Monthly Archives: November 2014

November 12, 2014 · 2:03 pm

Let’s Go Phishing!

Google put out a fascinating white paper on phishing attacks. No, it has nothing to do with a great jam band. If a title like Handcrafted Fraud and Extortion: Manual Account Hijacking In The Wild doesn’t get your attention, you’re not curious enough! It’s an interesting study on how online accounts are hijacked, usually leading to financial losses, stolen identities, and lots of other bad stuff.

The short version is that it’s basically human engineering – no fancy software involved. Taking advantage of people’s good natures, thieves mislead the recipients of their emails to give up details such as account login credentials or bank card information. Yes, there may be fake web pages involved (you DO know how to spot a fake, malformed URL, right?) but most of how these thieves hack in is based on ignorance, laziness, or both.

What can you do about this? Google recommends you should report suspicious-looking messages and you should type in URL’s to visit websites directly to login, rather than clicking through a link in your email program. As it turns out, there is also a pretty effective method for combatting phishing attacks called 2 step authentication.  Most platforms – Google, Facebook, Twitter, and others – use it and you should activate it for your accounts.  It means you’ll get a code texted to you which you must input to log in.  Does it add 15 seconds to a log in?  Yes, but it makes it extremely difficult for someone to hack your account unless they steal your phone too.  As the study shows, device theft is not at all a prevalent issue for hacking and this method has allowed Google to stop 99% of hijackings in the last few years.

It’s a good business lesson too.  We should spend more time thinking about systems that will prevent issues.  I suspect many of us think a lot about backups to repair damage but not enough about how to prevent it in the first place.  It may not be technology or software we need.  As with phishing, a bit of training and a heightened awareness of potential threats to the business can prevent a lot of fixing later on.

You agree?

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November 11, 2014 · 11:23 am

Happy Veteran’s Day!

Happy Veteran’s Day! If today’s screed seems familiar, it’s because I was reviewing what I wrote on this holiday last year and I decided I couldn’t improve my thinking so I’m letting the post loose on you all once more.  I hope you share my thinking, both about the post and the day.  Back to the usual raving tomorrow.

Often when a national holiday approaches I’ll go back over my posts to see what I’ve written about the day in the past.  I’ve written about Veteran’s Day, which we celebrate today, here, here, and here.

Joseph Ambrose, an 86-year-old World War I vet...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Feel free to go back and read them but I noticed a common theme that I want to repeat and  pretty big omission that I want to correct.

In each of those posts I thank our men and women who served to protect and defend this country.  I do again.  “My war” would have been Vietnam just as my Dad’s was WWII.  He served when his time came because he was needed; I didn’t since the war was winding down and the draft was ending.  Putting the politics aside is almost impossible when discussing the differences between those two conflicts but the service given by those who went is indistinguishable.

I also draw an inelegant analogy between those folks selfless service to us and how businesses ought to be dedicated to serving their customers.  I also touch upon the teamwork needed to succeed.  A long time ago Fast Company published an article which cited an interesting study:

After World War II, the US military commissioned S.L.A. Marshall, a Harvard historian, to do a remarkable study. The question he was asked to research was, literally, why are men willing to die in war? Marshall was allowed to advance and test a variety of explanations. Patriotism – people would die for their country. Or family – men would fight and die to protect their wives and children. The answer that finally emerged was small-group integrity. In a group of people where each is truly committed to the others, no one will be the first to run. So they all stand and fight together.

You know I’m a big proponent of teamwork and believe it’s critical to business success.  The article goes on to talk about managerial courage and how it’s tested and that brings up the omission I want to correct.  Too many of us talk about business as war from time to time, just as we do comparing sports to combat.  We need to stop that.  I used to say that the best part of what I did was that when I screwed up nobody died.  Protecting one’s country for a lousy salary and risking a life can in no way be compared to playing a game for a lot of money or running a business for an obscene amount.

So to my Dad, my other family members, schoolmates, and the millions who stepped forward when their time came to serve I say thank you.  We voted last week – you made that possible.  Think about that as you conduct your business the rest of this week and you serve customers. clients, and commercial causes, hopefully as well as the Vets served us.

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November 7, 2014 · 1:13 pm

Pumpkin Eggnog

Foodie Friday and suddenly, it’s late Fall. The leaves are mostly down, the weather seems worse (and a lot colder), and a trip to the supermarket reminds us that the holidays are nigh. One of the most in your face manifestations of this is the sudden, overwhelming appearance of eggnog. Taking it “one louder” is something out of a horror movie called Pumpkin Eggnog, which I suppose is a reason to put what is a traditional Christmas drink out on the shelves at Halloween.

This got me thinking about seasonal spices and flavors.  If you were to shut your eyes and think about the flavors of this time of year it’s all ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice with a handful of poultry seasoning thrown in.  Peppermint rears its head in December.  Those are not seasonings you’d think of for a Fourth Of July party.  Which is a good business thought on which to end the week.

Tastes change.  Consumer’s appetites for certain products is not a constant.  Something as simple as the weather or time of year can have a dramatic effect on sales.  Not much news there.  What is worth thinking about, however, is because those ebbs and flows take place over time it’s critical to compile years of data and look at the year over year pacing.  Yes, eggnog sales fall off when Spring rolls around.  But is the fall off any different from how it was the year prior or are we taking the easy path of saying”oh, it’s just a seasonal change.”  That can mask danger signs.

I won’t be drinking any pumpkin eggnog.  I will, however, be doing a lot of data analysis over the next couple of months as my clients and their businesses change seasons.  I think I’ll enjoy that more than a mug full of pumpkins and eggs.

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