Shield Insurance Blog - How to Protect Against Ransomware Everything You Need to Know

How to Protect Against Ransomware: Everything You Need to Know

Ransomware attacks are the most common attack-type targeting businesses. In fact, 21% of total cyberattacks are caused by ransomware. So learning how to protect against ransomware attacks is crucial to protect your business from ransomware infection.

Published: Sep 22, 2022  | by Sandeep Babu In Technology Trends

In this article, you will explore proven tips to prevent ransomware attacks. Also, you will learn about the best tools you can use to enhance ransomware protection. Let’s dive in:

What Is Ransomware?

Ransomware is a type of malicious software or malware infection that restricts your access to the infected system or data until you pay a ransom in exchange for the access. What’s worse, in some ransomware attacks, hackers threaten to publish data or sell data on the dark web.

Can You Learn How to Prevent Ransomware Attacks?

Yes, you can learn how to prevent ransomware attacks in a suitable cybersecurity workshop or training course. Installing anti-ransomware protection on your system and mobile device, using a quality VPN, and following the best cybersecurity practices are proven ways to prevent ransomware attacks.

Why Is It Important to Protect Against a Ransomware Attack?

Ransomware attacks can affect businesses drastically, resulting in downtime, loss of essential data, money, and reputation. According to The State of Ransomeware, 66% of organizations surveyed were attacked by ransomware last year. And a successful ransomware attack can cost your business dearly. The same report stated ransomware attacks cost, on average, $1.4 million to recover.

Top Tips to Provide Ransomware Protection

The following tips will help you keep your IT infrastructure safe from ransomware infection:

1. Keep Your Systems Up-To-Date

Viruses and ransomware typically look for vulnerabilities in operating systems and software applications to infect. So you should ensure that everyone in your company installs the latest security patches and regularly updates their systems.

It is a good practice to turn on automatic updates in all your company’s systems and software programs.

2. Strengthen Endpoint Security

Hardening endpoint security in your business is an effective way to limit your business’ threat surface. The stronger your endpoint security is, the harder it will be for threat actors to infect your systems with ransomware.

Your endpoint security tools should provide protection from:

  • Suspicious emails and attachments
  • Malicious web downloads
  • Exploits
  • Unauthorized access to devices and applications

When you are looking for tools to secure endpoints, consider tools that offer behavioral monitoring, rapid detection, and flexible deployment options.

3. Backup Critical Data

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Shield Insurance Blog - What’s allowed in — and prohibited from — your carry-on bag, according to the TSA’s rules

Your carry-on bag, according to the TSA’s rules

What’s allowed in — and prohibited from — your carry-on bag, according to the TSA’s rules

By Kaitlyn McInnis | CNN Underscored | Updated 11:36 AM EDT, Mon September 19, 2022

Packing for a trip can be a daunting experience. You want to streamline your stuff so as to travel light, but you also don’t want to be so bare-bones that you wind up shopping for the essentials you forgot when you should be enjoying your trip.

Maximizing your carry-on baggage allowance is a great way to ensure you’re packing light without skimping on the things you actually need, but you’ll want to ensure you’re packing items that won’t get you held up at the TSA security checkpoint. There are certain TSA carry-on rules and regulations you’ll want to be aware of when packing your carry-on bag, such as how much liquid you can actually bring on board or if your disposable razor is allowed through.

If you’re hoping to optimize the way you pack your hand luggage, you’ll want to read on. We’ve outlined everything you need to know about what’s allowed in a carry-on bag — and the best carry-ons to consider for your next trip.

What is a carry-on bag?

Carry-on luggage ranges in styles and sizes — from hard-shelled spinners to soft-sided weekender bags and even travel backpacks. But the bag will need to fit the size regulations of your airline. In fact, carry-on allowance isn’t determined by the TSA but instead by individual airlines. Generally speaking, most airlines implement a maximum size policy of 22 inches by 14 inches by 9 inches, including wheels and handles.

Your baggage allowance could also depend on your ticket type. Some basic economy tickets only allow for a personal item, such as a purse, rather than a piece of carry-on luggage. When it comes to the weight of the bag, you’ll want to ensure you can comfortably lift your carry-on up and into the overhead compartment efficiently. However, some airlines — particularly budget carriers — limit how much a bag can weigh.

Ultimately, if you’re planning to bring a carry-on bag on board, be sure to check your airline’s policies. Once you’ve determined your carry-on baggage allowance, you’ll then need to pack it with items that are permitted by the TSA.

What is allowed?

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Shield Insurance Blog - Ransomware attacks against schools could rise

Ransomware attacks against schools could rise

Federal agencies warned ransomware attacks against schools may increase this school year, in a joint cybersecurity advisory issued Tuesday.

BusinessInsurance.com | Judy Greenwald | September 07, 2022

Attacks may increase as the school year begins “and criminal ransomware groups perceive opportunities for successful attacks,” said the advisory issued by the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center.

“School districts with limited cybersecurity capabilities and constrained resources are often the most vulnerable; however, the opportunistic targeting often seen with cyber criminals can still put school districts with robust cybersecurity programs at risk,” the advisory warns.

“K-12 institutions may be seen as particularly lucrative targets due to the amount for sensitive student data accessible through school systems or their managed service providers,” it said.

Ransomware Attacks

Click here for the rest of the story…


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Shield Insurance Blog - 16 Educational Podcasts for Minority Entrepreneurs

Minority Entrepreneurs and Educational Podcasts

Hubspot | Written by Flori Needle

16 Educational Podcasts for Minority Entrepreneurs

Welcome to Breaking the Blueprint — a blog series that dives into the unique business challenges and opportunities of underrepresented business owners and entrepreneurs. Learn how they’ve grown or scaled their businesses, explored entrepreneurial ventures within their companies, or created side hustles, and how their stories can inspire and inform your own success.

Podcasts are an excellent way for minority entrepreneurs to gain inspiration and actionable career advice.

However, entrepreneurs in minority communities searching for podcasts for and about people with similar experiences and identities to themselves may have a hard time doing so.

In this post, we’ve compiled a list of educational podcasts for entrepreneurs in minority groups that are worth listening to gain inspiration and insight from people with shared experiences.

Recommended Podcasts for Minority Entrepreneurs

1. Side Hustle Pro

Side Hustle Pro’s host Nicaila Matthews Okome interviews inspiring Black women entrepreneurs that have grown side hustles into profitable businesses. Listeners learn about their processes, failures, and successes and leave with strategies to leverage to help them build their side projects or interests into successful ventures.

2. The Diversity Gap

The Diversity Gap Podcast, hosted by Bethaney Wilkinson, discusses the gaps between good intentions for diversity and the actual impact of those intentions. Each episode features guests that discuss strategies and best practices for creating an organizational culture that allows people from all racial backgrounds to thrive at work. It’s a great listen for business owners and entrepreneurs looking to champion DEI at their workplace.

3. ¿Quién Tú Eres?

¿Quién Tú Eres?, hosted by Pabel Martinez of Plurawl, empowers Latinx communities to be their most authentic and full selves at work by redefining what professionalism means and looks like in the workplace. Each episode features a guest who defines professionalism and shows how they show up as their most authentic selves at work.

Click here for the rest of the story…


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Shield Insurance Blog - Commercial Inventory

Guidelines for properly calculating insurance coverage levels for commercial inventory

Commercial Inventory | Business Insurance | Self-quoting Portal

Shield Insurance Agency is here to assist business owners in the state of Michigan with all of their insurance needs. We can help you determine how to calculate your insurance needs to adequately protect your commercial inventory.

Give us a call today and let us get started on helping you!

Guidelines for determining how much coverage your commercial inventory requires

Inventory can be a tricky business when it comes to determining how much insurance coverage you need to protect your investment. This can be made even more difficult if you are a seasonal business or if your business has significant fluctuations year over year. Even for businesses that are relatively stable, calculating inventory coverage can be challenging.

The first thing to look at is the time of year when your business has the most inventory. For some, it may be at the start of the year, and for others, it could be right before the busy holiday season. Whenever this time period may be for your business, it’s important. Once you review your inventory trends, and when they are at their highest level, you will be in a better place to determine your inventory insurance needs.

Typically, a business can look at its highest inventory level and make the decision to have its insurance coverage match that level. This is a smart idea for businesses that have inventory that is of extremely high value or moves rather slowly throughout the year.

Let’s work together to protect your inventory!

Michigan business owners can depend on Shield Insurance Agency for all of their commercial insurance needs. If you have questions about commercial insurance, we are here to help. Give us a call today and let’s get started working together! We look forward to hearing from you.


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Shield Insurance Agency Blog | 16 Easy Exercises That Can Improve Your Posture

16 Easy Exercises That Can Improve Your Posture

16 Easy Exercises That Can Improve Your Posture: working from home or staring at your phone has you slouching, these moves are here to save your back, shoulders and neck.

Huffpost | Nicole Pajer | Aug 12, 2022, 05:45 AM EDT

Have you been slacking in the posture department?

Thanks to our smartphones, iPads and more, many of us spend our days with our necks craning down to stare at our devices. Working from home has also created complications, affectionately referred to by experts as “pandemic posture.”

Fixing your posture can not only relieve back or neck pain, “it can also have a significant impact on all things related to our respiratory function, core and pelvic health,” explained ­­­­Trista Zinn, a trainer and founder of Coreset Fitness.

Taking tiny steps toward improving your posture is the best way to go. Here are 16 exercises to try to help get you standing and sitting straighter.

Easy Exercises

Seated Row

“This exercise works all the muscles of the back, and helps counterbalance the weight of the chest and support the spine,” explained Sebastien Lagree, a trainer and founder of Lagree Fitness.

Sit cross-legged or straddle a bench with cables or bands wrapped around a doorknob or floor mount in front of you. Next, pull the handles back toward your rib cage.

“As you continue to pull the handles toward you, focus on lifting the spine or sitting taller,” Lagree said. “Each time you pull the handles in, aim to sit higher.”

Bent-Over Rows

If you don’t have a cable system at home, or access to a gym, grab some free weights and perform bent-over rows.

“Strengthening the muscles that retract the scapula leads to better posture,” said Dr. Alejandro Badia, an orthopedic surgeon in Miami. “This also helps avoid shoulder pain, which often occurs when we slouch or work in a slumped position.”

Bend your knees and lean your upper body forward, keeping a straight spine. Start with your arms straight down in front of you with your palms facing your body, then pull the weights back, squeezing your shoulder blades together at the top. Try not to over-extend the movement: Stop right when you get to where your pockets would be on your pants ― i.e., near your hips. Lower your weights and repeat the movement.

Cat-Cow

Click here for the rest of the story…

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Shield Insurance Blog - Why companies need to foster design, visual communication to succeed in hybrid working

Why companies need to succeed in hybrid-working

Now that hybrid-working is here to stay, the ways an employee presents themselves and their company on screen matters more.

Worklife | July 20, 2022 | by Cloey Callahan | hybrid-working | Business Insurance

Strong presentation and graphic design skills have typically gone hand in hand with certain commercial or creative design roles that require them. Now, they’re being regarded as skills that every employee should sharpen, in order to excel in a hybrid or remote working setup.

That’s why some businesses are calling for design literacy to be baked in at the onboarding stage.

“How do you speak to others through graphic design, or design in general, at a time when we’re more remote than ever?” said Steven Heller, author of “Design Literacy: Understanding Graphic Design.”

Heller compares graphic design to going into a showroom and picking out furniture or going to a clothing store and picking out what you want. “You start thinking ‘how am I presenting myself,’” said Heller. “It’s easy to call it branding now, only because the term is used so prevalently, but it’s really just creating a style for yourself and that’s been done for ages … You make it your own.” 

At Canva, a visual communications platform for designers and non-designers alike, all new hires, of which there were 700 this year alone, go through a design school, regardless of position, where they’re taught frameworks for creating slides with a narrative vs. information mindset. They’re also sent weekly design tips from the creative team. The design school also goes over how to prepare fonts, how to choose colors, and more. It concludes with the new hire presenting to their team.

“Design literacy is becoming more important as the world has become more visual,” said Canva’s chief marketing officer Zach Kitschke. “We’ve seen this massive transformation in the past few years and the way we all communicate and live our lives look completely different. The hybrid world has become one where visual forms of communication, whether it’s presentations or video content or graphics – different ways of communicating a message — have become vital.”

Click here for the rest of the story on hybrid-working…


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What Types Of Businesses Need Commercial Insurance?

What Types Of Businesses Need Commercial Insurance?

If you are a business owner, you know that there are many things to consider when it comes to protecting your company. One of the most important aspects of running a business is ensuring you have the right commercial insurance coverage.

But what types of businesses need commercial insurance?

Let’s take a look at some common examples:

Businesses That Have Employees

If you have even one employee working for your company, you’re required to carry workers’ compensation insurance. This type of insurance will protect your employees if they’re injured on the job. It’ll also help to cover their medical expenses and lost wages.

Also, if you have any type of business that involves customers coming into contact with your employees, you’ll need to carry liability insurance in case a customer is injured on your property.

Businesses That Own Property

If you own the property where your business is located, you will need to have property insurance. This type of coverage will protect your building and contents in the event of a fire, theft, or other types of damage. You’ll also need to carry liability insurance in case someone is injured on your property.

Businesses That Use Vehicles

If your business uses any type of vehicle, you’ll need to have commercial auto insurance. This will protect your vehicles in the event of an accident, damage, or theft. Note that personal auto insurance policies will not cover vehicles used for business purposes.

Businesses That Sell Products

If you sell products, you’ll need to have product liability insurance. It’ll protect your business in the event that a customer is injured by one of your products. If you have a business in Michigan, it could be prudent to talk to an agent from Shield Insurance Agency to get a product liability cover for your business.

Contact Us Today

There are many different types of businesses that need commercial insurance. The four examples we’ve listed above are just a few of the most common ones.

Shield Insurance Agency in Michigan can help you find the right coverage for your business, no matter what type of company you have. Give us a call today to get started.

 


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Employers Needed to Support a Child Care Innovation

Employers Needed to Support a Child Care Innovation

Your Grand Rapids Chamber will be co-hosting an online webinar on child care and the Tri-Share Pilot Program in Michigan. This is a no-cost event and all are welcome to join to hear about this incredible opportunity to support child care access and affordability for employees.  

During this live webinar, interested employers can learn how to participate in the program and offer child care support to their employees. In a critical time for talent attraction and retention, Tri-Share is one solution to attracting and retaining talent and addresses one of the largest barriers to employment.  

A Grand Rapids Chamber-led priority, Tri-Share is an innovative public/private partnership that equally shares the cost of childcare between employers, employees, and the State of Michigan. This initiative is the first-of-its-kind childcare support program in the country and is now in 57 counties across Michigan. This pilot runs through the end of this year, but with the support of the legislature and Governor, we are on track to secure funding to continue the pilot through the end of next year.  


View the list of participating regions/facilitator hubs HERE.
View frequently asked questions HERE.


We will be joined by Cheryl Bergman, Executive Director of the Michigan Women’s Commission, and Michelle Richard, Senior Advisor on Education to Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who are tasked with overseeing the pilot from the state. We’ll also be joined by a facilitator hub and a current participating employer. Register now!

Chamber-led Child Care Package Moves Closer to Governor’s Desk  

After more than three years at the design table, the Senate passed legislation to allow child care providers to accept a few more kids, give them 90-day grace periods for implementing new mandates and create an electronic option for sharing safety records.  

Providers overseeing non-toddler and non-infant youths would see their staff-to-child ratio expand, making a difference in profitability. The package also combats over-regulation and is hopefully a step forward in removing some of the barriers faced by providers.  

Check out the full story here!


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Grand Rapids, MI Voted 16th Best Place to Live

US News Reports | By Anna Gustafson

Grand Rapids, Michigan Overall Score 6.6/10

What’s it like to live in Grand Rapids, MI?

Grand Rapids has an affinity for public art, and its craft brewery scene is one of the best in the nation. A scenic spot perched on the Grand River – Michigan’s longest waterway – Grand Rapids has evolved from its 19th-century roots as a hub of furniture production to the modern-day metro area that is attracting college students and young families with its healthy job market, affordable housing and outdoor recreational activities.

Rankings

U.S. News analyzed 150 metro areas in the United States to find the best places to live based on the quality of life and the job market in each metro area, as well as the value of living there and people’s desire to live there.

Click here for the rest of the story!


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