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Kmart recently suffered another cyber breach (the second in the past few years) that echoes events affecting companies including Wendy’s and Target. In this case, a wholly preventable weakness in the company’s POS system let through a malware attack, affecting an undetermined number of Kmart’s 735 domestic sites. Failure to recognize and mitigate the root cause of a security breach is inadequate risk management; it leaves the company vulnerable to future failures.

In response to the breach, Sears

It’s hard to keep track of the news of politics these days, and even if you can, how do you know it’s even real? The political landscape has greatly changed since January, and there have been a lot of laws passed that will affect us all, including the repeal of a law that protected your privacy on the internet. Basically, with this repeal, your internet service provider, or ISP, can sell your browsing history to anyone.

If you use the internet, you will be affected by this law. Not only will this

What does a reserve bench do for a team in sport? It provides the coach with options, real options, depending on how the game plays out. If a player is injured, a reserve bench provides the coach with a range of players to choose from and that is why the bench is often frequented by great all-round performers, players who can carry out a range of roles.

Last week I wrote about options as a key method of managing your blind spots. Now I’m taking that thought one step further: Exploring your option

For those readers of Part I and possibly some new readers as well, I hope that this article continues to add value and provide a different perspective – one through the eyes of a frontline employee.

I believe it is worth noting some of the activities which I have found senior executives need to engage in beyond those already stated in Part I which can contribute to making this change process successful.

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First coined in 1995 by Bill Gates, Friction Free Capitalism is, simply, the “enhanced efficiency of markets due to the ‘coming’ Internet revolution”.

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I created these steps, collected from various sources and personal experience, to provide you with guidance on what you should be doing to prevent, detect and respond to ransomware and other malicious software attacks. Hope you find it useful. If you would like more information I suggest you take our course on managing cyber exposures at the Global Risk Academy http://globalriskacademy.com/p/the-definitive-guide-to-cyber-exposure-management

These five steps are a good beginning.

1. Scan your envir

If you are like most of us, you probably have a password, antivirus program, and a firewall for your home computer to protect it from hackers. Are you doing the same thing for your phone?

From 2015 to 2016 malware infections on smartphones swelled by 96%, and about 71% of the smartphones out there do not have any software at all to protect them. What does that mean for you? It means the odds are against you when it comes to getting your phone hacked. Luckily, there are some things you can do to p

I am a bit of a gardener. More because I like the physical work than the “creations” that result. Which means all my talk of VEGetables and hard-smart work of late is right up my alley (check out my recent blogs here).

Just to recap, VEG stands for Values, Environment and Genes, the three key factors that most influence your personal biases and hard-smart work is you going the extra mile that your competitors don’t.

What makes gardening interesting is all the options you have, the process yo

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is an approach prescribed to manage and balance organizations’ risk with their objectives. It looks to provide a strategic overview of an institution and their risks. Since the global financial crisis, institutions were criticized for their apparent siloed approach to risk management, failures to bring each area together for a holistic overview of risk to manage within its risk appetite. ERM provides a central risk function to improve an institutions coordination

I can already sense what you’re thinking! The last thing we need is another article on cultural or organisational change! Please, give us a break! Certainly I know all too well the number of consulting organisations out there like Senn-Delaney and all the other ‘big’ and ‘small players’ as well as independent consultants who believe they have the unique edge or insight into this issue.  I have a good friend and colleague, John Childress who is head of Principia Group in London who just recently

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Be honest. Do you have a key to your house under your doormat or a flowerpot? If you do, you might as well put a sign out that says “Come rob me.” This isn’t to say you shouldn’t have a key somewhere, though. After all, you might need it one of these days. However, there are better places to hide your house key:

• In a Lockbox – A key lockbox is a good idea. These have a combination that you will need to get into it, but, of course, you have to remember that combination.
• In Your Car – You also might

Breaches are preventable failures in risk management. A healthcare breach at Metro Community Provider Network (MCPN), a federally approved organization, led to a $400,000 penalty and a mandated correction plan. The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) levied the penalty; the cause of the breach has been cited as a failure to conduct “a timely and comprehensive risk assessment,” according to Information Security Media Group. 

As we’ve said before, an old proverb – An ounce of prevention is worth a pound

Last week I promised more on hard-smart work, the way to defeating our personal biases that create our blind spots. So here is a link to an excerpt from my book DECIDE How to Manage the Risk in Your Decision Making, a 5-minute read which tells the story of the invention of the Linotype machine and the power of hard-smart work.

For those with 2,500 emails pending in your inbox (you know who you are!), here is a quick summary of the excerpt:

The invention that epitomises the benefits of hard-smart w

I realize that many of you are enjoying the summer (at least in the northern hemisphere) and relaxing as you contemplate a vacation, this invariably will include your cyber security watchfulness. Unfortunately the cyber predators realize this and have learned to ramp up their activity during your relaxation. The graph below demonstrates how the pattern shifted from 2015 to 2016. It is too early to tell if this will reoccur this year but initial data seems to suggest that the ramp up is happening

The Center for Financial Professionals interviewed Jimmy Yang, MD, Credit and Operational Risk Analysis at BMO Financial Group to address the best ways financial institutions can leverage IFRS 9 methds when working towards CECL implementation.

Jimmy, can you tell us about yourself and your professional experiences?

I have been in the banking quantitative risk management business for close to 20 years now. I am currently the managing director that is responsible for the Bank of Montreal Credit and

You might have heard about all of the scams out there, and think that you are pretty scam savvy. But, the truth is, most of us aren’t, and even a simple phone call could get you caught up in a big scam.

One such scam occurs when criminals call random phone numbers and ask questions, such as “Can you hear me?” When you say “yes,” they record it. They then bill you for a service or product, and when you try to fight it, they say…but you said ‘Yes.’ Not only does this happen with private numbers, it

Have you been thinking that it’s time to make the drastic choice to remove yourself from social media? Most of us were quick to join the social media bandwagon, but these days, you might have worries about privacy. Though it’s possible to delete yourself from social media, the process isn’t easy, and it might not be totally foolproof.

Why Do You Want to Leave?

Before getting into how to delete yourself from social media, it’s important to ask yourself why you want to leave. Experts say totally del

New technologies, increasing digitization and globalization are transforming customer behaviors, operations and business models, presenting huge opportunities for business success, at the same time driving up cyber incidents .As organizations embark on their digital transformation journeys, it is imperative that they also assess possible threats presented by these new technologies.

Traditionally, the focus for risk management has exclusively been on protecting value. However, in today’s digital e

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