January 2017 Printed Newsletter
- 1. W ith every New Year comes the chance to reset priorities. Unfor- tunately, when the topic of im- plementing a data recovery plan comes up, the comment we most often hear is “I know I should, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet…” So…what if the pilot on the next flight you’re on announces right after takeoff, “I know we should have run through our preflight checklist, but we haven’t gotten around to it yet…”??? Without a solid backup and recovery plan in place, just one mission-critical file that gets lost or stolen could put your com- pany in a world of serious hurt. When you compare the high cost of replacement, repair and recov- ery to the relatively trivial price of keeping good backups, the choice is an absolute no-brainer. Why disaster recovery planning matters more than you think Let’s face it, data is the nucleus of your business. That means that a single ransomware attack could wipe you out in a matter of minutes. Today’s cybercriminals are raking in literally billions of dollars (yes, billions) preying on the unwary, the poorly protected and those who “haven’t gotten around to it yet.” Let’s consider the facts… Ninety-seven percent of IT ser- vices providers surveyed by Datto, a data protection company, report that ransomware attacks on small businesses are becoming more frequent, and they expect that trend to continue. These attacks are taking place despite anti-virus and anti-malware measures in effect at the time of the attack. Windows operating systems are most often infected, followed by OS X. Cloud-based applications, particularly Dropbox, Office 365 and Google Apps, are also being targeted. Your #1 MUST-DO Resolution For 2017 continued pg.2 News Headlines "in 2015 there were nearly 2500 reports of ransomware hackings to the FBI totaling a loss of more than $24 million..." - lnfoweek "No terrorist organization in history has launched as dynamic and ultimately effective global influence operation online as Islamic State."∙ WSJ "Hospital chief information officers say the health-care industry now needs to assume attackers are going to get into hospital networks. The key to avoiding damage, they say, is detection, response and containment.."∙ WSJ January 2017 This monthly publication provided courtesy of Yigal Behar, CEO of 2Secure Corp. “As a business owner, you don’t have time to waste on technical and operational issues. That’s where we shine! Call us and put an end to your IT problems finally and forever!” Protection - Detection - Remediation : www.2secure.biz 646-755-3933
- 2. Free Report: What Every Small Business Owner Must Know About Protecting And Preserving Their Company’s Critical Data And Computer Systems This report will outline in plain, non-technical English common mistakes that many small business owners make with their com- puter network that cost them thousands in lost sales, productivity and computer repair bills, as well as providing an easy, proven way to reduce or completely eliminate the financial expense and frustra- tion caused by these oversights. Ransom demands typically run between $500 and $2,000. About 10%, however, exceed $5,000. And even at that, paying a ran- som demand is no guarantee that encrypted files will be released. For a typical SMB, downtime from ransomware can cost around $8,500 per hour, and will take an average of 18.5 hours of the company’s time. That’s a hit to your bottom line somewhere in the neighborhood of $157,250. Yet in many cases the ultimate cost has reached into multiple hundreds of thousands. In a recent survey of 6,000 IT pro- fessionals by the Ponemon Institute, 86% of companies had one or more incidents causing downtime in the past 12 months. Typical downtime was 2.2 days, with an average cost of $366,363. And that’s just the average. Could your company survive that kind of hit? It’s no wonder that 81% of smaller businesses suffering such an attack close their doors within three years. And when you scan through the rest of the list above, it becomes clear that, while you need to implement a comprehensive set of data security measures, having a solid and reliable data recovery plan in place and ready to go the moment disaster strikes is still your best defense. Protect Your Company From A Knockout Blow In 2017 Cyberthreats are proliferat- ing and are expected to grow throughout 2017 and beyond. Will this be the year you finally get your data backup and recov- ery plan DONE? It’s tragic. And yet the solution is so simple… The #1 antidote for a data disas- ter What’s behind these costly inci- dents? Here’s the breakdown of contributing factors: • Human error: 60% • Unexpected updates and patches: 56% • Server room environment issues: 44% • Power outages: 29% • Fire or explosion: 26% • Natural disasters: 10% Note that human er- ror accounts for 60% of the breaches. It’s no wonder then that ransomware attacks are on the rise, since they can be triggered by just one employee inadvertently clicking a bad link in an e-mail or social media site. Human behavior is hard to con- trol. However, the #1 antidote for a ransomware attack is having a secure backup ready and waiting to replace encrypted files. “Ransomware attacks are on the rise, since they can be triggere by just one employee.” January 2017The Cybersecurity Insider The choice is yours - exposure to a devastating loss... or rock-solid security. Let us help. Contact me at 646-755-3933 or info@2secure.biz and let's schedule a thorough Backup And Recovery Plan Audit for your company, absolutely FREE. Do NOT wait until disaster strikes. Let's make 2017 the year you finally get this DONE. Contact me TODAY so we can keep your company's story from becoming yet another unfortunate statistic. Download your FREE copy today at www.2secure.biz/protect or call our office at 646-755-3933. Protection - Detection - Remediation : www.2secure.biz 646-755-3933
- 3. 3 Ways Smart People Blow The Close Geoff is Chairman & Founder of ghSMART. Geoff is co-author, with his colleague Randy Street, of the New York Times bestselling book Who: The A Method for Hiring and the author of the #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller Leadocracy: Hiring More Great Leaders (Like You) into Government. Geoff co-created the Topgrading brand of talent management. Geoff is the Founder of two 501c3 not-for-profit organizations. SMARTKids Leadership Program™ provides 10 years of leadership tutoring and The Leaders Initiative™ seeks to deploy society’s greatest leaders into government. Geoff earned a B.A. in Economics with Honors from Northwestern University, an M.A., and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Claremont Graduate University. The weirdest thing happens when it’s time to close a deal. Smart people turn to mush! I’ve seen it a hundred times. Many of my teammates have PhDs and MBAs from the toughest universities in the world. They’ve performed at the top of their peer groups at places like McKinsey, Bain, the White House, GE, Marine Force Recon and Goldman Sachs. While they’re doing the work, they’re confident, caring, even daring. But when it comes to selling the work, many of them struggle, before they overcome the three simple closing errors I’ll describe for you here. 1. Hit mute. Recently I was with a colleague in the boardroom of a billionaire CEO of the #1 company in his industry. Getting this client to sign on the dotted line was a layup. After the CEO talked for the better part of an hour about the ways he wanted our help, he asked a question to wrap up the conversa- tion. Rather than bring it to a close, my colleague’s mind hit“mute.” Silence. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock… The clocks on the wall (showing local times in NY, London, Mumbai, Shang- hai…) were ticking so loudly they sounded like the drumbeats you hear before a public hanging. I heard 20 drumbeats—20 seconds of silence while the client was expecting us to wrap up the conversation and close this deal! Finally my colleague recov- ered, and we ended up with a happy outcome. But the 20 seconds of mute didn’t help. Clients want help wrap- ping up a conversation and turning it into an action plan. Don’t just sit there—close! 2. Dazzle with complexity. Another teammate and I were sitting with a private equity investor who wanted our help. My colleague talked at 90 mph, offering complex, nuanced analyses, interspersed with questions that had multiple parts, lots of commas; and even a semico- lon here and there, just like in this sentence. Her intent was to show how smart she was. And this was supposed to dazzle the client into hiring us? The actual effect was the client felt he couldn’t get a word in edgewise. This is a common pitfall for smart people coming out of consult- ing backgrounds—the urge to over- whelm the client prospect with data, analysis and complicated questions that are designed to show how smart you are. 3. Win the argument (lose the deal). My eyes went big and I felt hot flashes creep up my neck when I witnessed a cardinal sin. One of my colleagues put his hand up in a“stop” gesture. In the face of our client. The consultant said,“Let me stop you there. I think your logic doesn’t hold. The data tells a different story. Here’s why…”The client was not impressed. Folks, serving clients isn’t about winning arguments. It’s about under- standing the client and figuring out how to get them what they want. You are on the same team. If you forget this, you may win the argument, but lose the deal. January 2017The Cybersecurity Insider STAYING ON TOP More Powerful Botnets Released to Steal and Destroy Hackers have reportedly released the code behind one of the most powerful online attacks ever. "which harnessed as many as one-million internet-connected devices to knock Krebs offline"...WSJ This bot infiltrates video recorders, routers and other internet-connected devices, to create a botnet by using the default login credentials - so make sure your devices don't use default logins. "The botnet code was released- apparently after a dispute between developers-and is now available for anyone to download," - WSJ "With nearly one-million devices, a botnet could theoretically pump out an unprecedented 4 terabits-per second computer attack, equivalent to streaming 800,000 high-definition movies simultaneously," according to WSJ reports. That's big... Protection - Detection - Remediation : www.2secure.biz 646-755-3933
- 4. Beat the odds and be a small business “survivor.” You’ve heard the scary stat: 70% of all small businesses fail within the first five years. And let’s face it, it all boils down to how you manage your cash flow. So what can you do to be one of the 30% that beat the odds? 1) Hold off on spending, even when you can afford it. First, become known as really good at what you do. 2) Notice the small things. The difference between $198 and $198.37 matters—a lot. Plug the leaks and take every cent seriously. 3) Avoid bank loans for now. Options like peer-to-peer lending, crowdfunding and in- voice factoring can help you grow without piling on debt. -HuffingtonPost.com Do you have the right CRM system for your company? Job #1 for any business is to antic- ipate and meet customer demand. Yet today’s tsunami of customer data makes it hard for sales, mar- keting and service reps to keep track of it all. A good CRM sys- tem helps your team collect, sort and make informed decisions on critical data. To ensure having the right system from among the doz- ens of great choices out there, use one that 1) integrates with your e-mail marketing tool, 2) lets you track if and when a sent e-mail has been opened and 3) comes with iOS and Android mobile apps— you don’t want your team to have to wait till they get back to the office to input data. -PCmag.com Get your desk in order with these three handy gadgets. Got piles of books and magazines stacking up that you haven’t read yet? Clear the clutter with the IRIScan Book Executive. About the size of an ordinary pen, it scans all that reading material into digital files you can take with you to catch up on while waiting in line at Starbucks. Or in flight on your next business trip. If you need a clock on your desk but find it dis- tracting, try the Click Cube Clock. With its attractive, minimalist de- sign, it shows the time only when you tap it or snap your fingers. Then top off these gadgets with the Happylight Energy Lamp for a bright outlook on the New Year! -Inc.com Are spies watching you through your webcam? A hacker uses a link on a social media site to trick you into visit- ing a page that secretly installs a bug on your computer. That bug quietly takes over your webcam, allowing somebody to watch your every move. You can block these Peeping Toms with a piece of electrical tape over your webcam’s “eye.” Or you can get an app to help keep them out entirely. Oversight for Mac, built by former NSA employee Patrick Wardle, runs in the background, looking for attempts to take over your webcam. Windows users can use Who Stalks My Cam. It too runs in the background and alerts you to any suspicious activity—like shifting your webcam into secret spy mode. -FieldGuide.LifeHacker.com This may be the #1 way to cut your customer acquisi- tion costs by 86% or more. Did you know that, on average, acquiring a new customer costs seven times more than keeping one you’ve already got? Not only that, an existing customer is 14 times more likely to buy from you than a non-customer. And one of the best ways to keep the custom- ers you’ve got is to use a mobile customer-retention app. In a study of 621 people by mobile app builder Apptentive, 66% of busi- nesses that saw a decrease in cus- tomer loyalty over the past year did not have a mobile app. The right app keeps customers happy and coming back for more—and sharing the experience with their friends across social media. -SmallBizTrends.com January 2017The Cybersecurity Insider Protection - Detection - Remediation : www.2secure.biz 646-755-3933