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Claims Journal | By Eric Tucker and Alan Suderman | December 20, 2021 | Ransomware Attacks | Start A Quote Today!
WASHINGTON (AP)–In the months since President Joe Biden warned Russia’s Vladimir Putin that he needed to crack down on ransomware gangs in his country, there hasn’t been a massive attack like the one last May that resulted in gasoline shortages. But that’s small comfort to Ken Trzaska.
Trzaska is president of Lewis & Clark Community College, a small Illinois school that canceled classes for days after a ransomware attack last month that knocked critical computer systems offline.
“That first day,” Trzaska said, “I think all of us were probably up 20-plus hours, just moving through the process, trying to get our arms around what happened.”
Even if the United States isn’t currently enduring large-scale, front-page ransomware attacks on par with ones earlier this year that targeted the global meat supply or kept millions of Americans from filling their gas tanks, the problem hasn’t disappeared. In fact, the attack on Trzaska’s college was part of a barrage of lower-profile episodes that have upended the businesses, governments, schools and hospitals that were hit.
The college’s ordeal reflects the challenges the Biden administration faces in stamping out the threat _ and its uneven progress in doing so since ransomware became an urgent national security problem last spring.
U.S. officials have recaptured some ransom payments, cracked down on abuses of cryptocurrency, and made some arrests. Spy agencies have launched attacks against ransomware groups and the U.S. has pushed federal, state and local governments, as well as private industries, to boost protections.
Yet six months after Biden’s admonitions to Putin, it’s hard to tell whether hackers have eased up because of U.S. pressure. Smaller-scale attacks continue, with ransomware criminals continuing to operate from Russia with seeming impunity. Administration officials have given conflicting assessments about whether Russia’s behavior has changed since last summer. Further complicating matters, ransomware is no longer at the top of the U.S.-Russia agenda, with Washington focused on dissuading Putin from invading Ukraine.
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RiskAndInsurance.com | By: Raquel Moreno | Mood Disorder | Dec 8, 2021| Shield Blog | Start A Quote
With the pandemic negatively impacting the mental health of 36% of U.S. adults, according to a recent NAMI study, providing support at work is now a business imperative.
If a silver lining can be found in the collective impact the world has experienced throughout the pandemic, perhaps greater awareness around mental health would be it.
“One of the positive things that came out of the pandemic is the de-stigmatizing of mental health,” Dr. Geralyn Datz, president and clinical director for Southern Behavioral Medicine Associates confirmed.
“It’s become okay to talk about mental health; you’ll even hear people say, ‘I’m anxious today’ or ‘[I’m] down today’ or what have you.”
Having the space to be more open about our moods, especially in the workplace, can even be a step toward prevention, as Dr. Ann Hawkins, founder and chief innovation officer for 24hr Virtual Clinic, noted.
It’s not just a matter of occasionally feeling happy, sad, cranky or upbeat. Moods can be “the precursor for many behavioral or mental health situations,” Hawkins said.
Overwhelmingly, U.S. adults are aware of the impact that one’s mood and mental health has on various facets of life. Eighty-six percent of adults who participated in a recent study by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) agreed that “mood disorders can significantly interfere with thoughts, behavior, activity, and physical health.”
Examining the feedback from over 1,500 U.S. adults without a mood disorder, the study aimed at exploring today’s general perceptions on mood disorders, as well as the lived experiences of more than 2,000 U.S. adults diagnosed with a mood disorder and over 500 of their caregivers.
For over two decades, global and domestic studies have steadily confirmed that mood disorders, such as depression, account for the largest disease burden impacting workplace performance and safety.
The NAMI survey added to the body of evidence with 25% of adults with a mood disorder reporting a significant number of lost days at work or a loss of employment.
With 36% of U.S. adults confirming that the pandemic has had a negative impact on their overall mental health, and 25% reporting the pandemic having negatively impacted their productivity at work, helping people navigate their mental health at work is no longer optional for businesses looking to manage health-related costs.
“In this past year, mental health support went from a ‘nice-to-have’ to a business imperative,” Datz confirmed.
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Your referral can make a difference for Roslyn and Maddox who both have a form of Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenital. Shield Insurance is helping this Sparta, MI family by donating $25 for each non-client who gets a quote from us.
No purchase is necessary!
CLICK HERE to get a quote and we’ll donate $25 to them! (Be sure to mention Roslyn and Maddox in the comment section!) You can also call or text the office (616) 896-4600 and one of our agents will take a few minutes of your time to offer up a quote. Don’t forget to mention Ros and Maddox
“The highest compliment we can receive is the referral of your friends, family & business associates. Thank you for your trust!”
SmallBizTrends.com | Published: Apr 29, 2018 Last Updated: Jan 22, 2021 | by Jeff Charles In Startup19
Growing a small business isn’t easy. It is one of the toughest challenges many face when they are looking to get out of the 9 – 5 daily grind.
The success of your small business depends on your efforts to grow profits using various methods. From employee training to marketing, every aspect of your business deserves attention.
Rapid growth doesn’t happen overnight, but there are several steps you must take to keep your business moving forward. It takes time and effort. However, when you start reaping the benefits, you will see that your effort is worth it. Here are some tips to consider if you wish to see your business grow.
You can only develop products and services that will be a huge hit if you are attentive to the needs of your customers and prospects. One way to understand exactly what your customers want is through research and surveys.
You should be constantly inviting them to provide honest, even brutal feedback. Reviews and surveys are the best ways to get inside the mind of your customers. This makes it easier for you to develop products and services that are suitable to the current demands of the market. Moreover, it helps you understand the areas in which your company needs to improve.
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Creating a favor kit stocked with COVID-19 must-haves, from masks to hand sanitizer, is a thoughtful touch if you’re hosting a handful of guests this season.
MarthaStewart.com | By Blythe Copeland | November 24, 2020 | Holiday Wellness Baskets
Hosting a smaller-than-usual holiday gathering frees up time (and money) for extra-special touches you might not have been able to organize in past years—and there’s no better favor for 2020 than individual wellness baskets. They’re beneficial from a health perspective, says Dr. Stephen Kissler of the Harvard School of Public Health: “This is classic public health prevention stuff,” he says. “Empowering people to prevent illness in themselves and from spreading it to others is great. It’s exactly what we should be doing—and I think wellness baskets are a really good approach to that.”
And when stocked with handy essentials and wrapped in festive packaging, wellness baskets make your guests not just healthy, but happy, too. “Guests will immediately feel special on an individual level and will remember your party for months and even years to come,” says Jamie Kutchman Wynne, founder and CEO of custom gift box curators Marigold and Grey. “2020 hasn’t been the kindest and so it’s more important than ever to let people know that they matter to you. This one simple gesture of thoughtfulness will go a long way and could be just the expression of kindness and generosity they need for their spirits to be lifted.” Ahead, several essentials to include in your kits.
Holiday Wellness Baskets
Click here for more Holiday Wellness Basket ideas
Fortune.com | MEGAN LEONHARDT | November 16, 2021 2:39 PM EST
The so-called Great Resignation picked up steam last week as quit rates reached record highs of 4.4 million in September alone, a whopping 3% of all Americans. But the trend of workers walking off the job isn’t consistent across all sectors.
Quitting rates are especially high for in-person roles in traditionally lower-paying industries, according to the latest data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday.
The industries hit hardest by quits in September are leisure and hospitality—including those who work in the arts and entertainment, as well as in restaurants and hotels—trade, transportation and utilities, professional services, and retail.
When it comes to leisure and hospitality specifically, the industry logged nearly a million quits—987,000—with most coming from accommodation and food services workers.
The number of quits rose to a record high of 4.4 million in September 2021.
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The Business Journal
By Heinan Landa – Contributing Writer | Aug 12, 2021, 4:05am EDT
More than a year after the pandemic turned much of the workforce virtual, fewer than 1 in 5 business owners intends to return to pre-pandemic office conditions, and the majority of U.S. workers want to maintain some regular telework schedule going forward.
Ultimately, most of us will settle into hybrid work where some employees are in the office and some are working remotely on any given day.
While hybrid work offers many benefits to our teams — and by extension our businesses — it also opens the door to a number of subtle culture killers that can do serious damage to engagement and retention.
1. Meetings
As tired as we may be of all-virtual meetings on Zoom or Teams, in this format each participant takes up the same amount of space, has the same means of contributing, and experiences that meeting the same way.
Now, consider a meeting where half the participants are in the office and half are at home. Can the remote participants distinguish who is speaking when? Do they have the same access to whiteboarding or visuals? How hard will it be for them to interject and be heard?
A return to the office also means a return to spontaneous chit-chat that snowballs into breakthrough ideas. Do you have a way to quickly pull more people into a conversation on the fly? Is collaborative note-taking an option?
2. Team-building
Liberty Mutual Insurance > Business Insurance > Insights > 3 ways ransomware attacks can amplify liability risk for healthcare systems
In 2020, more than a third of healthcare organizations in America experienced a ransomware attack. These events often fly under the radar, but that doesn’t make them any less devastating than incidents that make headlines, like the recent attack on the Colonial Pipeline. According to a study by Sophos, the average ransomware attack on a healthcare organization costs more than $1 million — but ransomware attacks have more than just a financial impact.
“Hospitals, medical facilities, and their physicians have sensitive patient information on their systems,” says Monica DiCesare, chief underwriting officer at IronHealth®, a division of Ironshore. “That information is critical to protect, because it’s critical to ensure patient safety.” A cyberattack could put patient lives at risk and open the hospital to even more costly medical malpractice and liability claims. Here are three interconnected risks that healthcare organizations might face in the wake of a ransomware attack — and how they can help mitigate their exposure.
Doctors and nurses rely on technology to do their jobs — so when those systems go down, hospitals are at an increased risk of medical malpractice suits. “We’ve become so reliant on technology. When we don’t have that technology and data, we become inhibited. The physician can’t practice medicine to its fullest, which can later be construed as negligence, because they weren’t able to provide adequate or appropriate care,” says Dennis Cook, president of IronHealth.
Lack of access to patient data is a major problem for healthcare providers. When bad actors encrypt critical patient data, like drug allergies or prescription information, healthcare workers are more likely to make a mistake that may harm a patient. Delayed lab reports and other critical information may cause hold-ups in treatment, which can have dangerous consequences. On top of that, ransomware attacks can also lock intake systems. That means that ambulances carrying patients in critical condition may be rerouted to facilities miles away — costing precious time that many patients can’t spare.
“We’ve become so reliant on technology. When we don’t have that technology and data, we become inhibited. The physician can’t practice medicine to its fullest, which can later be construed as negligence, because they weren’t able to provide adequate or appropriate care.” – Dennis Cook, president of IronHealth
In fact, the first medical malpractice suit for a ransomware-related death is already on its way to the courts. In July 2019, ransomware paralyzed the systems at the Springfield Medical Center in Mobile, Alabama. Computers across the hospital failed, including data from fetal heartbeat monitors in 12 delivery rooms. The suit alleges this outage led to the death of a newborn baby. The outcome of the case won’t be known for some time, but the human cost of ransomware is undeniable.
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