Ex-FBI Official to CEOs: Your New Job Is Chief Risk Officer | Inc.com

July 21, 2021July 19, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

What are you doing tomorrow? Frank Figliuzzi, former assistant director for counterintelligence at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, wants you to block off your morning and plan how you’re going to handle your inevitable cyberattack.

“This is the new robbery. This is the new 7-Eleven convenience-store stick-em-up,” says Figliuzzi. “The time to make a decision is not in the middle of a crisis.” Figliuzzi recently talked about how to protect corporate brands and reputation in the digital age with Gary Sheffer, a professor of public relations at Boston University. They spoke in a webinar by Smart Works Collaborative, an initiative on change and disruption in business from Westport, Connecticut, public relations firm Meryl Moss Media Group. Figliuzzi, author of The FBI Way: Inside the Bureau’s Code of Excellence (Custom House, 2021), offered guidance that business owners and leaders of organizations of all kinds can use to protect against the growing threat of ransomware and other cybersecurity risks, including deep fakes. Here are some takeaways you can put to work today.

How To Save When Food Costs Go Up | The Simple Dollar

July 21, 2021July 19, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Over the summer, food and household supply prices are expected to rise as much as 15%. According to the average American household budget from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the combined expense of food, household operations, and housekeeping supplies was $10,505 in 2019. A 15% jump in that number means the average American household is going to get dinged approximately $1,600 a year, or $130 a month, just buying the same food and household supplies they bought before.

Why is this happening? For the most part, it’s an aftereffect of the pandemic. For the last year, demand for a lot of supplies was relatively low, so prices stayed even and a lot of companies trimmed their supply chains. As the world returns to normal, demand is returning to normal and we’re playing catch up.

How should individual households handle this? As always, the best tool in our financial toolbelt for handling short-term financial change is frugality. In this case, since the price increases are happening with food and household supply prices, targeting frugality to those areas is the most effective tool we have.

All eyes are on India’s brightest Zomato | TechCrunch

July 20, 2021July 18, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Relevance is often tied to rarity. As a result, the first anything — whether a birthday, scientific feat or female vice president — comes with its own weight. Whether that pressure is warranted is a discussion in and of itself, but today, we’ll focus on the ripple effects of India’s first unicorn IPO: Zomato.

Food delivery startup Zomato, set to start trading public shares next week, has been labeled by journalists and industry experts as India’s biggest tech public offering to date. The company could be valued at up to $8.6 billion in its public debut, and early indications of investor interest were strong.

How to Stay Under Your 15 GB of Free Storage From Google | WIRED

July 20, 2021July 18, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

SIGN UP FOR a Google account, and you get 15GB of cloud storage space for free, split across three main products—Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos. Once you exceed that limit, you need to sign up for a Google One storage plan, and they start at $1.99 per month for 100GB of space.

Provided you’re smart about how you use your free storage, and you don’t have masses of files that need storing in the cloud, you can stay inside that free 15GB of allotted room. The steps to take and the tricks to use vary slightly between Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Photos, and we’ve outlined them below. To see how much space you’re using across each Google product, visit this page and sign into your account.

Delegation and Scale: How Remote Work Affected Various Industries | Entrepreneur

July 19, 2021July 18, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

A single shift in mindset can make the difference between an average business owner and a successful entrepreneur. While many business owners simply focus on finding solutions, an entrepreneur understands the value of their time and finds the right person to find the solution and implement it.

In the last few years, the concept of decentralization and delegation has played a crucial role in changing the way businesses operate. It has also been significant in promoting remote work in various industries. Now with the impacts of Coronavirus, remote assignment and delegation have become a necessity of the 21st century.

Hence, the transformation from centralized control to delegated and isolated tasks has been accelerated.

Exempt vs. Nonexempt: What Is the Difference? | Getentrepreneurial.com

July 19, 2021July 18, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Learn the difference between hiring exempt and nonexempt employees.

Business owners need to properly classify their employees as exempt or nonexempt to avoid legal ramifications supported by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

Exempt employees must earn a minimum of $455 per week; be paid the same amount of money regardless of hours worked; and perform executive, professional, or administrative duties.

Nonexempt employees have no limitations or requirements for the number of hours they can work each week, but they must receive overtime pay if they work more than 40 hours in one week.

This article is for employers who are trying to make the determination between exempt and nonexempt employees.

Veki 2 Keeps Cycling Navigation Simple | Cool Business Ideas

July 16, 2021July 13, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

While many cyclists use apps such as Google Maps to navigate city streets, glancing down at that cluttered map display can be confusing. The Beeline Velo 2, however, is designed to keep things simple and easy to read.

First of all, as the Velo 2’s name implies, it is not Beeline’s first product. The British company previously released a device that was originally called the Beeline, and is now known as the Velo.

That product was attached to the bike’s handlebar stem, and had a digital compass display that simply showed which direction the cyclist needed to go in order to reach their destination. It also indicated how far away that destination was – as the crow flies – but it did not provide any instructions on how to get there.

How to turn on and access your App Privacy Report in iOS 15 | Mashable

July 16, 2021July 13, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

We’re all aware that our apps are collecting our personal data, but wouldn’t you like to know just how often they’re peeping in?

Apple’s new App Privacy Report, which is set to arrive with iOS 15, creates a summary of all the times your installed apps have collected your data over a seven-day period. This report includes information regarding access to your location, microphone, photos, and contacts. It also displays any third-party domains your apps may be contacting so you know where your data could end up.

The setting is a little hidden away in iOS 15, so if you want to turn the summary option on, follow along with our guide below.

“Graphene camera” images the electric field of a beating heart | New Atlas

July 15, 2021July 13, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, (UC Berkeley) have demonstrated yet another use for the ever-versatile wonder material graphene, using it as the basis for an advanced sensor that can image electrical signals from living cells and tissue in real time. The team’s “graphene camera” was used to record electrical activity of a beating heart in action, and could also open up new sensing capabilities when it comes to the brain.

Graphene is a two-dimensional sheet of carbon measuring just a single atom in thickness, and its incredible list of properties have captured the imagination of scientists from a wide range of research areas. These characteristics include a remarkable thinness, a high thermal and electrical conductivity and a status as the strongest man-made material.

Why companies are offering employees early access to their paychecks | CNN

July 15, 2021July 13, 2021 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Ethel Lawrence normally doesn’t have a hard time covering her expenses. But when her husband was prescribed a new medication that cost almost $400 a month, she was in shock.

“I was smacked in the face and low on cash. It wasn’t payday yet,” said the 72-year-old Oklahoma resident. “It’s not like it’s optional. It’s not a luxury item you can choose to buy or not. You have to buy it.”

To cover the unexpected expense, Lawrence was able to request a portion of her pay early, enabling her to avoid taking out a loan.

For many workers, two weeks is a long time to wait for a paycheck. And unexpected events — whether it’s an unplanned medical expense or car repair — can be financially devastating.

But a growing number of companies have started offering employees early access to their earned pay.