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November 2018
7462 Old Hickory Drive, Mechanicsville, VA 23111 • www.sklartechnology.com • 804-730-2628
Cybersecurity Isn’t IT What Business Owners Need to Know
really does handle. But cybersecurity is less about technology and more about balancing risk. Cybersecurity is the strategies you use to prevent hackers from breaching bank accounts, stealing company data, or holding your business hostage. It’s also about getting your business running again so you don’t lose money after an attack. Does that sound like something business owners should care about? A lot of calls I get are from companies that have already suffered a ransomware attack — or two. They know something needs to change and I come in to conduct a risk assessment. Usually, this goes pretty well. I take a look at their systems and help identify weak spots they didn’t know they had. But there have been occasions when I was met with some resistance from the IT department during an assessment. I understand why an IT department might be worried about their boss calling in some outside company to take a look at their systems. But I’m not there to make sure IT is doing their job; I’m there to help the business owner make better decisions. It would be like if I hired a company to perform a financial audit for us and the person in charge of our company finances refused to let the auditor A Business Decision
As I write this, we have just wrapped up October with David Stelzl. This world-renowned cybersecurity expert joined us here in Richmond to teach small-business owners what’s going on in today’s cyber landscape. He talked about the risks businesses need to worry about, what happens to businesses who ignore these threats, and what business owners in Richmond needed to do to protect their company. After the presentation and the great dinner provided by The Boathouse, almost everyone in attendance signed up for the assessment we offered. This was awesome because it showed that a room full of business owners finally realized why they need to care about cybersecurity. One thing I found really shocking as I planned the latest event is how many business owners really don’t understand what cybersecurity even is. When I told some people I had an event coming up, they were interested to go until they heard it was about cybersecurity. Then they shrugged and said, “Why would I need to go? My IT guy handles all that.” I think it’s the word “cyber” that leads people astray. They lump anything cyber in with firewalls and antiviruses, the things your IT team Who Cares About Cybersecurity?
look at the books. Not that Kelsey would ever do such a thing, but if she came to me and said, “I’m not comfortable with this company looking at our books,” I would have to say that it’s not her call to make. Risk assessments aren’t an IT review; they’re a business issue.
The Way of the Dinosaur
Audits and assessments like what we offer our clients aren’t critiques of their company or their IT department. It’s a second pair of eyes looking for problems you may not realize are there. Here’s the worst-case scenario: We find a huge weak spot in your company and teach you how to fix it before criminals can use that weak spot to ruin you. If we aren’t there to find that weak spot and your IT guy doesn’t know to look for it, the only outcome is extinction.
–Randy Sklar
A REFERRAL IS THE HIGHEST FORM OF FLATTERY. WHEN A CLIENT REFERS FRIENDS AND ASSOCIATES TO US, IT REPRESENTS AN APPRECIATION OF A JOB WELL-DONE. IF YOUR FRIENDS OR ASSOCIATES COULD BENEFIT FROM OUR SERVICES, I’D BE HONORED TO HAVE YOUR REFERRAL!
LEARN TO SPEAK CROC
LET’S TALK
Stop Selling Yourself Short With
Getting the Most out of Internal Communication
Maintaining the flow of ideas and information between team members is as necessary to a business as the nervous system is to the human body. Internal communication (IC) is what determines how flexible and responsive your company is to day-to-day challenges. In today’s fast-paced, decentralized marketplace, leveraging the right tools and strategies to make IC engaging, effective, and fun has never been more important. Here are a few tips to help you get there.
The most successful people know how to sell. Sometimes they need to sell their business to prospective clients; other times they need to sell themselves or their ideals. Being able to sell yourself or pitch ideas is about more than being confident.When it comes to pitching something, the key is to speak the same language as your audience. The human brain has evolved drastically over the millennia. It evolved from the old brain, or “crocodile brain,” which developed to process fight or flight responses, to the neocortex, our higher brain that allows us to process complex thoughts and conquer the world.As Oren Klaff, author of the celebrated sales book “Pitch Anything,” points out, when we present our ideas and try to sell something, we use our neocortex. Unfortunately, when someone attends a presentation, they listen with their “croc” brain. It’s the croc brain that decides whether your audience cares about what you’re selling or whether they’ve forgotten what you’ve said two seconds later.According to Klaff, no matter how intelligent your audience is, if you want to get them on your side, you need to act like you are pitching to a crowd of cavemen. No, Klaff isn’t suggesting you talk down to your audience. Instead, you need to learn how to frame your pitch in such a way that your message fulfills these three requirements. Simple —The croc brain isn’t designed to follow complex information. It’s meant to make quick, snap decisions. Run or fight? Good or bad? Yes or no? Your message needs to be simple so it can be processed quickly. Emotional —When appealing to the croc brain, Klaff suggests you “drive emotions with intrigue pings,” which are short pieces of information that spark your audience’s curiosity so they don’t forget about it. Use interest, excitement, or fear to make your pitch memorable. Elevated —We naturally listen to people we respect.The croc brain will follow the person on top because that person offers the best chance for survival. If you want your audience to pay attention the moment you walk into a room, you need to elevate your social standing. Become an expert. This is just the first step in an innovative sales strategy that Klaff has used to earn over $400 million for his clients. It doesn’t matter how good you are at selling yourself or your company, everyone can be better. “Pitch Anything” offers a new strategy that can help you improve your skills, present more memorable information, and close the deal almost every time.
More Chats, Fewer Meetings
Making IC engaging from a leadership standpoint means taking the time to use the right medium for your message. The last thing you want is to have team members sitting through a meeting thinking, “Couldn’t this have just been an email?” Recognizing what you want to communicate and why are important steps in deciding the best way to deliver information. Saving in-person meetings for big collaborative projects and important announcements will add more weight to those moments while allowing communications of lesser magnitude to be handled quickly and efficiently over email and instant messaging. Remote work is becoming more and more common — and it’s a good thing. Research conducted by IBM suggests that remote workers are, on average, more engaged and effective than those who come to the office from 9 to 5. With group messaging apps and cloud-based software, you can keep your team on the same page no matter where they are in the world. The best tools to make this possible will depend on your business, but keeping everyone under the same umbrella of programs, such as Google’s G Suite, is a great strategy to start with. Internal, Yet Global A company’s culture exists within the ways its team communicates. Having avenues available for employees to blow off steam, share funny stories, and stay abreast of each other’s lives are important parts of improving retention and company morale. Even spicing up a companywide email with a well-placed GIF or pop culture reference can do wonders to give your IC a voice unique to the culture and values of your company. Finding the styles and methods of communication that best fit your company takes time, but it’s worth it. Not only will creating your own communication style ensure that time and resources are used effectively, but it will also ensure that your team has a voice. Nailing this key aspect of your business will allow everything else to run far more smoothly. Memes and GIFs Galore
5 SECURITY BLUNDERS YOUR EMPLOYEES ARE MAKING RIGHT NOW!
What would you do if your employees forgot to lock the office door at night?
Call a meeting and reinforce security procedures, right? Now, what would you do if your employees unlocked the doors and let criminals in all day? If your employees spend any amount of time on a computer, then this is exactly what they are doing.
The biggest security threat is human error.
Rarely does an employee allow hackers to access your valuable data intentionally. Unaware of the risks, employees can easily make mistakes. But these mistakes are costly and happen more than you imagine. Only 3% of malware attacks target a technical flaw; the other 97% are the result of employees carelessly giving criminals the keys to your kingdom.
Ready to stop the madness?
This is just one of many ways your employees invite cybercriminals to destroy the company you’ve worked hard to build. Certified security experts have conducted extensive research into the most common ways your employees are helping hackers steal your data AND how you can stop it! Download our free 1-page report at
How does this happen?
Employees can’t take all the blame. Many employers don’t know the risks, either, or how they can avoid them. This leads to expensive mistakes that are easily avoidable, such as ...
https://pdf.sklartechnology.com.
Clicking fraudulent links.
This is called phishing. It will be in an email 99% of the time, the message most likely something urgent, and it will push you to click on some sort of link in that email. For example, an email might claim there was a $10,000 charge on your credit card and ask you to click "approve" or "decline." Password resets and updates are also popular ways to get you to click a link.
Stop What You’re Doing and Freeze Your Credit Today Put It on Ice
your credit yet, you should do so immediately. Remember to freeze your credit with all three major credit reporting bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, for the freeze to be effective. Is a credit freeze permanent? No. If you need to open a new line of credit or allow someone to view your credit report, you can thaw your credit temporarily. Thanks to the new law, there are no fees to thaw your credit. However, you would have to thaw your credit at all three bureaus, since you don’t know where your credit will be pulled from. What about the children? Javelin Strategy & Research reported that in 2017, over 1 million children under the age of 18 were the victims of identity theft. Fortunately, the new law will also require credit bureaus to allow parents to create and freeze credit files for children under the age of 16. The FTC has more information about child identity theft, including how parents can
If there was a way to guarantee identity thieves couldn’t open accounts in your name, would you do it? Of course you would! So why haven’t you? A credit freeze, sometimes called a security freeze, puts your credit “on ice” and prevents anyone from being able to access your credit or open a new line of credit in your name. Until recently, credit- reporting bureaus charged a fee to freeze your credit, but starting in September, free credit freezes are required to be available nationwide. Despite the clear benefits of freezing your credit, a survey from AARP found only 14 percent of American adults have frozen their credit files. When should I freeze my credit?
freeze their child’s credit, at consumer.ftc.gov/ articles/0040-child-identity-theft.
A credit freeze will not protect you from every kind of fraud, and you should still monitor your credit card statement and credit report regularly. However, a credit freeze is a valuable safety net and will go a long way toward keeping you safe from identity thieves. Learn how to freeze your credit at consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0497-credit- freeze-faqs.
Yesterday.
After the Equifax breach exposed the sensitive data of over 145 million Americans, it’s shocking that so few people have frozen their credit. This simple system prevents identity thieves from secretly opening credit in your name. If you haven’t frozen
Pumpkin Chickpea Fritters These crispy, savory fritters are the perfect main course option for a vegan Thanksgiving. You could also use them as patties for a fall-flavored veggie burger.
Ingredients
• 1–2 teaspoons flour, for binding (optional) • 1 cup panko bread crumbs, for coating • 1/4–1/2 cup safflower or canola oil, for frying
• 1 can chickpeas, drained • 1/2 cup organic pumpkin purée • 1/4 cup sunflower seeds • 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar • 1 teaspoon garlic granules • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Directions 1. In a large mixing bowl, mash together chickpeas and pumpkin purée until the majority of peas are mixed with purée. 2. Add sunflower seeds, apple cider vinegar, spices, and flour to mixture. Fold until fully integrated. 3. In a large skillet, heat oil on medium-high. 4. Form mixture into golf-ball-sized spheres and roll to coat in panko breadcrumbs. Pat into flat cakes and carefully drop into hot oil. 5. Fry fritters, flipping once, until golden and toasty, about 2 minutes per side. 6. Transfer cooked fritters to a paper towel to dry and cool. Serve 5 minutes after cooking.
Inspired by Healthy.Happy.Life
7462 Old Hickory Drive Mechanicsville, VA 23111 www.sklartechnology.com 804-730-2628
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Inside This Issue
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What You Need to Know About Cybersecurity The Key to Effective Internal Communications Can You Speak Croc? Why You Need to Freeze Your Credit Now Chickpea Pumpkin Fritters The Cook’s Workout
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A Quick Workout Prepare Yourself for the Thanksgiving Feast
room, or living room while your feast cooks. Do each exercise as many times as you can in a minute, and just like you did in the warmup, repeat each set three times.
When you’re in the kitchen cooking your signature dishes for Thanksgiving dinner, you might find yourself with short periods of nothing to do. While you wait, why not fit in a quick workout? Exercising for
30 minutes will help ease any anxieties you may have — perhaps about getting those side dishes just right, or about your in-laws, who will soon be seated at your table. To start off, you’ll need to warm up. Keeping the oven in sight and the timer well within earshot, take a few minutes to loosen up your muscles. Jog in place, do some jumping jacks for a minute, or jump in place for 45 seconds. Warmups often consist of these basic exercises, but one set of each won’t be enough. To make sure your body is completely warmed up, repeat each set at least three times.
While in your squat stance, there are several things you can do. For 30-second intervals, put your arms out in a “T” formation and move them up and down in small pulses. Then move your arms out in front of you and return to the “T” shape. Raise your arms up over your head and clap, and then return once more to the “T” formation. Rotate your arms in backward circles, switch to forward arm circles, and finish up by holding your squat for an additional 30 seconds. This 30-minute exercise routine is great for before, during, and after your Thanksgiving meal prep. You don’t have to wait around all day for things to finish up — occupy your downtime with short exercises to keep your heart pumping.
After you’ve warmed up, it’s time to start the workout. Squat jumps, ski jumps, pushups, plank crawls, and holding a squat stance are easy exercises you can do in your kitchen, dining
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