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VirusesViruses are pieces of code that infect your system and cause many issues, ranging from being mildly irritating to particularly dangerous. Viruses can cause system slowdown and many other problems with performance, or can open you up to data theft and major downtime issues. A solid security software like an antivirus solution can be sufficient to keep most viruses out of your infrastructure, but more advanced threats will be more crafty in their exploitation of your organization?s weak points. MalwareJust like viruses, malware, or ?malicious software,? infects a system to perform various functions. Variants like spyware can be used to watch your every move and capture keystrokes, while ransomware can be used to lock down your files and extort money from your organization. Either way, malware is problematic, and you?ll want to take steps to prevent infection in the first place. SpamSpam messages are both annoying and wasteful, but more than anything else, they are dangerous for your organization. Spam is the preferred method of spreading threats like viruses, malware, ransomware, and phishing scams, primarily because messages can be sent to countless users at the same time. While some email providers will have measures put into place to mitigate the threat of spam, you want your own secondary solutions that further protect your assets from messages containing infected attachments or malicious links. Phishing ScamsHackers and identity thieves will often try to steal data from organizations or even individuals through targeted attacks designed to harvest credentials. They will pretend to be reputable individuals from organizations that your business might have dealings with, or they will take the identity of someone you might know from your personal life. Either way, they will try to use who you know against you to steal sensitive information, like financial credentials, personally identifiable information, or login information for online accounts. The best way to avoid getting tricked by these scams is to brush up on the giveaway signs, such as poor spelling in messages, out-of-the-blue outreaches from the sender, unexpected urgent final notices, and more. White Mountain IT Services can help you ensure your staff is trained on how to identify these scams. CEO FraudAn increasingly popular trend, called ?whaling? or CEO fraud, occurs when a hacker takes on the identity of someone with authority within your organization, like the CEO or other members of the C-Suite. These types of schemes often present themselves in the form of an email appearing to come from a legitimate source asking for something like a wire transfer of funds. In these cases, the recipient of the message doesn?t necessarily want to question authority, and will instead comply with the request. If this occurs within your own organization, take a moment to reach out to the sender via their official telephone number that you have on record, or by dropping into their office for a quick chat regarding the message sent. It could save you from accidentally transferring huge sums of cash to a hacker. How do you protect your business from the many threats found online? White Mountain IT Services can help you implement powerful security solutions, like Unified Threat Management, to keep your digital assets safe from the majority of threats. To learn more, reach out to us at (603) 889-0800.

A classic example of this is seen when procuring new technology. There?s a reason why some laptops cost $200 while other models run $2,000. When buying computer hardware, the more money you?re willing to invest will get you technology that?s more reliable, more powerful, and provides better functionality. Short term decision makers will experience sticker shock when encountering high-end equipment, causing them to gravitate toward inexpensive models. While a move like this may save some cash at the time of purchase, long-term thinkers know better. Managers that choose to spend extra on hardware do so because they know it?s well worth the expense. When you go with technology that?s reliable, your company experiences significantly less downtime, which quickly adds up. When workers can?t do their jobs, that lost time equates to time that can?t be billed. When one considers such a discrepancy, it doesn?t take much in the way of downtime prevention to cover the financial gap between cheap hardware vs equipment that?s more reliable. The same logic can be applied to how technology affects employee productivity and morale. By going with inexpensive hardware for the sake of saving a few bucks, you?ll end up equipping your staff with equipment that?s not as reliable, and as such, may even experience frequent breakdowns. Now, a short-term thinker may not see this as a big deal and just expect their workers to suck it up and appreciate the tools they?re provided for doing the job they?re being paid for. Whereas a long-term thinker understands how equipping staff with reliable technology can dramatically benefit the bigger picture. InformationWeek explains, ?better devices lead to higher productivity and morale. According to a UK survey, more than two-thirds of workers felt negatively about their workplace, in part due to outdated technology and practices, with the average worker being frustrated with office tech around three times per day.? Considering just how much more productive an employee is that feels positive about their job, as well as the absurd cost of employee turnover, it?s clear why long-term thinkers don?t think twice when it comes to paying extra for procuring reliable technology. Of course, this same money-saving principle applies to how your business goes about the maintenance of its IT systems. If you view your company?s technology as an expense, then you?ll spend your money fixing problems as they crop up, which can quickly add up. Whereas long-term thinkers view their company?s technology as an investment, which translates to being proactive about IT maintenance and preventing problems before they surface. In the end, this long-term approach saves companies significant time and money, and that?s a decision everybody can feel good about. To learn about how managed IT services from White Mountain IT Services can benefit your company in the long term, call us today at (603) 889-0800.

Here are three ways that you can make Google Chrome work more efficiently. Use Chrome?s Task ManagerJust like your computer?s task manager, which shows you how much computing resources your programs are utilizing, Google Chrome has its own built-in task manager that lets you see which tabs and browser extensions are bogging your system down. To open it, look for the three-dot menu in the top-right corner of the browser window and click on it. Look down until you see More Tools. From here, select Task Manager. Alternatively, you can use the shortcut Shift + Escape to open it. Once the window loads, you?ll see the tabs and extensions used by Chrome, along with a percentage as to how much processing power they are consuming. Once you?ve found the offender, do what you would with any misbehaving application in your own task manager: select it and click End Process. Of course, if you end an extension or tab that you are using, it will cease to function until you reload it or restart Chrome. Implement Hardware AccelerationBefore we go any further with this, we want to throw out a disclaimer that it?s not always recommended to implement this feature for your browser (it depends on how powerful your computer is). To find out whether or not this setting will be helpful for your browsing experience, be sure to reach out to your IT department or the technology professionals at White Mountain IT Services. Hardware acceleration shifts some of the burden off of your PC?s CPU onto the GPU, potentially alleviating some of the processing problems that you might be having. This works by placing some of the page-rendering burden onto the GPU rather than the CPU. To find this setting, you?ll need to click on the three-dot menu and select Settings. Once you?ve done this, go to the bottom of the window and select Show Advanced Settings. Scroll all the way down to the System section and select Use hardware acceleration when available. Once you?ve done this, just close out of Chrome and reopen it. Reset Google ChromeIf you?re unsure if anything that you?ve done has changed Chrome?s performance, you can revert any changes made to the browser?s settings by simply resetting Chrome. To do this, go beneath the hardware acceleration option and you?ll see Reset Settings. Confirm your selection. Just keep in mind that while Chrome won?t reset things such as your bookmarks, browsing history, or saved passwords, it will reset settings like your default start page, your new tab page, your pinned tabs, and your default search engine. Does your business struggle with getting the most out of its technology? Subscribe to our blog for more great tips and tricks on how to make technology work for you.

The warning comes from the Computer Emergency Readiness Team?s (CERT?s) National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC). In it, public reports from ESET and Dragos reported ?a new highly capable Industrial Controls Systems (ICS) attack platform that was reportedly used in 2016 against critical infrastructure in Ukraine.? You may recall a similar incident hitting the news not too long ago when workers at a Ukrainian power distribution center watched helplessly as hackers took control of their computers, and used them to shut down heat and power for over 230,000 citizens. Though the power wasn?t out for very long (somewhere between one-to-six hours, depending on location), the control centers are still suffering from the attacks several months later. In addition to turning off the power, hackers also overwrote crucial firmware, which left 16 substations unresponsive to remote commands. This is the first confirmed instance of hackers successfully taking down a power grid, and it?s thought that these hackers were very meticulous and sophisticated in the execution of this attack. Last year, the FBI began a campaign to raise awareness of the potential issue by briefing electrical power companies of the risk. Although, the possibility of such an attack hitting the United States was deemed improbable. Thankfully, there is currently no evidence to suggest that this malware has affected critical infrastructure in the U.S., but the recent CERT warning suggests that such an attack has grown more probable. This risk is due to CrashOverride having the potential to be modified to target vulnerabilities in U.S. critical information network and systems via the malware?s tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs).  To give you an idea of how dangerous the malware is, the Dragos report links the malware to the group responsible for Sandworm, a wicked zero-day vulnerability that executed code within affected systems by opening a backdoor for later access. This threat utilizes phishing attacks and has the ability to spread between networks with the goal of disrupting systems and stealing sensitive information. In the CERT warning, the recommended way to handle CrashOverride is for utility companies to take a proactive stance when it comes to cybersecurity. This includes implementing techniques for providing and identifying malware. In truth, this is the same approach to cybersecurity that we recommend for all businesses, regardless of industry, size or location. As the sophistication of cybercrime continues to develop, properly monitored and maintained networks are a company’s first line of defense. Contact us today to learn more about network security and best practices.