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July 2018
TECHNOLOGY TIMES Insider Tips To Make Your Business Run Faster, Easier And More Profitably
Do you Safeguard your Company's Data Better than these leading corporations did?
“As a business owner, you don’t have time to waste on technical and operational issues. That’s where we come in! Call us and put an end to your IT problems finally and forever!”
Founder & CEO Vector Choice
You can’t deny that today, we are living in an era of unprecedented technological progress. Particularly in the business world, we find ourselves more empowered day-by-day by the onslaught of fresh applications and features promising to extend our reach and drive success. There’s a reason, after all, that business leaders like Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson argue that right now is a better time to start a scrappy new company than ever. But this trend, in which companies become ever more inseparable from the technologies they depend on, is a double-edged sword. Though tech continues to break down barriers to success in business, its forward motion is naturally accompanied by a newfound vulnerability. Each development is accompanied by a weakness to exploit – a back door through which hackers can wreak havoc on companies and customers alike.
This should be obvious to anyone who has even the barest awareness of the news. As the list of Fortune 500 companies that fall victim to cyber- attacks grows, we all need to learn from their mistakes and batten down our digital hatches in anticipation of a potential breach. Last year, the country was shocked to discover that the personal data of more than 146 million people – including driver’s licenses, passport numbers, Social Security numbers and a wide swathe of other information – had been exposed in an attack on the credit megagiant, Equifax. Hackers infiltrated their systems through vulnerability in a tool used to develop web applications called Apache Struts and proceeded to lift a staggering quantity of customer data. The consequences of this attack are still being unpacked even now, but it’s safe to say that even beyond Equifax’s plummeting stock prices and their trip to PR hell, they’ve put
inside this issue
Why You Need Better Security Than Equifax, Yahoo, and Target PAGE 1
Vector Choice News PAGE 2
The World’s First Security Camera AND Phone Charger PAGE 3 Why Leadership Matters To Your Business PAGE 3
Business Trends Worth Checking Out PAGE 4
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themselves and the people they serve in a horribly uncomfortable position.
comes to SMBs, most business professionals and their understaffed, underfunded, inexperienced or even nonexistent IT departments aren’t equipped to protect their precious data when the hackers come knocking. Statistics show that eventually, hackers are going to come for your business – it’s everything but a guarantee. And if they break through and bring your company to its knees, you probably won’t be the next Equifax or Target all over the news with egg on your face. No, your business will probably just fold in on itself with nary a whimper, with everything you’ve worked so hard to build quietly buckling before your eyes. Don’t let it happen. Address cyber-attacks before they become an issue, and get a talented, experienced, around-the-clock team to defend your livelihood. It takes vigilance, research and constant upkeep to keep the wolves at bay. Protect your business, or before you know it, there won’t be anything left to protect at all.
And make no mistake, the Equifax attack was far from inevitable. You would think that a company sitting on an international treasure trove packed with data from more than 800 million customers and 88 million businesses worldwide would take pains to be responsible digital stewards. But last September, under intensive government and journalistic scrutiny, company officials confirmed that, basically, this enormous breach had all come down to Equifax’s failure to adequately patch their Apache Struts platform. You see, there was a known, publicly-disclosed bug in the Apache Struts system in March. Despite the Apache Software Foundation’s subsequent release of a patch eliminating the vulnerability, Equifax didn’t install it in time to prevent issues, giving hackers months to easily exploit their systems and gain a foothold. While the Equifax attack is certainly one of the most high-profile widespread data breaches in history, it’s definitely not the only one to affect millions of customers.
Yahoo admitted in 2016 that a data breach way back in 2013 had exposed around 1 billion of their usernames, e-mail addresses and passcodes. When Verizon acquired the company last year, they admitted that upon further review, it looked more like 3 billion accounts had been affected. Also in 2013, hackers infiltrated Target’s point-of-sale systems to steal 40 million debit and credit card accounts, thanks to a vulnerability in an HVAC company they’d hired called Fazio Mechanical Services. Attacks like these – and the millions of similar ones aimed at small, midsize and massive companies every year – are almost always circuitous and confusing to the average business owner, but they’re also preventable. Problem is, especially when it
Vector News
TRIVIA
Who wants to win a $25 gift card?
You can be the Grand Prize Winner of this month’s Trivia Challenge Quiz! Just be the first person to correctly answer this month’s trivia question and receive a $25 gift card to Amazon!
Vector Choice was nominated for and won Atlanta’s Best and Brightest Companies to Work For® in 2018.
WE WON! WE’RE PROUD TO HAVE BEEN NAMED A 2018 BEST AND BRIGHTEST COMPANY TO WORK FOR! THANK YOU,
December 3, 1967: Dr. Christiaan Barnard performs the first-ever of which type of surgery that now saves thousands of people every year?
1. Lung transplant
3. Angioplasty
2. Hip replacement
4. Heart transplant
TOGETHER WE SHINE!
Ready? Call us right now with your answer! (877) 468-1230
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Shiny New Gadget of The M< onth: The Snap SmartCam
Today, the security of your home is more important than ever before. Lawbreakers are constantly getting
Professor and leadership expert James O’Toole once said that “95 percent of American managers today say the right thing… 5 percent actually do it.” I’m confident this is more true today than ever before. When I look around at the current business landscape, I see poor leadership destroying companies from the inside out. Disengaged employees, and especially those who abandon an organization altogether, cost companies billions of dollars each year, and as they say, people don’t leave companies — they leave bosses. 46 percent of employees leave their job because they feel underappreciated, while 75 percent of employees cite their boss as the most stressful part of their job. Luckily, the inverse of this is also true: Great leaders find that happy employees are 31 percent more productive, and 56 percent more effective at sales! But what makes a great leader? A truly excellent leader makes people believe in themselves, feel good about working for the company, and, most importantly, feel special about being chosen to work there. Ralph Hart, a former CEO for Heublin, a company with thousands of employees, made it a policy to personally greet every new hire. He’d sit down with them during the first month of their employment to have a short chat and let them know just how he and the company felt about them joining on. He would tell them that “The company you are working for is first-class. I want you to know we have first-class products, first-class marketing, first-class advertising, and first-class customer service.” However, he’d always stress that, “To be able to list everything we do as first class, we have found that we must hire only first-
bolder, and as our technology advances, they
switch up their tactics. With that in mind, all of us should be on the lookout for a security camera that’s difficult to spot, is intelligent about the footage it collects, and grabs high-quality footage to identify burglars. Enter the Snap SmartCam, a tiny little camera that looks — and operates — just like a phone charger. The innocuous-looking device uses motion-detecting technology to pick up when shady activity is going on in your house, and
class people!” He made sure they knew that he was delighted to have them on the team. In less than two minutes, this CEO made an enormous impact on his new employee. They couldn’t believe that the CEO of this huge company even knew their name, much less believed that they were a first-class talent. There’s nothing better than making someone feel special – nothing better than telling someone you believe in their abilities. Ralph Hart knew better than anyone that how you treat your employees is how they will treat your customers and associates. If you want first-class employees, then treat them as such. They’ll respond in turn by going out of their way to do more, deliver more, help more, innovate more, and stick around for the long term. When you think about your employees’ needs ahead of your own, the success of your business will take care of itself. If you show them that you are concerned about them advancing in their career, then they will help your company prosper. When you help them to succeed, they will help you succeed. Your relationship will grow and the need to micromanage will never be a concern.
takes high-quality footage to catch a person in the act. If you’re interested, the camera will cost you $57.00 at the time of writing, a great deal for a security camera of any type, much less one that seems so useful.
Vector Choice would like to recognize another one of our long-standing customers, Jerry Pair, for the month of July. Jerry Pair has provided architects and interior designers with beautiful home furnishings of the highest handcrafted quality offered in the industry for over 40 years. They have two showroom locations, Atlanta and South Florida. We are happy to have had Jerry Pair in the Vector Choice family since 2013.
Robert Stevenson is one of the most widely recognized professional speakers in the world. Author of the books How To Soar Like An Eagle In A World Full Of Turkeys and 52 Essential Habits Today, he travels the world, sharing powerful ideas for achieving excellence, both personally and professionally.
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Office: 877.468.1230
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How to Use CRM to Create Positive Customer Experiences
to try and get you to connect to their WiFi instead of the legitimate, safe public one made available to you. Before connecting, check with an employee of the store or location to verify the name of the network they are providing. And never access financial, medical or other sensitive data while on public WiFi. Avoid shopping online or entering your credit card information unless you’re absolutely certain that the connection point you’re logged on to is safe and secure. Knowing These 6 Tricks Will Help You Avoid Phishing Attacks On Your Business
Every business in the world lives or dies by its customers. Luckily, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software has made it easier than ever to facilitate powerful customer interactions and turn even the most skeptical prospects into loyal brand advocates. First and foremost, CRM empowers businesses to step up their customer service game. Most CRM softwares include the ability for customers to create support tickets and submit questions to your team, making it easy to track whether their query has been answered or not and allowing direct chat to resolve issues in a timely manner. You can also use CRM to segment your customer data. After expressing interest in your business through website visits or signing up for a mailing list, data will be entered into the CRM data bank, which will then enable you to track all interactions with that customer as well as quantify their engagement with your business. This way, you can separate customers into targeted groups to maximize conversions SmallBizTechnology.com, 2/16/2018
1. No matter what the situation, don’t panic or click any links until you know they’re legitimate. If you suddenly receive an odd email from a co-worker, you’re right to be suspicious. Investigate before clicking anything. 2. Keep an eye out for red flags. Hackers will often masquerade as a legitimate party, but many times there will be something off about their email addresses or information. 3. Notify the company that’s being impersonated. Find the company that the hackers are pretending to be, contact them and let them know the situation. Also click on the arrow next to Gmail’s reply button and click “report phishing.”
DON’ T Use Public WiFi Until You Read This
If there’s one mortal cyber security sin of which we’re all guilty, it’s connecting to free public WiFi. Whether it’s at the coffee shop, hotel or airport, the temptation to check email and surf the web is just too strong to resist. But BEFORE you connect to any free, public WiFi, you need to ensure the connection is legitimate.
4. Share the phishing trick on your social media channels.
5. Alert your friends and family of the attack.
6. Let your business know that phishers are trying to penetrate your network. SmallBizTrends.comm 2/5/2018
It’s not uncommon for hackers to set up fake clones of public WiFi access points
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