Moneyball, this is essentially what it was about.  As data collection got better and better, more statistics were created to start judging player performance. The result in this not only changed the way teams put together their rosters, it led to players changing their approach entirely. A few years back, hitters would get paid more if they hit home runs and pitchers would get more money for striking out a lot of hitters. This led to one of the biggest changes in modern baseball, the increase of strikeouts across the board. Batters, trying to increase home run output, changed their swing approaches to try to get the ball in the air. Sure there were more home runs hit, but the whole game has been changed as a result of the increase in actionable data.  Data Can Change Your Business, Too By collecting and utilizing data to make business decisions, you are doing so with much more knowledge than you would if you just made decisions off the cuff. For example, you may have had success in the past with the way that you measure employee performance. If you have workers that are reliable and have been working for you for a while, it stands to reason that you?ve done a good job measuring their performance. Through the use of data, you may actually discover that you have significant bias that is costing your business greatly. There is a place for the ?gut feeling?, but it?s probably not on the bottom line of your business.  The truth is that many managers like to cherry pick the numbers that support their opinions. This is doing nothing but hurting your endeavor. With the ability to take in and measure data, customize metrics, and all the other parts of business intelligence and business analytics, you could just find out that your business? lack of growth could be because of manager bias.  Want to Use Your Data to Make Your Business Better? Call Us Today! If you?d like to get some help setting up an analytics platform that can help you make more informed decisions, call us today at (603) 889-0800.