This past January, Microsoft stopped supporting all versions of Internet Explorer that aren?t the current version: Internet Explorer 11. This means that there are many unsupported web browsers that are lacking patches and security updates, including Internet Explorer 7, 8, 9, and 10. Half of the PCs that currently run Windows XP are still running Internet Explorer 7 and 8, which is a recipe for disaster. To determine what version of Internet Explorer you are running, open up the browser and go under Help and look for an option called About Internet Explorer. Some versions of IE don?t have a help menu. If you don?t see it, look for a Gear Icon. Researchers at Duo Security discovered these statistics following an analysis of over two million devices. In particular, those who are running Windows XP were the main culprits for running older versions of Internet Explorer. Naturally, the combination of these two pieces of unsupported software practically begs hackers to target these systems. It was also found by Duo Security that 72 percent of Java and 60 percent of versions of Flash are also out of date on user devices, both of which can potentially open up even more outlets for attacks by hackers. It?s a testament to how end-users will handle their technology; if they don?t perceive an immediate threat, they will often put off upgrading software for the sake of convenience. This is a disaster waiting to happen, and it?s your responsibility as the business owner to ensure that you?re not putting your business?s workstations, servers, and other components, in harm?s way. While keeping your business?s critical technology infrastructure up-to-date with the latest security patches and updates is a challenge, it?s still a necessary struggle. You can?t allow a single workstation or server to put the integrity of your organization?s infrastructure on the line. You shouldn?t let the same old technology hold you back from achieving greatness with your IT infrastructure. The good news is that it doesn?t have to be a struggle. With White Mountain IT Services at your side, upgrading your technology is as easy as can be. We can thoroughly assess your business?s specific needs, and consult you on how best to move forward with your technology upgrade. The important thing to keep in mind is that you should always approach tech upgrades with caution. The last thing you want is to make a drastic change to your infrastructure, and render it obsolete. White Mountain IT Services can remotely monitor and maintain your business?s critical systems, administering patches and security updates without the need for a costly on-site visit. This saves you money in the long run, and you won?t have to worry about missing an important update for your solutions. To learn more, give us a call at (603) 889-0800.

We?ve put together a list of easy ways that you can mitigate the risks associated with oversharing your personal information on the Internet: Mind what you post: You need to understand that there is some information that?s not supposed to be shared on the Internet. A fairly obvious example of this is personal information like Social Security numbers; if someone shared their Social Security number online, and a fraudster got ahold of it, they could easily steal the identity and perform who knows what with it. Other information that shouldn?t be shared includes birthdays, home addresses, phone numbers, and so on. Even something as simple as your dog?s name could be used to crack a potential security question for an online banking account. Basically, you should keep your personal life off the Internet; otherwise, you?re inviting disaster. Side note: You may trust your privacy settings and your contacts, but you should still be conservative about posting your agenda and your physical address online. Never announce when your home will be empty on social media. Doing so could lead to uninvited guests while you?re vacationing in Tahiti. Limit your employment details: Sites like LinkedIn can help you work on your professional networking, but they also provide identity thieves with a treasure trove of personal information. Unless you?re actively seeking employment, it?s a good idea to include only information that?s absolutely necessary. It should be just enough to get people to view your profile, and information on how they can get in touch with you. Take advantage of privacy settings to maximize your personal security. Perform an online audit: The Internet is a huge place. Your information could be, quite literally, in a thousand different locations. Friends and contacts of yours could post information about where you are and what you?re doing. Plus, information could exist outside the realm of your social media accounts, lingering in online databases, waiting to be picked up by hackers or other thieves. Perform a social media audit: This is often called a ?friend purge,? where you go through your social media contacts and remove those whom you have fallen out of contact with, or those who you simply don?t know. Ask yourself if you would let your social media contacts into your home, or share intimate details about your life with them. Chances are that the majority of them don?t need access to your full account and information. Social media can be a great way to connect with people, but you need to take your personal security into your own hands. If you don?t, who will? For more information about how to stay safe online, keep tabs on our blog; or, call White Mountain IT Services at (603) 889-0800.

Microsoft has a certain way of handling support for their software. For five years following the release of a software or operating system, Microsoft provides what?s known as ?mainstream support,? where they accept requests for new features and fixes for key issues. After mainstream support ends, the product enters an ?extended support,? period, where all warranties end, and the only thing provided to the solutions are key security fixes. Once extended support ends, a product reaches its ?end of life,? where Microsoft cuts off support completely. This also means that your systems will no longer be patched for critical security flaws. Below, we?ve listed all of the Microsoft products that will be reaching their end of support date on July 10th and July 12th, 2016. If your organization is still taking advantage of any of these solutions, it?s important that you consider upgrading to a more recent version of the software, or to an entirely different solution. Failing to do so will place your important business systems at risk. Service Packs Reaching End of Support Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013 Microsoft Dynamics SL 2011 Service Pack 2 Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Business Intelligence Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Developer Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Enterprise Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Enterprise Core Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Express Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Standard Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Web Microsoft System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Service Pack 1 Microsoft System Center 2012 Endpoint Protection Service Pack 1 Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Endpoint Protection Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Endpoint Protection for Linux Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Endpoint Protection for Mac Products Moving from Mainstream to Extended SupportProducts marked with * expire on July 10th, 2016, rather than July 12th, 2016. * Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System Headquarters 2.0 * Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System Store Operations 2.0 Microsoft Project Server 2010 Microsoft Dynamics SL 2011 Microsoft SQL Server Compact 4.0 Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 Premium Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 Standard Products Moving to End of Support Microsoft ActiveSync 4.2 Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 Developer Edition Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 Enterprise Edition Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Branch Edition Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Developer Edition Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Enterprise Edition Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2 Standard Edition Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 Standard Edition Microsoft Commerce Server 2007 Developer Edition Microsoft Commerce Server 2007 Enterprise Edition Microsoft Commerce Server 2007 Standard Edition Microsoft Connected Services Framework Billing Standard Business Event 3.0 Microsoft Connected Services Framework Order Handling Standard Business Event 3.0 Microsoft Connected Services Framework Server 3.0 Microsoft Connected Services Framework Standard Server 3.0 Microsoft Connected Services Framework Standard Server with Standard Business Events 3.0 Microsoft Visual J# Version 2.0 Redistributable Package Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server Is your business still using any of these technologies or services? If so, contact White Mountain IT Services at (603) 889-0800. We?ll work with you to ensure that your systems aren?t left unsupported. Doing so is a liability that your business shouldn?t have to deal with.

In particular, colocation services are valuable assets that can be leveraged by your business to maintain top performance. When we talk about colocation, we?re generally referring to the ability of a business to host one or more of their solutions in an off-site data center. It?s essentially a private cloud hosted off-site. Normally, businesses that take advantage of colocation are responsible for maintaining their own infrastructures, but a managed service provider can easily fill this role, allowing organizations to reap all of the benefits without any of the downsides. Rowland Kinch of Custodian Data Centres writes to Data Center Knowledge explaining the great convenience that your business can reap from colocation services: For financial directors and IT directors, colocation provides the perfect win-win scenario, providing cost savings and delivering state-of-the-art infrastructure. When comparing the capabilities of a standard server room to a colocation solution, an assessment of the power alone demonstrates the gap between in-house solutions and utilizing the expertise of a specialist. Some of the major benefits that colocation offers small and medium-sized businesses include: Consolidation of solutions and space: If your business is running its infrastructure out of a colocation data center, you won?t need to worry about hosting your data internally in a server room. This means that you can use the space for other initiatives or storage opportunities. Decreased operation costs: If your solutions are hosted in an off-site data center that?s managed by a third party, you?ll naturally experience a decrease in operational costs. Considering the fact that you won?t have to pay for the air conditioning and electricity costs of running so many pieces of hardware, you can potentially save a significant portion of revenue that can be better used in other parts of your business model. Management and maintenance from professional technicians: Technology isn?t easy to manage, and if you?ve been trying to do so for your organization, you know that the best way to do it is by having a team of technicians dedicated to the sole responsibility of maintaining your technology infrastructure. The colocation data center that hosts your technology can be maintained by trusted tech professionals who make it their sole responsibility to handle your systems. If your organization is ready to take the future of its technology maintenance seriously, colocation is a great way to optimize your infrastructure and prepare it for growing trends, like cloud computing. White Mountain IT Services can assist your business with the transition into a colocation-based technology management system. To learn more, give us a call at (603) 889-0800.

Before you do anything else, it?s important to remain calm and not to make any rash decisions concerning your systems, like going public with your hack immediately following the breach. Before informing those who were affected, you need to know who actually was affected. This includes determining how deep the breach has gone, how much data was stolen or destroyed, and whether or not there are still underlying issues within your IT infrastructure, waiting to resurface. Understand the Full Scope of the AttackBefore jumping to conclusions, begin by assessing what exactly happened to your IT systems. Was it a data breach, and if so, how did the intruders get in? Did they infiltrate through a spam email, or did they brute force their way into your network? Was it the cause of user error, or the result of a neglected vulnerability in your software solutions? These are all important questions that need to be asked, and you need to know the full impact of the hacking attack before anything can be done about it. Check Which Data, If Any, Was StolenThe next part of handling a data breach is checking what data was affected by it. Did the hacker make off with any valuable information, like Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, account usernames, passwords, or other credentials? If you know which files have been accessed, you?ll have a good grasp on the extent of the damage. However, if health records have been compromised, you might be more trouble than you?d care to admit. Give Your IT Department Room to Clean Up the MessYour business needs to conduct a full investigation into the hacking attack, and take preventative measures to ensure that the system has been completely purged of the threat. This includes having an environment available for work while your IT is busy containing the problem and resolving it as quickly as possible. This also includes having the resources available to do so; your budget should be ready to deal with hacks whenever possible. Find the Real IssueSometimes smaller hacking attacks are used as distractions to the real problem. For example, a virus that infects a PC could simply be a distraction to hide a trojan, which may allow the hacker to later access your network. If this happens, any attempts to clean up your systems might be rendered useless, especially if you haven?t found the trojan. You could just be inviting another hacking attack, which is counterproductive and costly. Keep in mind, sometimes your business might not be the target, but instead just unfortunate enough to be a victim. Phishing attacks, malware, and other threats travel virally, spreading between contacts and getting picked up on unsafe websites by users. Know Your Compliance LiabilityDepending on the types of files that have been exposed to hackers, you might have a full-fledged violation of compliance laws on your hands. This can lead to expensive fines that can break your budget. Knowing where you stand on compliance, as well as what?s involved for reporting it, is a crucial step in handling a data breach. White Mountain IT Services can help your business handle any potential data breach, and our trusted IT professionals can assist with implementing new solutions to prevent future breaches. To learn more, give us a call at (603) 889-0800.