Employees will often neglect security measures because they find them to be inconvenient or time-consuming. This happens every day with solutions that are designed to help keep data secure. For example, a Bring Your Own Device policy is designed to help your business keep secure information from hackers, but if your employees don?t want to go through the process of implementing BYOD on their devices, they could unnecessarily be putting your data at risk. In the end, it comes down to freedom vs security. Employees want to use their mobile devices and have a sense of freedom for how they work, but you can?t allow this to happen without some sort of security oversight. Otherwise, you could be putting your entire business infrastructure at risk of infiltration from outside entities. Ensuring that your business follows proper security best practices is crucial to the continued functionality of your organization. This is especially true in light of employees who don?t follow security best practices. As is the case with many online threats, employees will continue to be the weakest link in your business?s defenses if you don?t take action to remedy this. You can make patching up this vulnerability easier by reinforcing security best practices, including: Regularly changing passwords: While changing your passwords is important, it can be difficult to remember passwords for all of your different accounts. This is why many organizations implement enterprise-level password managers that can securely store your passwords and call them when they?re needed. Passwords should always be complex strings of lower and upper-case letters, numbers, and symbols. Spotting phishing scams: Employees should be trained on how to identify phishing scams. This includes educating them on how hackers will use phishing scams to coerce information out of them. White Mountain IT Services can help your employees understand how best to avoid, and detect, phishing scams. Using two-factor authentication: Any accounts that have access to critical information should be equipped with secondary security features, like two-factor authentication. This makes it more difficult for hackers to access accounts remotely. Two-factor authentication often means that hackers will need physical access to your device, which makes it extraordinarily difficult to hack into an account. If you?re concerned that your team needs additional security measures put into place to enforce best practices, you can implement what?s called a Unified Threat Management (UTM) solution. A UTM consists of firewall, antivirus, spam blocking, and content filtering solutions, which are all designed to limit your business?s exposure to threats. For more information about cyber security and other data security best practices, give White Mountain IT Services a call at (603) 889-0800.

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.

Wall Street, BC (Before Computers)Even before the advent of the computer, Wall Street was well known for utilizing technology. The ticker tape is a shining example; a fascinating device which gave a real-time and continuous printout on the performance of the market. When combined with a nearby telephone, these two technologies gave the average Joe the ability to buy and sell securities on a whim. This helped pave the way for near-instantaneous trading, which was largely responsible for the dynamic growth experienced by the stock market during the twentieth century. Make Way for the ComputersLater, the quotation board was adopted, retiring the iconic ticker tape machines. In the 1980s, modern computing tactics took front and center, thanks to the introduction of the Quotron. With this technology, brokerage houses gained the power to instantaneously manage large hedge funds by quickly reacting to market fluctuations. The Internet Changes EverythingWhen the Internet revolution hit, using computers connected over a network wasn?t something new to Wall Street. In fact, as early as the 1970s brokerages had been using Electronic Communications Networks (ECNs) to make their own computer systems more efficient. However, before computer networking could significantly change the operations of a behemoth institution like Wall Street, significant capital first needed to be invested in order to build the infrastructure–a longtime task that was actually funded by significant technology investments being poured into the stock market. With the rise of the Internet came online brokerages such as ETrade and Ameritrade. However, the major influence of such online tools which gave individual players unparalleled control over their investments is only part of the story. In 1994, two economists, William Christie and Paul Schultz, published a paper titled, ?Why do NASDAQ Market Makers Avoid Odd-Eighth Quotes?? where they outlined a deliberate anomaly where market makers were manipulating the spread (the difference between the buy and sell prices of NASDAQ securities) to secure these individuals a higher profit margin. You may recall this event leading to a full-scale investigation and subsequent rule changes by the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) to protect the smaller investors that made use of these online trading services. Eventually, even the traditional brokerages such as Charles Schwab and TD Waterhouse offered online trading that could be accessed by anyone. Like with every good bubble, the crazy market growth fueled by Internet technologies (with frenzied spending seen particularly in 1999 and 2000) eventually popped. It took a few long years for the EU and US markets to rebound from the pop of the dot com bubble, but confidence in the markets was eventually restored, thanks to a realization that the Internet was much more than a fad and could be effectively utilized by companies to boost their sales base. Online Trading at High SpeedNo longer faced with the limitations of dial-up modems, today?s Internet speeds make it possible for investors to execute trades in incredibly short intervals–millions of times faster than what can be made by human decision making. This has led to the phenomena of quantitative trading, which uses complex algorithms to do trades so fast that a half a cent here and a half a cent there can lead to millions of dollars changing hands over millions of trades. However, this technological development helped contribute to another major dip in the market, […]

Of course, we?re not talking about the colored eggs hidden in the yard every spring. No, we?re referring to the fun surprises Google has added to their search engine. By entering a specific search query into Google.com, you?ll encounter a Google Easter egg. Over the years, Google?s hidden a few dozen Easter eggs. Here?s how to access White Mountain IT Services?s 10 favorite eggs! Type ?Atari breakout? and click ImagesThis will turn all of the searchable images into a playable game of the classic video game Super Breakout. Be sure to turn on your speakers to enjoy the nostalgic sound effects. Type ?Askew?This clever Easter egg will tilt your search results just enough to be noticeable. Don?t worry, after you leave the page your screen will be back to normal. Type ?Festivus??Festivus for the rest of us!? Festivus is a made up holiday originating from the television show Seinfeld. By searching for ?Festivus,? you?ll find out exactly what the holiday is all about, while being treated to a traditional Festivus pole located on the left side of your screen. Type ?Google in 1998?Computer users with fond memories of the 90s will appreciate this one. This Easter egg will provide you with a fascinating glimpse of what Google looked like–almost 20 years ago! Type ?Zerg rush?Players of the popular video game StarCraft and ?n00bs? alike will appreciate this egg. Essentially, this search causes Google?s letters to attack the search results, and the only way you can stop them is to frantically click each one until they disappear. However, characteristic of the game?s Zerg rush, doing so will only cause more Zerg-like letters to appear, until you?re overwhelmed and your precious search results are destroyed. Also, notice the handy-dandy score counter on the right side. Type ?flip a coin,? or ?roll a die?Google will display an animated die or coin that will provide a random result with each search. If you don?t have an actual coin or die on you, this is a great alternative. Type ?[actor?s name] Bacon Number?The Bacon number here relates to the classic game ?Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,? not the sweet meat. In the game, you?re supposed to figure out how many films separate an actor from another movie with Kevin Bacon in it. Although, we think that automating the game like this kind of takes the fun out of it. Type ?fun facts?Feeling curious? This egg will provide you with a random fact card. As a bonus, this is an easy way to play a game of trivia with your friends. Type ?The answer to the ultimate question of life the universe and everything? (no punctuation)Fans of The Hitchhiker?s Guide to the Galaxy will of course know the answer to this. Type ?Google Pacman?In yet another nod to video games, Google made a playable game of Pac-Man as a doodle in 2010 to celebrate the game?s 30th anniversary–a doodle responsible for costing the US economy $120 million in lost productivity, or 5 million wasted work hours, upon its release. Thankfully, Google decided to keep the game up. Good news for bored office workers, not so much for the economy. These are our top 10 favorite Google Easter eggs, there are actually many more to be found. Can you think of one or two eggs that we didn?t go over? […]

Budget ConstraintsThe first is the fact that Windows 10 is (still) a free upgrade, unlike upgrading to Windows 7 or 8.1 from Windows XP. At the time, businesses were fretting over the impossible strains that they would be placing on their budget all at once. The other issue associated with Windows XP was that hardware running Windows XP was also old and out of date in the first place. Upgrading multiple workstations is another major cost that organizations dragged their heels with, and many paid the price once the end of support date finally arrived. In comparison, Windows 10 is a free upgrade for users of Windows 7 and 8.1, which many businesses upgraded to following Windows XP?s end of support. Keep in mind that Microsoft is only offering free upgrades to Windows 10 until July 29th, 2016 – one full year following its release to the public. Now is as good a time as ever to upgrade, especially considering the fact that, at the present moment, it costs your business nothing (well, almost nothing) to invest in Windows 10. Legacy ApplicationsWhen moving applications and internal software solutions over from Windows XP, organizations had to perform extensive research and dedicate resources to guarantee application compatibility with more modern operating systems. This process could take quite a bit of time, which was something that XP users didn?t have much of. Thanks to Windows XP?s end of life forcing users to upgrade, most of the heavy lifting for application compatibility has already been done. This means that, in theory, a Windows 7 or 8.1 upgrade to Windows 10 will be much easier to perform than an XP-to-Windows 7 upgrade. This doesn?t mean that you should upgrade without first taking a moment to consider compatibility again, though. It?s important to discuss the migration process with trusted technology professionals, and to thoroughly test compatibility in a controlled environment before committing wholeheartedly to a migration procedure. Windows 10 is now on over 300 million active devices. Does this figure include your business?s workstations and mobile devices? If not, your business should consider doing so before Windows 10?s free upgrade deadline arrives. The latest technology solutions can be an immense boon for your business, and one which sets your organization apart from similar businesses in your chosen service area. To learn more about migration, contact White Mountain IT Services at (603) 889-0800.