Recent Blog Posts
Phishing It should be seen as no surprise that phishing?a form of social engineering that uses subterfuge to extract data, credentials, and other important information from its targets?is a serious threat. Not only can it be carried out through a variety of communication methods, there is no shortage of tactics that phishers can use to trick their targets. This flexibility makes it all the more challenging for businesses to resist phishing attacks. Challenging, however, is much different than impossible. A critical aspect of protecting your business from phishing is simple awareness. Ensuring your team is knowledgeable of the risks that phishing poses and trained to mitigate the risk of this attack vector is critical. Ransomware On a closely related note, ransomware has continued to be a serious threat that no business can overlook, either in terms of its severity or its popularity. By locking a business out of its data (or even its entire network) and demanding a payment for its return and/or the cybercriminal not leaking it, this particular form of malware has been utilized to great effect over the past few years to take advantage of businesses to the tune of millions upon millions of dollars. So, how is ransomware so closely related to phishing? It?s simple: because ransomware needs to gain access to a business? resources in order to encrypt them, phishing attacks are commonly used by cybercriminals to get this access. Therefore, understanding the dangers of phishing becomes even more important, as does knowing how to address ransomware properly (here?s a hint: make sure you have a comprehensive backup and disaster recovery strategy prepared). Malware Taking a step back from ransomware for a brief moment, let?s consider all the other examples of malware out there that can and do impact businesses of all shapes and sizes. Viruses and other nasty malicious software (which is where the term malware comes from) can have a variety of influences on a business and its processes. As a result, it is important to have every defense in place to minimize the chance of malware being able to have this influence. Things like firewalls, antivirus software, and good old-fashioned employee training and awareness will go a long way toward this goal. Insider Threats Unfortunately, it can sometimes be your team members that are the most direct cause of your cybersecurity challenges?intentionally or not. Regardless of their intentions or motivations, it is important that you have the safeguards in place that can minimize the risk that your insiders pose. Things like access controls and permissions based on the rule of least privilege are all invaluable to this goal. While you want to be able to trust your team members, of course, trusting them doesn?t mean you need to leave yourself vulnerable. Password Issues Finally, we need to address the issues that are so common amongst passwords and the habits people have gotten into where they are concerned. Too many of them are woefully inadequate, unfortunately, meaning that anything protected by them really isn?t. For this reason, it is critically important that you reinforce the importance of sufficient passwords with your team, ideally while giving them the resources to assist them in using them, like a password manager. White Mountain IT Services can help you resolve all of the above, so make sure you reach out […]
Go About Your Tasks Differently We?ve talked about some of the quote-unquote ?reasons? that people procrastinate already, so it?s important to acknowledge them as we seek out our fixes. For instance, some people tend to procrastinate as a means of avoiding failure or criticism, while others procrastinate by trying to make sure everything is perfect before they?ll progress any further. If this describes your patterns, you might try just switching things up somehow. Try working on whatever it is you?re working on in a different place. Try breaking up your goals into smaller objectives, ensuring that they contribute to your greater intentions. Try streamlining some of your decisions so there is less to obsess over. Plan Ahead It?s easier to act if there is an intentional goal to act on there to motivate you into actually acting. Proactively taking the time to establish a plan to follow is therefore a smart idea, not only in terms of keeping you organized but also as a means of keeping you accountable. Try setting a few goals for yourself for the next day at the end of your work time, whether that means establishing the things you need to do or setting a more lofty objective. Try mapping out a timeline for your project or endeavor to follow, giving deadlines for you to meet. Try giving yourself dedicated time to recover to help replenish your motivation. Lean On Those Around You Keep in mind that, in most things in the workplace, you have other people around you as a means of support. Turning to them can help you overcome your temptation to succumb to procrastination, and that?s something that you can reciprocate for them as well. Your teammates are and should be seen as a resource. Try sharing your goals amongst your team to boost your accountability and give yourself a group to support you and help inspire you to accomplish the goals you have set. Try consulting with someone who has already completed a similar task for their insights and ideas, as their perspective might reignite your interest. Try partnering up with someone else who is also working toward a specific goal of their own as another, more direct source of accountability. Of course, this may be enough to help you beat procrastination in the moment, but fundamentally changing your habits might be a different story. We?ll wrap up our discussion next time with an examination of how you might approach this aspect. Make sure you check back for that!
Let?s explore why all VPNs are not the same, and what this means for your business? use of one. What Does a VPN Do? This is the crux of the issue, actually. At its core, a VPN hides your IP address as you access a network. That?s?basically it. A virtual private network really just does what it says on the box: creates a virtual network that helps to keep things private. However, many of the talking points that these influencer sponsors often make?with the VPN companies providing them, of course?are relatively meaningless. This is especially true when you compare the use case of a business to the use case of an individual user, as these online personalities are speaking to. The Needs of a Business Just Don?t Line Up with What an Individual User is Seeking Out The key consideration to make here is the intended use. While commercial VPNs allow you to access a random network anonymously, a business VPN specifically provides your team with access to your specific network. In short, the commercial VPN isn?t doing what your business needs a VPN to do?and it goes even deeper than this. In the case of a personal VPN, as you see pitched by these online personalities, the purpose is for a single user to be able to access the Internet via less-than-secure networks. However, when these VPNs are pitched to be an all-inclusive security panacea, this is where it becomes problematic. In addition to this, there are other reasons that a personal-use VPN is a bad fit for a business, especially as compared to one that is specifically intended for a business? use. Multiple users can simultaneously use a business-grade VPN, for instance, and it?s more specifically intended to ensure that each of these users are able to access the resources they need that are stored on its in-house infrastructure. In Short, You Need to Be Sure Your VPN?Like All Your Business Tools?Can Be Trusted Picking the tools that your business needs can be a challenge, especially when you also need to deal with all the other goings-on at your business. We can make that challenge a lot simpler for you, by stepping in and helping you manage not only your network connectivity, but your entire IT strategy. Give us a call at (603) 889-0800 to learn more about the many ways we can assist you with our trustworthy and business-appropriate tools.
This Letter Effectively Calls for a Pause on the Development of AI With tens of thousands of signatures, the short letter cautioned against the unfettered growth of AI without a greater appreciation of the potential outcomes. There are assorted reasons that these signees are so concerned, that have the potential to materialize in the short, medium, and long term. In the Short Term, Misinformation is a Massive Concern With the capability that AI has to reference and even manufacture false or disingenuous data, there is a very real chance that any information that these systems can produce could be false?something particularly dangerous when so many people already turn to the Internet for important information. In addition, these falsehoods can be made far more convincing through the capabilities of these platforms. What?s worse, this effect can also be manufactured, so content meant to spread misinformation can be produced far more quickly and shared that much more easily. As Time Passes, Job Loss Could Result Many technology experts are also very concerned that AI could swiftly render many current forms of gainful employment obsolete. While some knowledge-based careers require more practical skills than AI is able to replicate (yet), many could ultimately have their roles reduced significantly, if not eliminated entirely. In the Long Term, Could AI Leave Us Obsolete and Extinct? Yes, it sounds extreme, but some experts?specifically those from the Future of Life Institute, which is an organization that tries to predict ?existential risks to humanity??foresee that the largely unpredictable nature of AI could create some very serious issues as it ?learns? how to write its own code. In fact, the Future of Life Institute was who wrote the aforementioned open letter. Likewise, the Center for AI Safety has collected signatures in support of their own brief statement: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.” In short, scary stuff. While Some of These Threats are Predictions, Some are Currently a Problem Like any other major technological enhancement, there are definitely some kinks to iron out in terms of artificial intelligence?and these challenges will almost certainly result in legislation meant to put stopgaps in place. What do you think? Do you foresee anything being done to slow, or even stop, the advancement of AI?
With that, let?s get to it?no procrastinating here! Procrastination Looks Different from Person to Person Just as there is more than one way to skin a cat, there?s more than one way that people can put off doing things?which means that there are also different ways for different people to put a stop to their habits. What follows are some of the main ways that procrastination presents itself, and how you might make a small change to procrastinate less. 1) ?It Has to Be Just? Right?? Let me ask you something?are you the type of person whose shoelaces have to be the exact same length on either side? Do people compliment your eye for detail? Are you the type to sweat the small stuff? If so, it might be your means of procrastinating. Perfectionism can often be the reason people will get stuck in a process, or even avoid starting it in the first place. Like most of the examples we?ll go over here, it?s a deceptively simple thought process. After all, if ?perfection? is the only acceptable outcome, there can never be a successful outcome. Therefore, perfectionism can be twisted into a means of postponing a task indefinitely to protect the procrastinator. One way to help break down and avoid this form of procrastination is to specifically eliminate any extraneous tasks or details that aren?t conducive to your goal and are therefore out of your focus. Essentially, know your specific task, and prune away anything that may distract you from it. 2) ?I Love This Plan?But, Can I Make It Better?? If you often find yourself thinking through your entire process over and over, refining it and polishing it to make it better?but never actually taking action?your planning might be better identified as procrastination. Much like perfectionism, the urge to endlessly tweak and optimize your processes can provide an excuse to never actually start using them. Why do something one way if there?s a better way to do it? This desire for improvement therefore becomes a convenient excuse to never actually finish a task, electing instead to endlessly try to improve it?in theory, at least. To help reduce this kind of procrastination, it helps to utilize something known as SMART goals?goals that are designed to be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. By designing these goals, you?re able to commit to doing a task and shifting any process refinement to after the task is done, taking notes during the process and reflecting upon?not predicting?ways to improve. 3) ?EVERYTHING is a Priority.? When you have assorted tasks to take care of, how do you go about determining what to do first? If you can?t decide and therefore jump around from task to task and potentially neglect those you see as unimportant, you may be subject to this form of procrastination. Keeping yourself occupied with busy work is a tricky way to procrastinate, simply because it can easily look like productivity from the outside. The inability to effectively prioritize tasks is therefore a shortcoming that you will want to address in your business before everyone is involved in workplace theater. To do so, examine your tasks and try to determine which of them will ultimately produce the most good for your business in terms of its objectives and goals, and which […]
