Recent Blog Posts

Ransomware and DDoS attacks are finding themselves increasingly more popular in the cyber world. The idea is that hackers can use DDoS attacks to take down an organization’s infrastructure, rendering it inoperable until the attack subsides. In the meantime, hackers make offers to the target, demanding a certain amount of cash for the attack to stop. In theory, paying the ransom should end the assault and allow for a swift recovery of service. But what happens when the target coughs up the change, and the hackers continue the attack anyway? This is a question that organizations absolutely need to consider before giving into any hackers? demands. Even if you pay up, there?s absolutely no guarantee that the attack won?t continue to happen anyway. That?s just not how the real world works. In many cases, you?re dealing with seasoned criminals who want to see you squirm for no reason. For all you know, the ransom could just be adding insult to injury. In a worst-case scenario, hackers will accept your payment and continue the attack anyway, elated at the suffering they are causing. This was the case with ProtonMail, an encrypted email service based out of Switzerland, that fell victim to a massive DDoS attack on November 3rd. ProtonMail was initially threatened by a group of hackers called the Armada Collective, but they shrugged off the threat, thinking it no cause for concern. Its servers were overloaded with so much traffic that operations ground to a halt, to the point where even real messages were incapable of being delivered. As reported by ZDNet: The encryption service says the assault reached 100Gbps and not only attacked the ProtonMail datacenter but routers in Zurich, Frankfurt and other locations linked to the ISP — eventually bringing down the data center and ISP. This not only took down ProtonMail, but other companies were affected, too. Supposedly, ProtonMail only paid up the $6,000 ransom due to the others affected by the attack, but either way, the attack didn?t let up. Their noble sacrifice was for nothing, and that?s $6,000 that can?t be taken back; that?s without mentioning the cost of the downtime caused by the attack. Basically, we recommend that you don?t take action or give in to hackers? demands until you?re absolutely sure that there?s no way around the issue. Contact White Mountain IT Services, your trusted technology consultant, before making such a decision. When it comes to attacks like these, be it from ransomware or the threat of DDoS attacks, it?s best to always take preventative measures before these issues take root and grow into true problems. One of the most important first steps is to institute a security awareness training program for your staff.  A good starting point is to review the White Mountain Crypto Alert and the Cyber Security Toolkit, which is full of links to free tools and software to help keep your network safe. For more information about how your business can take the fight to criminals, give White Mountain IT Services a call at (603) 889-0800.

Perhaps it?s the idea of keeping the home environment and the workplace separate (which makes sense), or maybe it?s because office phones are actually used more often than we might give them credit for. A survey from RingCentral, which was performed in May 2015, studied the ways in which 505 United States workers communicate within the office. The results were somewhat surprising: 65 percent of the workers would rather use their office phone to conduct business, while only 30 percent claimed that they preferred to use mobile devices for calls. When you consider how often you see workers on their smartphones, this number might feel almost unbelievable. It seems that workers are always calling someone, sending text messages, or responding to inquiries with their mobile devices. With the millennial generation becoming a prominent part of today?s workforce, it?s suspected by Curtis Peterson, the senior vice president of RingCentral, that it?s primarily the younger generation that?s not comfortable working with the office telephone. In fact, according to another survey from TollFreeForwarding.com, only 6.5 percent of people between the ages of 25 and 34 are comfortable using a telephone, and would rather resort to other methods of communication, like messaging or email. Either way, the telephone isn?t going anywhere, even if it is a somewhat archaic solution in the face of new technologies like VoIP. Thus, it?s important to embrace the necessity of voice communication, even if it isn?t with the traditional telephone solution that we?re all so used to using. You might find that many communications solutions, including instant messaging, email, and VoIP, are all necessities in a modern office filled with a diverse workforce. It?s been proven that the office telephone is a great place to start cutting unnecessary costs out of your business?s operational budget. More often than not, big cable companies are known to package together services that aren?t necessarily useful for your organization. Add the fact that it?s difficult at best to make changes to your telephony infrastructure on a whim, and you have yourself a massive inconvenience that could be costing your organization in the long run. This is why it?s much more efficient to integrate a VoIP phone system that?s designed specifically for use by your business. With VoIP, you avoid all of the costly extra features that come along with your typical phone solution. You can add new features to your VoIP solution as you see fit, and with VoIP, you won?t be blindsided by unexpected costs every month. This provides the scalable solution that a small business needs in order to effectively manage its communications strategy. If your business is ready to get a real communications solution, look no further than White Mountain IT Services?s VoIP solution. We keep the ?phony? out of ?telephony? solutions. To learn more, give us a call at (603) 889-0800.

Proper Grammar and Spelling Are a MustEmail applications are equipped with spell check, and it?s super easy to use a word processor to check one?s grammar. Too often than not, though, these tools are taken for granted and an email is sent without being checked for spelling and grammar errors. The consequences of sending a poorly-written email can cause dire consequences for your company. Your professional reputation and even your intelligence will be questioned, especially if this is a consistent problem. Solution: Taking time to check for spelling and grammar errors will go a long way toward safeguarding your company?s reputation. Don?t rush your emails; instead, set aside time to check for errors. In fact, it may even be worth it to rope in another set of eyes to look for errors that you might have missed. Think about it, at the end of the day, would you want to do business with a company that can?t spell? Don?t CC the Wrong PeopleGroup emails are useful for getting important information out to your entire team. However, things can get messy when team members go to reply, especially if they only want some people to see their response and not the entire group. And then there?s the classic email scenario where a person will accidentally select ?reply all? instead of ?reply,? or vice versa. CCing the wrong person on an email can even be downright embarrassing if it causes them to see information they shouldn?t. An email blunder like this can easily be avoided by simply taking the time to review who exactly is going to see your message after hitting send. Do this by looking at the email?s ?To? form. It?s also a good idea to never say anything negative about someone in an email that you wouldn?t want them to see. Remember, it?s easy to accidently CC them on a message, or for someone to forward them something negative that you?ve said. For workplace emails, it?s in your best interest to keep all of your messages professional and by the book. Complete Your Message Before Sending ItAs obvious as this sounds, it?s fairly easy to rush yourself and click ?Send? before you?re even finished with writing your message. After this, you then have to write an embarrassing follow-up message, explaining your mistake and finishing what you were trying to say in the original message. The best way to prevent this major email blunder is to slow down and think twice before hitting send. Another preventive measure is to not multitask while working on an email. Writing an error-free email is an important enough task that it should get your full attention. Know Exactly Who You?re EmailingIt?s easier to email the wrong person than you may realize. For example, this can happen if you let the ?To? form autofill an email address from your contacts, and you happen to have hundreds (or even thousands) of contacts, many of whom have similar names and addresses. If the wrong address populates the “To” form, it can lead to some embarrassing consequences–or even dangerous consequences if it causes a leak of sensitive corporate information to an outside party. Notice a theme here? All of these classic email blunders can easily be prevented by simply taking the time to review the content and the forms […]

Just like a mighty octopus, the Internet?s tendrils wrap around the Earth, connecting countries and infrastructures in unprecedented ways. Almost all of the transoceanic digital communication, including phone calls, emails, and pretty much any Internet communication, relies on these cables. According to WIRED magazine, the first telegraph wire was laid across the Atlantic Ocean in 1866, which set the precedent for using wired technology for overseas communication. The cables which followed were typically laid along trade routes, with more modern cables following suit. Later on in the 1950s, the standard shifted to coaxial cables which could carry telephone conversations. Today, the standard consists of fiber-optic cables that can transfer huge amounts of data at an incredible rate. Here?s a video of how these cables are laid: And a map of where they?re all located: These cables have become an absolutely imperative part of how society communicates. Yet, these cables are at much greater risk than you might think, and most people don?t really worry about them until a potential problem presents itself. In fact, they?re often forgotten about until something goes wrong, though it?s not unheard of for submarines and other entities to take interest in these wires. According to WIRED, the following situations are generally threats to the Internet wires: seismic activity, the various undersea creatures (primarily sharks), and even international intervention. However, by far, the most common issue is the last one you might think of: ship anchors and fishing nets, which account for about 60 percent of any cable destruction activity. This is why maps will now mark the location of these wires, as severing them can lead to serious consequences. When you think about it, wouldn?t it be really easy to completely sabotage communications? Messing with undersea cables happened in previous World Wars, but such deplorable actions haven?t taken place in recent times. Still, it never hurts to be cautious and consider worst-case scenarios for catastrophic events like these. Now that we?ve renewed your curiosity in these cables, what are your thoughts on them? Do you think they are an antiquated method of deploying data throughout the world? Let us know in the comments.

What Constitutes Wearable Technology?Most forms of wearable technology consist of devices that can easily be worn by fitness enthusiasts, who use the technology to track their progress and monitor their body?s physical well-being. However, the wearable technology industry has been gaining traction in recent years, with devices that are designed to improve productivity and efficiency for the average office worker. As explained by CyberTrend: A 2014 Parks Associates study projected that smart watch sales will reach 121 million units worldwide by 2018. Similar to a smartphone or smart TV, a smart watch can connect a user to the Internet for access to real-time data. Generally, smart watches will offer users some basic features (current weather, music, access to email and texts, etc.), which are also available on smartphones. Depending on the model, some folks can use their smart watches to control their smart TVs, capture pictures, video chat, and run scaled-down versions of common smartphone apps, in addition to using the device as an activity tracker. While wearable technologies have varied uses, not all is well for these devices. Despite their increasing popularity, how practical are they when compared to the devices they?re mimicking? For example, the smartwatch gives its user a lot of information that could just as easily be obtained by using a smartphone. Furthermore, it would be much easier to use a smartphone to find this information, rather than on the miniscule screen of a smart watch. When it comes to smart glasses, like Google?s failed Google Glass, the question of privacy has crippled the progress of the industry. The main concern with Google Glass was the idea that confidential information could be shared much more easily than if the data was found on a laptop or a workstation. How Do Wearables Affect Your Workplace?If you have workers taking advantage of wearable technology while in the office, you should be aware that any Internet-connected device presents risks that can be taken advantage of by hackers. The trends known as BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and the Internet of Things (IoT) present a significant issue for security-minded businesses. With more devices connected to your organization?s network, there?s more chance that data could slip through the cracks and be stolen by the odd hacker. This is why it?s important to keep a close watch on the devices that your employees are bringing to work with them. You want any devices that have access to corporate information to be outfitted with a mobile device management solution that?s designed to limit what types of information can be accessed by certain applications, remotely wipe any compromised devices, and so much more. You don?t want your business to wear its data on its sleeve. Contact White Mountain IT Services at (603) 889-0800 today to find out how you can achieve greater data security from mobile devices.