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Devin Fitzpatrick Art Consultants Review: The essential role of wall art in interior design

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Devin Fitzpatrick Art Consultants Review: The essential role of wall art in interior design

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Devin Fitzpatrick Art Consultants regards wall art with great importance in your interior design, and the following were made to help you select art pieces that will match with your current space and to give more harmony to your interior.

Color palette

Wall art can provide immediate color palette. You can use a painting or a wall hanging that you truly love as an inspiration for your room’s color palette since choosing one in the process of designing for your interior could take too much of your time. Select two or three shades from the wall art and decide which is the dominant color and other shades as well that you would like to make as accents. Use items that fit those colors in decorating your space where you can also use a mobile application for example in determining the corresponding shades of paint to particular colors, or get the professional help of an art expert such as the Devin Fitzpatrick Art Consultants.

Focus

It can also be that design element in a room that can attract attention and be the central focus of a specific space in your house. Its size should be your priority because a wall art that is too small or too big will not be an effective focal point. Know the proper measurements first and match it to the entire space available.

Texture

Wall art can provide a sense of texture as well. Find art in the form of different mediums to help provide a varying sense of texture into a specific space. In addition, sculptures or shadow boxes can add depth to the room. Such additional bits of texture can help put more visual weight to your interiors.

Sense of completion

Wall art can help pull a space together and make it feel complete. You might be following a certain decorating style for your room right? Pick a wall art piece or other hanging art that match to that style.

Having a new space to put decorations on is an exciting feeling. But will all those anticipations, you shouldn’t forget to make wall art one of your priorities when it comes to interior design. Wall hangings can provide a good framework around when executed properly, which can also be used as a central guide in planning the rest of the room.

Know more related information about art with Devin Fitzpatrick Art Consultants.

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Galveston Capital - Digital Disruption Key to Achieving Indonesia's Tourism Targets: Minister

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Galveston Capital - Digital Disruption Key to Achieving Indonesia's Tourism Targets: Minister

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Jakarta. Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said the government will consider assisting entrepreneurs and private businesses to achieve its target of establishing 20,000 homestays across the country this year.

Speaking at this year's second national meeting on tourism at the Bidakara Hotel in South Jakarta on Thursday (18/05), Arief said government agencies will work alongside Real Estate Indonesia, academics, local communities and media outlets to provide more budget-friendly accommodation in priority tourism areas.

Arief added that positive digital disruption, or the emergence of game-changing digital services, will propel the industry in the coming years to allow the ministry to achieve its ultimate target of establishing 100,000 homestays across the archipelago by 2019.

"It is real; it is inevitable. Sooner or later, it will happen, it is just a matter of time before all companies, institutions or nations will be 'disrupted.' In the digital era, it will be swift," the minister said.

"Even companies with impeccable reputations, stalwarts of the 'old way,' must adapt to the new digital landscape to survive these changes," he added.

Arief cited online-based ride-hailing services such as Grab and Go-Jek as examples of new companies that have changed the conventional business landscape. He said traditional hotel agents have been usurped in recent years by the convenient and user-friendly services offered by companies such as Airbnb and Traveloka.

"These innovations are always seen as chaotic at first. They were initially ignored, because many people did not believe they could work. Well, they do," he said.

Realizing the massive impact of digital technology, Arief, a former director of state-owned telecommunication company Telkom, has been digitizing homestay management since last year.

"Now, 2,000 homestays have been registered on the digital platform belonging to the Indonesia Tourism Exchange [ITX]," he said.

The platform assists homestay owners to manage their businesses on par with world-class hotel chains.

"It is a must; it cannot be bargained anymore. Those who are not joining will experience difficulties in their businesses," he said.

However, Arief said the effect will be positive. It will increase the size of the market and value of tourism in Indonesia. Demand will increase, as the market consists of multiple sources across the globe.

"So, our cultural village homestays can be worldwide, not only operating in Indonesia," he said.

Arief said it can often take up to five years to build a hotel, which is considered high-cost tourism, while homestays, which constitute low-cost tourism, only take six months to establish.

"Interest in home-sharing is expected to increase from 10 percent [in 2016] to 15 percent [in 2020] in most major cities around the world. In Southeast Asia, the trend is also expected to increase from 2 percent [in 2016] to 5 percent [in 2020]. Therefore, I believe Indonesia will become the best and largest homestay manager in the world. It is a dream we can achieve together," he said.

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Galveston Capital - Digital Disruption Key to Achieving Indonesia's Tourism Targets - Minister

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Security and Risk Complaints Online on Machine vs. machine battle has begun to de-fraud the internet of lies

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Security and Risk Complaints Online on Machine vs. machine battle has begun to de-fraud the internet of lies

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Standards help, too, as we fight to ensure the cost of sharing doesn't outweigh the benefits

A long-ago cartoon in The New Yorker put it plainly: "On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog." If that cartoon had been written today, the caption might have read, "On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a fraud."

Scam artists, snake oil salesmen, sock puppets, bot armies and bullies - every time we look up, it seems as though we discover another form of dishonesty, grifting grown to global scale via the magnificent yet terrifying combination of Internet and smartphone.

None of that should surprise us. People are wonderful and horrible. The network we’ve built for ourselves serves both the honest and the liar. But we have no infrastructure to manage a planet of thieves.

Navigating this stuff goes well beyond ‘caveat emptor’, into the darkest secrets of spear phishing and social engineering playing on our higher selves for the basest reasons. It’s no longer an African prince offering you a hundred million dollars for your assistance; it’s a customer who carefully noted all her transactions and registration numbers on a Word document she’s enclosed in a very helpful email.

Security has been stretched to the breaking point. If things continue as they have, the costs of connectivity could begin to outweigh the benefits, and at that point, the post-Web civilization of sharing and knowledge, already fraying, would unwind comprehensively, as people and businesses withdraw behind defensible perimeters and call it a day.

All of this served as subtext - never spoken, yet always front of mind - at the Twenty-Sixth International Conference on the World Wide Web. In some broader sense, this is all the Web’s fault - the shadow of its culture of sharing - so might it be a problem that the Web can fix?

This question obsessed the hundreds of research postgraduates presenting papers and posters at the conference. Insofar as papers presented by the Web’s core research community are a reliable indicator of the future direction for the Web, that future centers on learning how to detect lies.

Detecting false advertisements, bullies, and bots - all of these can be done with machine learning. It can even be applied to a politician's tweets - to find out if they’ve been fibbing about where they’ve been, and when.

This flurry of research hearkens back to one of the oldest problems in Computer Science - the Turing Test. Can you detect whether someone at the other end of a text-based connection is a person or a computer? What questions do you ask? How do you analyse their responses? Take those same ideas and apply them to a vendor on Alibaba or an account on Twitter - ask the questions, analyse and probe - then decide: truth or lies.

As Sir Tim Berners-Lee won the ACM A.M. Turing Award last week, the timing of this next evolution of his Web could not be more appropriate. The Web needs to grow a meta-layer of error-checking and truth-telling. Those will likely slow things down a bit, even as it helps us feel more assured that the fake can be suppressed.

This will never be as true as we might want it to be. As soon as any system to detect lies goes into widespread deployment, the least honest and most clever will go to work undermining that algorithmic determination of truth, finding its weaknesses, and exploiting them. It was ever thus; over the long term, the search for truth will has always been an act of persistence and dedication.

Machines can help us in this battle - but machines will be used on both sides, deceiving and revealing deceit. Yet there is hope: there’s too much money on the table to allow the forces of darkness to gain ascendancy. Chaos is bad for business.

Any alignment of commerce with the greater good is a rare and potent combination, meaning the resources to fight this battle will be available into the foreseeable future. Those graduate students with their fraud and bot detection algorithms will be snapped up by those giant firms whose profits depend on a Web that is truthful enough for commerce. When it comes to truth, what’s good for Google and Facebook is good for the rest of us.

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Capital Group Financial Advisor: Active Investing in Japan

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Capital Group Financial Advisor: Active Investing in Japan

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Many stock markets around the world offer active managers room to generate superior returns. Among them, Japan stands out. Its equity market appears particularly inefficient. Reforms are also shaking up the once stagnant economy, creating new winners and losers in the corporate sector. That said, stockpicking still demands skill and discipline. We believe that managers will need nothing less than exceptional research and a long-term perspective to come out ahead.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s reflationary policies have brought Japan’s stock market to a level of health not seen in decades. Even with the pullback earlier this year, the TOPIX has gained more than 70% in Japanese yen terms since end-2012, when ‘Abenomics’ started raising hopes for Japan’s economic recovery. Investors are rightly interested in gaining exposure to Japan. But how they do so matters.

Adopting a passive strategy may seem attractive. An exchange-traded fund, for instance, would simply track a stock market index in Japan. But why should investors settle for market returns? Japan has traditionally been a stock picker’s market, and it still is. Active managers that are adept at identifying opportunities and managing risks stand a good chance of beating the index over time. The sheer size of Japan’s stock market makes it a fertile hunting ground. It is the third-largest in the world by market capitalisation (US$5.2 trillion) and comprises more than 3,800 listed companies. But there are more reasons why conditions in Japan favour an active approach.

Information advantage

Japan’s stock market appears highly inefficient. Mispricing opportunities can be captured by active managers armed with superior research and insights. What drives stock market efficiency? Research coverage is key. The more analysts there are following a company, the faster information is likely to be shared. In that respect, Japan trails other developed markets like the US and UK significantly. On average, 12 analysts follow each company in the Nikkei 225 index, compared with 22 for the S&P 500 Composite Index and 21 for the FTSE 100 index.1 Research coverage tends to be even thinner for small- and mid-cap companies in Japan (see Exhibit 1). After the global financial crisis, many securities houses cut their research in this space to focus on larger companies instead. Within the electric appliances industry, for example, as many as 12 major securities houses track conglomerate Hitachi. But just two follow commercial kitchen equipment maker Hoshizaki.

Small firms, big reach

Japan’s small- and mid-cap sector is also home to numerous quality companies with leading positions in niche industries. This means there are ample opportunities for extensive bottom-up research to pay off.

Hoshizaki is a case in point. It receives little analyst coverage, yet it dominates the market for ice makers both domestically and abroad. Its energy-saving technology is a key competitive advantage as it eyes a bigger slice of the market for other appliances like refrigerators.

Likewise, few investors may have heard of Sysmex. But it is the world’s leading supplier of blood tests, ranking above healthcare giants such as Abbott. Over the years, Sysmex has gained market share with its highly efficient medical diagnostic tools and is pursuing further growth across various geographies and product lines.

Many small- and mid-cap companies trade at a discount to the market, making them seem even more attractive. But it pays to be careful. Certainly, some companies are undervalued because the market has overlooked them. But there are also those that simply have poor prospects. Active managers make a real difference when they can separate value finds from value traps.

Abenomics effect

In recent years, Abenomics has become a chief driver of investment opportunities in Japan, across companies large and small. Part of the agenda involves long-term reforms that are difficult to price into the stock market. This makes Japan a prime venue for forward-looking stock pickers that can identify companies poised for change.

Already, new corporate governance measures are starting to have an impact. They take aim at low profitability, ineffective boards, and other forms of poor corporate behaviour that have undermined investor confidence for years. Most companies that pledged to adopt these measures have been rewarded by the stock market. But anticipating which companies will do so is no mean feat.

Local insights are critical. Knowing a company’s financials is one thing, but understanding its culture and focus is quite another. It takes on-the-ground research, including regular meetings with top executives, to discern management’s views on Abenomics and detect potential changes in corporate direction.

Some companies that took steps to shape up were once seen as unlikely reform candidates. Fanuc, a world-leading industrial robot maker known for its reticence, surprised the market when it raised its dividend payout ratio and proposed share buybacks last year.

Still, overhauling corporate mindsets across Japan will take time. Its corporate governance still lags behind other developed countries. The discovery of accounting irregularities at electronics group Toshiba last year is a reminder of the gaps that exist. Active managers that can harness research to spot – and avoid – questionable firms have a valuable role to play.

Risk management

Indeed, limiting losses matters. But a passive approach provides no protection in this regard: investors tracking an index fully capture the market’s decline.

Passive investors are also vulnerable to unintended exposures. In February 2011, for example, investors mirroring the MSCI Japan Index would have had a 1.43% exposure to Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), whether they were positive about the electricity provider or not. It was then the ninth-largest company in the index. In March 2011, a massive earthquake set off a nuclear disaster at TEPCO’s power plant in Fukushima. As the company sank into the red, its share price plummeted. Today, TEPCO makes up just about 0.19% of the index.

In contrast, an active strategy can better protect against downside. The most successful managers consciously manage their exposures and invest according to their strongest convictions – not the index. They have the flexibility to avoid companies in the index with lofty valuations, or invest in non-index companies that show resilience. They can also hold cash to preserve capital during downturns. In fact, it is often during broad market declines that these managers deliver exceptional value.

Selecting an active manager

Historical data present a compelling case for long-term active investing in Japan. Over five-, 10- and 15-year periods, the median return from Japanese equity active managers handily outpaced the TOPIX (see Exhibit 2). Capital Group’s Japan Equity strategy also beat the TOPIX to rank within the top quartile of the universe over its lifetime.

Of course, not all active managers beat the index in the long term. It is therefore crucial for investors to identify those with the qualities to come out ahead.

Strong research skills are a prerequisite for success, especially in Japan. Given the stock market’s inefficiency, quality research goes a long way towards uncovering attractive opportunities.

This is why we commit huge resources to mine for insights on the ground. Our industry analysts research companies from the bottom up and maintain frequent communication with managements. They monitor not just companies based in Tokyo, but also lesser known firms in other parts of Japan.

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The Capital Group Inc Singapore: A tale of two US economies

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The Capital Group Inc Singapore: A tale of two US economies

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For the US, the second half of 2016 was a tale of two economies, with a strong domestic economy and weaker industrial sector. These trends are largely unchanged, but are now set against a very different political backdrop. While the impact of Donald Trump’s election as US president remains unclear, the improving economy should be supportive of US equities in 2017.

One economy, two inflation levels

Robust US consumer spending continues, with indicators showing encouraging data for areas such as retail, housing and auto sales. However, this sits alongside a relatively lacklustre industrial sector, driven by two factors:

1. Weak export growth because of sluggish non-US economic activity and a strong US dollar.

2. The collapse of the US energy sector, which followed the sharp decline in energy prices.

This split economy subsequently led to different levels of inflation in services and goods. As shown in the first chart below, service prices (which are largely determined by domestic economic conditions) have been rising around 3%, while goods prices (which are more a function of global economic conditions) have been flat or falling.

What this means for the Fed

The bifurcated nature of the US economy presented the US Federal Reserve (Fed) with a challenge: how to account for the fact that one half was growing at a rate better than expected while the other was showing the opposite trend. In response, the Fed chose to raise interest rates in December, while its rate-setters forecast further rises in 2017, contingent upon positive incoming economic data. We anticipate, however, that if additional rate rises do take place in 2017, these will be small and the ‘lower for longer’ scenario will remain intact.

Strengthening macroeconomic conditions

In a positive development, the two headwinds facing the industrial sector in 2016 have abated. Energy prices have rebounded, bolstered by the agreement between OPEC and other oil-producing nations to cut oil production. At the same time, the US dollar has weakened since the beginning of the year. This should lead to the industrial sector posting stronger growth rates in 2017, and in turn allow overall US economic growth to reaccelerate to a rate of 2%-2.5%, which we saw after the recession ended in mid-2009.

The Trump factor and policy uncertainty

The big change for the US has been in the political arena. President Trump’s bold proposed policies have already affected markets in anticipation of their implementation, but much remains uncertain.

If Trump’s fiscal policies were to be fully implemented, we could see stimulus reaching a level of around 3% of GDP, which may be problematic in the longer term. US unemployment is now below 5%, which is what most economists consider to be the economy’s natural rate. As the unemployment rate has moved further below 5%, wage growth has accelerated in a typical way. In past cycles, wage growth has accelerated every time the unemployment rate has fallen below 4%. If the economy does 3 indeed reach the 2%-2.5% growth rate, and there is a further 1%-1.5% of additional stimulus in 2017, the unemployment rate would likely continue to fall further, triggering a further acceleration in wage growth. This would result in a stronger economy in 2017 as consumers benefit from wage growth, but it may also cause the Fed to respond more aggressively than what the markets have currently priced in, by raising interest rates higher and faster.

Higher US interest rates would likely lead to higher bond yields, albeit within limits. Despite rising since the election, real yields have remained very low, at just above zero. This seems inconsistent with an expected economic growth rate of 2%-2.5% plus additional stimulus. These low yields are likely a by-product of policies implemented by other central banks around the world. Quantitative easing, by which central banks create money to purchase bonds, has directed vast volumes of money to the US Treasury market, driving bond prices higher and yields lower. While the US may have ceased its bond-buying programme, other markets, including the EU, have continued theirs. So while we can expect higher US Treasury yields, there will probably be a limit to how high they go, making them unlikely to pose a risk to the economic activity of 2017.

The costs of economic stimulus

Before the presidential election, the Congressional Budget Office had forecast that the federal debt-to-GDP ratio would increase over the next decade, reaching around 80% by 20251. However, if Trump’s proposals were fully implemented, that ratio would exceed 100% during that period2, reaching the same levels as in countries affected by the European debt crisis countries. If the growth in US debt continues along this trajectory, concerns about debt sustainability could increase over the next decade. This, coupled with a less favourable supply-and-demand balance within the Treasury market, could ultimately put upward pressure on yields. However, these are potential areas of concern that will have an impact beyond 2017.

The other key area of concern for the US economy is Trump’s policies on trade. There are currently trillions of dollars of goods that flow into and out of the US economy on an annual basis. Should significant tariffs on imports be levied, US consumers would lose purchasing power, while other countries could implement tariffs in retaliation. The result would be much higher prices for US consumers and so reduced consumer spending, as well as dampened export growth. Finally, there are well-entrenched global supply chains that rely on the relatively free movement of goods between countries. To disrupt those supply chains would no doubt have a negative impact on economic activity. Again, however, none of these outcomes are likely to play out in 2017, but rather in 2019 or 2020.

Realistic expectations

There are significant obstacles that President Trump would have to face should he push for his full proposed stimulus and policies. Firstly, many of the policies would require congressional approval, which is not guaranteed. Even if they were approved, it would then take time to implement them. For example, a large infrastructure spending package would take a significant amount of time to execute as projects have to be identified and resources mobilised. The same goes for trade policies.

A supportive backdrop for US equities remains despite uncertainties

The US equity market currently appears fully valued, with the price-to-earnings ratio at a level that has rarely been exceeded. As a result, we believe a reasonable expectation is for total return over the next 12 to 18 months to be driven by a combination of earnings growth and dividend yield.

Fortunately, with an economy that is improving, an industrial sector that is recovering and the possibility of corporate tax cuts, the outlook for US earnings is positive. In our view, it is also reasonable to expect solid earnings growth over the next 12 to 18 months and, if you factor in dividend yield on top of that, there is the potential for positive equity market returns as we go through 2017 and into 2018.

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Online Fraud Detection: SMS verification codes at risk of fraud

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Online Fraud Detection: SMS verification codes at risk of fraud

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People’s use of authentication codes to regain access to their online accounts can be exploited by criminals. Researchers at New York University Abu Dhabi have released a study of how such attacks work and the ways to prevent them.

The proliferation of online services for banking, social media, shopping and just about everything else certainly makes life easier.

Buying things, checking account balances and staying in touch with friends involves little more than a few taps of a keyboard and the click of a mouse.

But remembering the passwords for our myriad online accounts can prove difficult, and often we need help to get into our accounts when our memory fails us.

With some accounts, users who forget their password can ask for a verification code to be sent to their mobile phone. The code can be used to regain access to the account.

However, a study by Prof Nasir Memon, who set up the Centre for Cyber Security at New York University Abu Dhabi, and his doctoral student Hossein Siadati has shown that this system is prone to abuse.

The work indicates that there is a significant risk of fraudsters obtaining verification codes – allowing them to gain access to accounts.

A fraudster looking to hack into an account can, relatively easily, activate the mechanism that leads to a verification code being sent to the mobile phone of the person to whom the account is registered. To do this, the fraudster needs to know only the email address associated with the account.

If they also know the user’s mobile phone number, and there are several ways of obtaining a person’s mobile number, they can contact them to try to get hold of the code. Doing this is known as a social engineering attack.

In their study, the researchers investigated what types of messages from fraudsters are most likely to get users to hand over a verification code.

Published in the Elsevier journal Computers and Security, their work also looked at how the messages that contain verification codes can be designed to minimise the risk of fraud.

"We wanted to explore this scientifically. What’s going on in the user’s mind. We sent them different messages," said Prof Memon.

To test what are the most effective "attack messages", the researchers recruited a team of adult participants.

So that the experiment mirrored as closely as possible what could happen in the real world, these volunteers did not know that they were going to be targeted in a simulated verification code forwarding attack.

The researchers sent, from their own mobile phones, a verification code to the mobile phones of the participants, none of whom had requested such a code. This first message was followed up with one of a number of "attack messages", such as, "We have received a complaint of abuse of your Gmail account. Please reply with the verification code we just sent you to receive the details privately", or, "You have a voicemail on Google Voice. To listen, please reply with the message code we just sent to you".

Sixteen attack messages were tested and the response rates compared. The attack message that was most effective at getting participants to send the verification code was: "Did you request a password reset for your Gmail account? Delete this message if you did. Otherwise, send "Cancel + the verification code we just sent to you".

Half of participants responded to this message by sending the verification code, an action which would have put their account at risk of being compromised had the attack been real.

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Online Security Review: Identity Theft Takes a New Turn

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Online Security Review: Identity Theft Takes a New Turn

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If you think your finances are safer now that you use a chip card, think again. The latest Javelin Identity Fraud Study reports the number of identity fraud victims increased by 16 percent in 2016 to more than 15 million consumers. And the amount the thieves took grew by $1 billion to more than $16 billion in the past year.

A large part of the increase came from “card not present” fraud in the first year since chip cards became widely used. Fraudsters are resorting to more invasive ways of getting your identity details than simply counterfeiting mag stripe cards.

So-called “phishing” schemes have become far more sophisticated. Gone are the days of the misspellings and clumsy grammar that made fraud emails obvious. Fraudsters have gotten better at tricking you into clicking on a link in one of these emails. Once you do that on your computer or smartphone, these links deploy malware called “bots” to collect all your data, including PIN and CV authentication numbers as you shop online.

There’s also a growing trend of identity fraud crimes enabled by victims’ social media posts. Harmless items on your pages, including celebrations of your birthday, or a college graduation or reunion, give thieves information they use open new accounts in your name. Fraudulent new credit accounts for more than half the increase in identity theft crime last year.

So what should you be doing to guard your identity? Here are some suggestions, which mostly involve common sense and a commitment to regularly review your finances.

—Check online accounts regularly. Visit your bank or credit card website at least once a week to make sure that no withdrawals or unauthorized charges have been made. Yes, you’re protected from fraud, but there’s no way to avoid the hassle of getting a new account number when you’ve been attacked. At least you can minimize the trauma by catching fraudulent purchases immediately.

—Check your credit report at least quarterly. These days, it’s not so much to check your credit status as to make sure no one has opened a new account in your name. Consider freezing your credit to avoid this problem. That’s easy to do, especially if you don’t plan to open new accounts or make a major purchase that requires new credit. A freeze can easily and temporarily be lifted.

—Guard your personal information. Don’t store passwords in browsers, even though it makes online shopping easier. In fact, don’t store passwords unprotected on your smart phone where they are easily accessed. Instead, subscribe to an encrypted password protection service.

—Create two-factor authentication (2FA) for your banking and credit and brokerage accounts. That means you can’t simply sign in with your password. Instead, the bank will send you a one-time code via either email or text to a different device than the one you are using to sign in. That guarantees an extra degree of protection. Most financial companies will let you set parameters so you can use your credit or debit card to buy a latte without any trouble but a purchase over a certain set amount will trigger the 2FA requirement.

—Be aware of your vulnerabilities. Regard all unsolicited emails suspiciously, and never click on a link. Simply hang up on phone callers who ask you for personal information. And examine the security of WiFi links you may use to get online for banking or shopping.

I have always thought that if you took the steps described above, you would be reasonably safe — or at least would catch fraud quickly. But experts at Lifelock, which cosponsored the Javelin study, opened my eyes to new forms of identity theft that might not be so quickly revealed.

These include identity theft via payday loans, peer-to-peer lending platforms, and new cell phone account originations. These are not likely to be picked up — at least quickly — by credit bureaus. But they are a focus of protection at Lifelock.

However you choose to protect yourself, don’t be deluded by the latest card security measures. Identity theft is growing. And you could be next. That’s the Savage Truth.

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Careconnect Health Insurance Group Review: How to Avoid the Emergency Room This Summer

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Careconnect Health Insurance Group Review: How to Avoid the Emergency Room This Summer

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Summer is a time to kick back and relax -- unless you’re an ER doctor, that is. Hospitals don’t take vacations. In fact, some research shows that emergency room visits actually increase during the summer months.

Outdoor fun and time off from school and work can provide great opportunities for staying active and fit, but they can also raise your risk for injury and illness. To keep yourself and your family safe this summer, check out these tips for staying out of the ER, from Lenox Hill Hospital emergency physician Robert Glatter, MD.

Injury-proof your home and yard

Your family will probably spend a lot of time outdoors this summer, so take a look around and remove potential hazards -- like dead tree branches lying right where they can be tripped over, or broken swing sets your kids may want to climb. If you’ve got a pool, make sure it’s securely fenced with a self-closing, self-latching gate, so children can’t get in when an adult isn’t present.

Do a similar sweep through your house to clear out any accidents waiting to happen -- injuries in and around the home are a common cause of ER visits year-round, Dr. Glatter says. “Clean up loose toys, shoes, cords and chargers,” he says. “Messy rooms cause a surprising number of concussions, wrist fractures and lacerations.”

Keep it cool

Summer’s heat and humidity can be uncomfortable for even the healthiest people. For children, seniors and people with obesity or a chronic disease, it can be downright dangerous.

If you’re at risk for a heat-related illness, try to stay indoors in a cool place (or at least in the shade) during the hottest parts of the day. And when you do spend time in the sun, drink plenty of fluids and reapply sunscreen regularly.

Steer clear of ticks

The New York area tends to see more cases of Lyme disease than many other parts of the country, Glatter says. The tick-borne disease can cause flu-like symptoms and other problems that are sometimes severe enough to send a sufferer to the doctor -- or even the ER. “We see a fair number of otherwise healthy people with fevers, skin rashes and joint aches at this time of year,” says Glatter.

A few moves can reduce your risk of Lyme. If you’re spending time in the woods or tall grasses, for instance in Westchester or on Long Island, use an insect repellant with DEET to keep ticks from biting. When you come indoors, give yourself (and your pets) a tick check.

Stay smart on the road

Sure, it’s summer, but the biggest dangers out there are the same ones you face year-round. Like car accidents, for instance. “The importance of safe driving cannot be emphasized enough,” says Glatter, for adults as well as for newly licensed teens. That means absolutely no texting behind the wheel, and also avoiding other distractions -- like eating, fiddling with the radio or GPS, or even having intense conversations while driving.

If you’re on a bike, always wear a helmet. And whether you’re on two wheels or on foot, always make sure you’re visible to motorists and obey traffic laws when traveling on or crossing roads shared with cars.

Keep up your healthy habits

There’s nothing wrong with letting loose a little during summer vacation. But that shouldn’t mean ditching your healthy diet, skipping your medication, abandoning your exercise plan, or making risky decisions about drugs and alcohol.

“Self-destructive behavior can sabotage your wellness, ultimately leading to an ER visit,” says Glatter. Or put it another way: Staying healthy (and out of the hospital) is often as simple as making smart decisions single day.

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Investing Review: Entering the World of Investment

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Investing Review: Entering the World of Investment

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Why people invest? Investing creates more money, which in turn, helps you to fund your lifestyle and plan for financial hardships. When you invest, you devote your time, resources or effort to some specific endeavor with the expectation that it will generate a return in the future.

Entering the world of investment isn’t easy, you need to have a certain level of knowledge and skill because taking your first step in the market without knowing what you’re doing and where you’re heading is a very dangerous move. Be sure that you are well-informed, there’s a huge amount of information available on the Internet to make yourself equipped before investing in an institution.

There are various ways to invest – stocks, bonds, certificate of deposit and mutual funds are some form investments you can choose from, just be careful of investment scams. But before venturing your way down the road of investing, consider learning the basics here.

Your debts, remove them first.

Before starting to invest, make sure that you don’t have high-interest debt existing. Why? Because all the effort you’ll put in investing will be useless if you don’t take necessary action about it. It would be better paying your debt first as such would negate all your efforts in investing.

There’s an active and passive management in investing.

There are two main methods you’ll encounter when you are stock investing – active and passive management. Active investing involves choosing your desired investment type while a passive investing involves a third party. Stock investing is commonly referred as active investing, but this type of investing strategy doesn’t have favorable outcomes at all times.

Analyze the situation before investing.

Remember, investing isn’t a casino slot machine lever where you can magically gain a huge amount of money once you get lucky. When you are investing, years of patience and discreet assessment of a company are required before you can finally reap a good harvest.

In line with this, when you commit your money to something you don’t understand then you are gambling with the possibility of losing the money you invested. It is necessary that you do research before investing in a specific company and do not immediately believe the opinions and speculations of another person. If your friend told you that a certain company will definitely boom in the following years, make sure to do a little research about the company first and its performance before throwing your hard-earned cash at it.

Planning and setting financial goals.

Investing is a long careful process and you need to ask yourself a lot of questions before undertaking the road to investing.

•             What are your financial goals?

•             How long is your time frame in investing?

•             What type of investment will you choose?

•             How much money are you willing to invest to achieve your financial goals

•             What short-term financial expenses do you have?

•             Will you have to retire using your investment?

Learn how the stock trading works.

After establishing concrete financial goals, you can now learn how to start making your investments. In mutual funds, call a fund company and request to open an account for you. In dealing with stocks, New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the American Stock Exchange (AMEX), and the Nasdaq Stock Market are the major US exchanges. Stocks are traded on various stock exchanges, they all have a different mode of trading but the process of buying and selling shares are all the same.

Buyers and sellers connect during stock exchanges. The buyer will make a “bid” (the share price they are willing to buy), while seller “ask” (the price of the share they are willing to sell). The “spread” is the difference between the two, which are often goes to the professional who handled the trade exchange.

The most common way to buy a stock is through brokerage accounts. There are full-service workers and there are discount brokers who offer their service at a not too expensive price.

Cash account and margin account and where you should be.

In using a brokerage account, you can use cash account or a margin account. In a cash account, all transactions are done by using the only money you actually have. While a margin account, let’s you buy a stock with borrowed money from other people’s cash. The latter can be quite appealing but there’s risk taking that road.

Brokers will usually endorse margin accounts, as those will create more commissions for them. Though borrowing money will increase your chances of buying more stocks, it will also take you to risk because you’ll have to pay all that margin money at some point. Therefore, margin accounts are great if your investments are soaring high in value but can cause uncertainty if it isn’t. This type of investment is not advisable for beginners like you.

Direct Investment Plans (DIPs) and Dividend Reinvestment Plans (DRPs)

If you aren’t ready for a brokerage account then consider one steadier way to buy stock. Investors call it as Drips. DRP’s and DIPs are offered by corporations that allow shareholders to buy stock directly from them at low cost or fees. Not every company offers this kind of opportunity but they are great for beginners who can only invest small amounts of money.

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Investment Tips: Escape Plan for Your Debt Problem

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Investment Tips: Escape Plan for Your Debt Problem

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Wrestling with debt for years with no success? It certainly is an exhausting thing to struggle and keep your head above water. A debt isn’t something you can brush off. It is like a recurring nightmare where Freddy Krueger keeps on haunting and chasing you even on dreams. And now, it is time to take back your life and follow these debt escape plan I prepared for you.

Seek help from family and friends

This will be my first suggestion. Talk to a friend or relative that has a financial capability to help you pay your debt. But make sure to have a formal agreement on paper regarding payment terms and conditions so that it wouldn’t cause arguments and disputes in the future.

Pay higher than the minimum monthly payment

One of the faster ways to escape your debt is to pay higher than the minimum monthly payment. Paying only the minimum cash required each month will just lengthen your misery so pay as much as you can afford. If you have spare money allotted for your dine-outs then why not try eliminating that luxurious thing and add it up to your debt payment? Sacrificing such luxuries to quickly pay off your debt is not a bad thing.

Sacrificing savings and investments

Why not withdraw your savings and investment in order to slowly pay off your debt? It isn’t a bad thing if you’ll consider it carefully. If your savings and investments are making less than the cost of your debt, it might appear unwise but it isn’t bad to pay off your debt first using any possible source of money you have.

Snowball method for credit card debt

A credit card is such a great help with many benefits. It can help you in buying and save money but the constant uncontrolled use of it can ruin your finances. Here are two credit card debt escape plan recommended for you:

Plan #1: First, pay the required monthly payment on all of your cards except for one. Then pay as much as you can afford on that one card so you could easily settle your balance in there quickly. Don’t settle on paying for the minimum required payment only, it will just prolong the agony. Once the balance in that particular card reaches zero, try the same method for the next credit card balance you have on your list.

Plan #2: Credit card balance transfer is one alternative way you can use to wisely pay your debt and save money. This involves the transfer of the balance from one credit card account to another.  Many credit card companies allow this process in most cases. All you have to do is choose the lowest interest rate you have on your cards and transfer the remaining balance from other cards into that one. Transferring a higher interest bill to a low-interest card is one excellent move that will surely save you a lot of money in interest. If the outstanding balance is too large for that low-interest card, consider Plan #1.

Using cash value life insurance

Nowadays, life insurance is a must have especially if you have a family that relies on your income. This will become of great help to you and your family if you accidentally die. However, having a debt can also become a burden to you and your family in the future. If your life insurance company provides cash value, why not borrow from your own money? In this case, you’ll have longer terms to pay for the loan with interest rate to avoid interest scams less than commercial rates.

Apply for a Home Equity Loan

Owning a home is one potential source of extra cash. You can apply for a Home Equity Loan (HEL) to pay off your debts. The maximum loan amount you can acquire will be based on the current market value of your home assessed by an appraiser. Don’t be a reckless borrower and make sure that you’ll repay the loan or else your home could be sold to pay off the remaining debt. Your house is at stake here!

Apply for a loan using your 401(k) retirement savings plan

401(k) plan loans are one of the better ways to pay off your debt. If you have taken part in your company’s 401(k) retirement saving plan then you may benefit from its loan feature where you could borrow roughly half of the accounts value. Consider this carefully though loaning using this plan is much more reasonable as it gives low-interest rate and that every dime in interest paid on this loan goes directly to your 401(k) account, it also has some downsides. Make sure to do some research and raised any questions before applying.

Renegotiate

Nothing works for you on the early escape plans above? Want to file a bankruptcy? No, not yet. There’s one more solution, try to renegotiate terms. Use your ace card which is to threaten them of filing bankruptcy since you don’t have any other solution to repay your debt. This will force them to work things out with you – ask for a lower repayment term or even lower interest rate. Oftentimes, they prefer this kind or settlement rather than filing a bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy is your last resort

File a bankruptcy. This is your last and only resort if renegotiation wasn't become an option and if you really don’t have the resources to pay your debt. However, you should be fully aware that filing a bankruptcy has some drawbacks.

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Careconnect Health Insurance Group Review: 7 Ways to Keep Kids Safe From Lead

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Careconnect Health Insurance Group Review: 7 Ways to Keep Kids Safe From Lead

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The ongoing water crisis in Flint, Michigan is heartbreaking for the people who live there -- and may have made you wonder at least a little about lead levels in your own home. That wonder may have turned to worry after news reports that many other cities around the country, including several in nearby New Jersey and Pennsylvania, have reported high levels of lead in their water, or high percentages of kids with elevated levels in their blood.

If you’re concerned about lead in your water, there are steps you can take to ensure that you and your family remain safe, says Jacqueline Moline, MD, chair of occupational medicine at North Shore University Hospital. Here’s how to get started.

1. Learn about your water supply. Lead enters drinking water when it leeches from pipes or plumbing fixtures. This can happen on a community level -- especially if a city’s pipes are old or its water is corrosive enough to damage them (as was the case in Flint) -- or it can happen with the plumbing in individual homes.

As long as your water comes from a public supplier (and not a private well), the results of regular lead testing should be available online and mailed to you once a year. But you might also want to test the water in your own home, especially if you have old pipes. You may be able to request a free lead testing kit from your local health or environmental health department; otherwise, you can find one for less than $20 at your local home improvement store. If testing shows elevated levels of lead, take these steps to reduce exposure and risk of health problems:

2. Flush your pipes. Let your faucet run with cold water for one to two minutes anytime it’s been sitting in the pipes for more than six hours, like first thing in the morning or when you get home from work. (If your water supplier has let you know that the service pipe at the street has lead in it, you may need to run your shower or bathtub tap on cold for five minutes first. Then run the kitchen tap on cold for another minute or two before filling your glass or cooking pot.) “The water that runs in these first few minutes can be used for bathing or watering plants, but should not be used for drinking or cooking,” says Moline.

3. Use cold water for drinking or cooking. Hot water leeches more lead from the pipes, so always turn the tap to cold when you need water to drink or to use for cooking (boiling water does not remove lead).

4. Buy an NSF-certified filter. Some water filters can remove lead from your drinking water, but many of the popular models you’ll find in home and kitchen stores are not designed to do so. Be sure to purchase a filtration system that’s certified by NSF International, a nonprofit organization widely recognized as a leader in this area, and replace filters as often as directed.

5. Consider replacing your plumbing. If your water tests positive for high lead levels but your city’s supply isn’t to blame, you might want to consider replacing old household pipes or fixtures. (Ask your water department for information about replacing the service lines into your home, too.)

6. Make sure young kids are tested. Young children are at the highest risk for developing serious problems from ongoing lead exposure. Because their bodies and brains are still developing, lead can stunt or delay their physical growth and cognitive development.

In New York State, kids are required to be tested for lead at age 1 and again at age 2. Be sure your child is up-to-date on his or her checkups, and that you have record of those lead tests and their results.

7. Don’t ignore other possible sources. Last but not least, look at the bigger picture. It’s smart to learn about your drinking water, but in most homes where lead is a problem, the main source is lead paint on walls. When the paint flakes off, it can mix with soil or dust and be inhaled or ingested.

“It’s common for young children to crawl around and get dirt and household dust -- which may contain lead -- on their hands and in their mouths,” says Moline. “Lead is sweet, so children actually like to eat the paint chips.”

Lead paint is illegal today, but in many homes built before 1978, old lead paint can be found under newer, lead-free coats. Those fresh coats are protective -- but only if they don’t peel and expose what’s underneath. So while you’re testing your water and taking precautions at the tap, make sure you know what’s on your walls, too.

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Careconnect Health Insurance Group Review: Your Daylight Savings Time Survival Guide

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Careconnect Health Insurance Group Review: Your Daylight Savings Time Survival Guide

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At 2 a.m. this Sunday, your clocks will “spring forward” an hour, kicking off Daylight Saving Time. The upside: You’ll get some extra sunlight in the evening for the next several months. The downside: You’ll almost certainly lose an hour of sleep Sunday night. And depending on how early you have to get up in the morning, it may be pitch black when you rise for a couple of weeks.

For most people, adjusting to the change isn’t hard. “It’s like flying from Chicago to New York,” says Saul Rothenberg, PhD, a behavioral sleep medicine specialist at Northwell Health. “Good sleepers may not even notice a difference.” But if you’re sensitive to time changes or sleep disruptions, you could have trouble falling asleep at night or waking up in the morning, at least for the first few days. If that’s the case, here are some dos and don’ts that can help.

Don’t sleep in on Sunday. You may have a habit of grabbing a little extra sleep on Sundays, especially if you stay up late Saturday night. But the time change makes it easy to overdo it. Say you don’t set your alarm—it’s Sunday, after all—and let yourself wake up naturally when your body feels like it’s about 9 am. With the time change, it’s actually already 10 am! Suddenly, you’ve slept so late that you may find it hard come evening to get to bed at your usual time. To make sure you’re rested for work on Monday, it’s best to lose that hour of sleep right away on Saturday night.

Don’t nap. Biologically, your bedtime just became an hour earlier than you’re used to. So it’s normal to not feel as tired as you normally would at, say, 10 pm. Napping on Sunday afternoon may make it even harder to fall asleep when you’re supposed to. Instead of a mid-day snooze, fit in a good workout or a long walk: Daytime exercise has been shown to improve sleep quality at night.

Do listen to your body. If you’re not tired at your regular bedtime for the first few nights after the time change, don’t force yourself to lie in bed awake. “Just go to bed a little bit later for a day or two,” says Rothenberg. “Humans are very good in the short-run at compensating for an hour less sleep. Over a couple of days, that sleep loss will translate into getting sleepier at night, so it’s easier to get back on track.”

Do get some morning light. You’re temporarily getting up an hour earlier than you’re used to, so it’s normal to feel extra sleepy when your alarm goes off. The best way to acclimate your body to its new schedule is to get natural light as early as possible. (Sunlight shuts down the brain’s production of the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin.) Throw open your bedroom curtains as the sun comes up, eat breakfast by a sunny window or spend a few minutes walking outside before work.

Don’t fret. Follow these simple steps and you should breeze through the time change with minimal disruption. “The key here is not to worry,” says Rothenberg, “because worrying can have a bigger effect on your sleeping than the change in your clock.” And if you do experience sleep problems that last more than a few weeks—after the time change or at any time during the year—talk to your doctor about healthy ways to make things right.

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Careconnect Health Insurance Group Review: 5 Numbers to Know for National Wear Red Day

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Careconnect Health Insurance Group Review: 5 Numbers to Know for National Wear Red Day

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If you’re seeing red today, it’s probably because some of your friends and acquaintances are using a splash of color to draw attention to the fight against heart disease in women. And with good reason: While coronary heart disease is recognized as a major threat to American men, a lot of people aren’t aware that it’s also the #1 killer of women.

Here are a few other numbers worth pondering in honor of National Wear Red Day:

80

80 percent of women between the ages of 40 and 60 have at least one risk factor for heart disease.

35

Take out a tape measure—if your waist is more than 35 inches, you’re at increased risk of heart disease.

30

You can protect your heart by getting as little as 30 minutes of moderate exercise on most days. Exercising every day is even better.

82

If you’re at increased risk for heart disease, here’s a reassuring thought: Women can lower their risk by as much as 82 percent just by making healthy lifestyle changes.

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Careconnect Health Insurance Group Review: 3 New Year’s Resolutions You Shouldn’t Make

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Careconnect Health Insurance Group Review: 3 New Year’s Resolutions You Shouldn’t Make

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January is a time for new beginnings, and a time for promises to ourselves that this year will be better, happier and healthier than the last. But why are we so often right back where we started by the time February rolls around?

“Research shows that about 50 percent of the population makes resolutions, and of those people about 50 percent or less stick with them,” says Robert Graham, MD, director of Integrative Health & Wellness at Northwell Health (formerly North Shore-LIJ Health System). “So, at best, only about 25 percent of us are making lasting changes.”

Often, that’s because we make resolutions that are unreasonable. “If you don’t have a realistic target, it’s going to be that much harder to achieve it, and frustrating when you fall short,” he says. So in the spirit of “New Year, New You,” here are three common mistakes not to make when thinking about resolutions -- and a few simple tweaks that will make your goals more attainable.

Wrong resolution: “I want to lose 50 pounds in three months.”

Make it right: Aim for 5 to 10 percent of your body weight.

A restrictive diet may help you shed pounds quickly at first, but is it something you can stick with for several months -- let alone the rest of your life? If not, you may find yourself gaining the weight back before you know it. Instead of making such a drastic change, says Graham, aim to lose 5 percent of your body weight within 6 to 8 weeks, and 10 percent within three months.

That may not be the dramatic makeover you’ve been dreaming about, but research shows that losing just 5 to 10 percent of your body weight can lower your risk for heart disease and other chronic conditions. What’s more, a slow-but-steady approach is one you can keep up all year, allowing you to continue to lose.

Graham also recommends enlisting the help of nutritionist and/or a personal trainer, especially if you want to lose more than a few pounds. “It can be hard to do on your own, especially when you’re trying to create lasting change.”

Wrong resolution: “I want to finally get in shape … by jumping into a super-challenging workout program.”

Make it right: Start with 30 minutes of (any) exercise a day.

“So many patients tell me, ‘I’m going to start this crazy P90X workout’ or ‘I’m going to run a marathon in two months,’ when they were a total couch potato all year,” says Graham. “That’s great, but as we learned from being a kid: You need to learn how to crawl, then walk, then run.” If you start an exercise program that’s too challenging or that moves too quickly, you could quickly fall behind—or, worse, injure yourself.

It’s fine to have a lofty goal, like completing a race or becoming expert in a trendy new approach to exercise. But if you’re starting from scratch, set your sights lower to start: Just pledge to get 30 minutes of aerobic activity at least five days a week. That activity can include brisk walking and other forms of moderate exercise.

If you can keep that up for a few months and are feeling good, you may want to start increasing the duration or intensity of your workouts, says Graham. But always talk to your doctor before starting a new program that’s physically demanding.

Wrong resolution: “I smoked my last cigarette December 31.”

Make it right: Make a plan, set a date and make yourself accountable.

The decision to quit smoking is a big one, and it’s one of the best things you can do for your health. (So congrats!) Now you’ve got to actually make it happen. If you know you want to quit smoking in 2016 but haven’t given much thought to the specifics of how you’re going to do it, going cold turkey may not give you the best chance at success.

First, talk with your doctor about strategies that might make quitting easier; he or she may recommend nicotine patches, gum, or medicines that can reduce your urge to smoke. Northwell Health also hosts support groups, workshops and educational programs for people who want to quit; the Center for Tobacco Control in Great Neck, for example, has one of the highest success rates in the country for smoking cessation.

Next, set a date to have your last cigarette. “I’m a big fan of Mondays,” says Graham. “Every Monday is chance to reset your life, and research shows that most people search online for help quitting on Mondays.” Once you’ve picked a date, tell your doctor and your friends. “The more people you tell, the more you can be held accountable. And the more accountable you are, the more likely you’ll be to follow through.”

Good luck with whatever your wellness goals are for 2016, and remember: Even small steps can make a big difference. From all of us here at CareConnect, have a happy, healthy new year!

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Cyber Security: Machine Learning and Big Data Know It Wasn’t You Who Just Swiped Your Credit Card

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Cyber Security: Machine Learning and Big Data Know It Wasn’t You Who Just Swiped Your Credit Card

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You’re sitting at home minding your own business when you get a call from your credit card’s fraud detection unit asking if you’ve just made a purchase at a department store in your city. It wasn’t you who bought expensive electronics using your credit card – in fact, it’s been in your pocket all afternoon. So how did the bank know to flag this single purchase as most likely fraudulent?

Credit card companies have a vested interest in identifying financial transactions that are illegitimate and criminal in nature. The stakes are high. According to the Federal Reserve Payments Study, Americans used credit cards to pay for 26.2 billion purchases in 2012. The estimated loss due to unauthorized transactions that year was US$6.1 billion. The federal Fair Credit Billing Act limits the maximum liability of a credit card owner to $50 for unauthorized transactions, leaving credit card companies on the hook for the balance. Obviously fraudulent payments can have a big effect on the companies’ bottom lines. The industry requires any vendors that process credit cards to go through security audits every year. But that doesn’t stop all fraud.

In the banking industry, measuring risk is critical. The overall goal is to figure out what’s fraudulent and what’s not as quickly as possible, before too much financial damage has been done. So how does it all work? And who’s winning in the arms race between the thieves and the financial institutions?

Gathering the troops

From the consumer perspective, fraud detection can seem magical. The process appears instantaneous, with no human beings in sight. This apparently seamless and instant action involves a number of sophisticated technologies in areas ranging from finance and economics to law to information sciences.

Of course, there are some relatively straightforward and simple detection mechanisms that don’t require advanced reasoning. For example, one good indicator of fraud can be an inability to provide the correct zip code affiliated with a credit card when it’s used at an unusual location. But fraudsters are adept at bypassing this kind of routine check – after all, finding out a victim’s zip code could be as simple as doing a Google search.

Traditionally, detecting fraud relied on data analysis techniques that required significant human involvement. An algorithm would flag suspicious cases to be closely reviewed ultimately by human investigators who may even have called the affected cardholders to ask if they’d actually made the charges. Nowadays the companies are dealing with a constant deluge of so many transactions that they need to rely on big data analytics for help. Emerging technologies such as machine learning and cloud computing are stepping up the detection game.

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Security and Risk Online: 5 frauds you need to beware of

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Security and Risk Online: 5 frauds you need to beware of

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The recent demonetisation move in India has pushed us to move to a cash-free economy. This shift, which would have otherwise taken three years, is now expected to take just three to six months. Digital payments have also recently hit record transactions.

With digital payments witnessing record transactions and more and more people joining the cashless bandwagon, there is an obvious question on everyone's mind: are digital transactions safe? The pace of the development and integration of new technologies is much faster than the pace at which security protocols and defence mechanisms are implemented. This is what makes these technologies vulnerable to cyber-fraud. For example, 3.2 million card details were stolen in October in India - making the theft India's biggest data breach.

Members of India's new digital economy need to be aware of the vulnerabilities in the digital and mobile payment systems. Here are the key ways in which digital payments can be breached.

1. Key Logger: Just like tap dancers are strongly aware of how and when their tap shoes strike the floor, a key logger is a software that records the key-strokes made by the user on the keyboard. Static passwords like 3D PINs or banking passwords, that are entered regularly, are vulnerable to cyber-fraud through a key logger, as it can record regularly typed in passwords without the user's knowledge. Using a dynamic PIN is a smart solution to the breach caused by key loggers. It is also beneficial to use apps that have an in-app secure swipe instead of the ones that require the keying in of an OTP.

2. Social Engineering: Those calls that seem to come from the bank might not really be from the bank itself. Credit and debit cards are used at many online merchants and marketplaces. Even if these online transaction use OTPs and CVVs, someone may call the cardholder and pretend to be a representative of the bank, acting as if an online transaction needs to be confirmed, and subsequently ask the cardholder to share the the received OTP. When the OTP is disclosed by the cardholder, a fraudulent transaction can take place.

3. OTP Pop-Ups: As One Time Passwords have limited time validity (in minutes), they are believed to be secure. Although OTPs mostly appear as pop-up notifications on mobile phones. These pop-up messages are clearly visible, even if the mobile phone is locked. This means that the OTP can be easily accessed without the permission of the user, making the transaction open to being breached.

4. OTP Accessibility: Although an OTP is essential, the medium through which it is delivered is of utmost importance. Most of the times, a One Time Password is sent as an SMS. The problem with this is that many apps can read SMS messages. This means that if an app is malicious it can misuse the OTP that has been received. Therefore, users should be aware of what privileges they give to the apps on their smartphone and also look at reviews and number of downloads of the apps they choose.

5. EDC Machines: Even with a second-step PIN verification, swiping a card on an EDC machine is not as safe as it seems. EDC machines are susceptible to breach and a compromised machine can copy the details of the cards when swiped. Most debit and credit cards have a static PIN, and even these PINs can be stored in compromised EDC machines. A breach like this can give easy access to the personal data of cardholders to fraudulent groups. A dynamic PIN for physical credit or debit cards could be a strong safeguard against compromised EDC machines.

As there are many threats and vulnerabilities with digital payment systems, we need a system that goes much further than regular security standards. This digital payment system should have more than two layers of security so that it is virtually impenetrable. The system should be planned in such a way that each layer both independently stands by itself and also smartly integrates with the overall security structure. From requiring a password just to access the digital payment system to not needing to key in a PIN, this system should have multiple security checkpoints so that only the authorised user can successfully, yet easily, make payments through it.

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PIC SCHEME

Enhanced Tax Deductions: Compute your PIC claims for ECI

Businesses have to submit their Estimated Chargeable Income (ECI) to IRAS no later than 3 months after the end of the financial year (ie. 31th March 2016 if they follow the calendar year). The PIC Enhanced Tax Deductions claim can be included along with the submission to enjoy the associated benefits. Feel free to contact us for more details!

Cash payout: Status of application and treatment of the queries for PIC by IRAS

After the submission of a cash payout claim, businesses can call the IRAS hotline or login to the IRAS E-service system to check the status of their application (quickest and most convenient way recommended by IRAS).

For applications selected for audit by IRAS, further details and supporting documents will be requested for review. IRAS will then revert to businesses within 3 months from receiving the complete information. The processing time may take up to six months, depending on the complexity of each case.

PUBLIC FUNDING IN SINGAPORE

New services launched for international development

The Market Readiness Assistance (MRA) grant and the Double Tax Deduction (DTD) are 2 public funding managed by IE Singapore that support the overseas expansion of local SMEs.

The MRA grant is designed to accelerate the international expansion of Singapore SMEs by covering up to 70% of eligible costs. These could range from overseas market set-up, identification of business partners, and overseas market promotion.

As for the DTD, it allows companies to deduct against their taxable income, twice the qualifying expenses incurred for eligible activities when carrying out market expansion and investment for their overseas development.

GAC Group assists you to get for MRA and DTD while providing expert advice and application assistance. We provide a hassle free solution to get the additional funding your company needs to expand overseas.

New services launched for Capability Development Grant (CDG)

The Capability Development Grant (CDG) is a financial assistance program managed by SPRING Singapore. CDG supports local SMEs to upgrade their business capabilities through defraying up to 70% of qualifying costs on activities such as Technology innovation, Service excellence, Productivity improvement, IP & Franchising, HR development, Financial management, Quality & Standards, Business excellence & strategy, Brand & Marketing strategy.

Through our 14 years of experience with the public funding scene, we have the expertise to successfully assist local SMEs to get their CDG applications optimized and approved. To find out more about how this grant would benefit your company, do not hesitate to contact us!

GAC EXPERTISE

How to identify an eligible R&D project

The identification of an eligible R&D project within all the developments of a company is a challenging task. The term "R&D" is often misunderstood, as it is commonly used to refer to the technical developments in its broadest sense. However, the definition of R&D given by IRAS in its “R&D Tax Measures” is far closer to scientific research than technical development. This is inspired by the definition given by the OECD, in the Frascati Manual. This manual gives definitions for basic research, applied research, and experimental development. With a good comprehension of the definitions and a strong knowledge of the R&D activities, our team has the expertise to accurately identify your R&D projects. Our Group’s competency in both technical and financial aspects allows us to secure the claimed projects with, for example, a strong technical report, and a fully optimized associated amount.

GLOBAL NEWS AND EVENTS

Launch of TechSG

GAC Group has attended the launch of TechSG, a digital platform for Singapore's technology entrepreneurial ecosystem developed by NUS Enterprise and sponsored by IBM. It is an open and collaborative platform for the community to provide comprehensive information on key players in Singapore’s entrepreneurial ecosystem with analytical tools. The objective is to visualize and track the diversity, interdependency, growth dynamics and vibrancy of the local entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Release of the RIE2020

The Government has announced a S$ 19 Bn budget to support Singapore’s R&D efforts over the next 5 years. This 6th roadmap represents an 18% increase compared to the precedent plan and is also the biggest in history.

The Research Innovation Enterprise 2020 plan (RIE2020) aims at supporting the transfer of research into solutions to address national challenges, to build up innovation and technology adoption among companies, and to drive economic growth through value creation.

Four primary technology sectors are emphasized to deepen the technology capabilities and competitiveness of Singapore and to raise productivity and meet national priorities:

• Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering

• Health and Biomedical Sciences

• Services and Digital Economy

• Urban Solutions and Sustainability

In the meantime, cross-cutting programmes will focus on excellent sciences, strong pipeline of manpower and value creation.

The funding will be more competitive in areas of relevance and importance for Singapore. The Government aims at encouraging collaboration of multiples stakeholders bringing together different expertise to address big issues. Thus, the Government wishes to encourage tech transfer from research to marketable solutions and public-private partnerships too.

To sum up, the Government is trying to capitalize on technologies with which the country has a competitive advantage and to build up capabilities in areas that are deemed to have great national needs.

JTC Innovation Grant Call

The JTC Innovation Grant Call has been set up to identify and provide funding for technology owners to undertake test-bed and pilot innovative solutions to promote sustainability. The areas of focus include:

• Resource Efficiency: Develop sustainable facility management solutions by reducing reliance on manpower.

• Sustainable Urban Solutions: Develop solutions that can mitigate urban challenges and cultivate green practices.

• Building Efficiency: Develop green buildings solutions by reducing water & energy consumption, allowing efficient waste treatment or harvesting green energy to reduce power consumption.

All enterprises and research institutions, both local and foreign including start-ups and incubators registered with the local authorities in their respective countries are eligible to participate.

Companies can obtain up to 500.000 SGD for qualifying costs: Manpower/Professional services, Equipment/software, and Intellectual Property.

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GAC Group Singapore R&D International Consulting: Our Values

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GAC Group Singapore R&D International Consulting: Our Values

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We have chosen to build our company’s foundations on 4 core values, represented by the 4 bricks of our logo. These values are:

Independence

We are a family business with a single shareholder that guarantees financial stability, independence and responsibility to our clients, our partners and the well-being of our employees.

Know-How and Show How

Historically developed from a leading professional training center, we offer more than standard services by transferring knowledge to our clients during all our missions. Our employees regularly benefit from internal trainings and develop deep expertise and desire to go further on every topics and products.

Commitment and Enthusiasm

We rely on and invest in our employees and our employees are committed to the success of the company. This win-win situation results in a faithful commitment and a strong work ethic leading to personal development while strengthening our expertise and growth.

Entrepreunarial Dynamics

Founded by a serial entrepreneur, GAC federates its teams and acquires its clients’ loyalty around a common entrepreneurial vision and an international sense of challenge.

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Security and Risk Online: Beware That Online Deal

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Security and Risk Online: Beware That Online Deal

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Get Safe Online has issued a warning to Christmas shoppers to be vigilant when it comes to purchasing presents for loved ones online.

The warning comes as recent City of London Police findings show that online crime cost consumers and businesses nearly £11 million last Christmas alone.  What’s more, research conducted by Get Safe Online’s partners, Financial Fraud Action UK (FFA UK), found that 31% of online shoppers admit that they are more likely to take a financial risk if an online retailer offers them a bargain.

Get Safe Online is also urging people to report any fraudulent activity they come across over the holiday period. This comes as a staggering 39% of people in a recent survey by the organization, said that they’d been a victim of online crime but hadn’t reported the incident. The research also found a worrying gap in people’s understanding of what constitutes an online crime, with 86% of the public saying that they hadn’t been targeted by cyber-criminals in the past 12 months, while in fact 68% of respondents had actually been targeted in a variety of ways.

“Being able to beat the Christmas crowds by doing your Christmas shopping online is one of the many perks of the internet,” the group said. “As more and more of us are doing it though, it sadly means that cyber-criminals also see the festive period as an opportunity to scam unsuspecting members of the public who are looking to buy gifts online for loved ones. A lot of money gets lost over the season each year by people unfortunate enough to get caught out, especially as scams become harder to spot. That being said, there are little steps we can take to keep ourselves safe though; simple things like buying from reputable sites, looking out for the padlock in the browser to check its set up with encryption before making a payment and using a credit card or an insured payment method like PayPal so your payment is protected if things do go wrong.”

As advice to consumers, Get Safe Online recommends that everyone take the time to double check that the product one is purchasing is coming from a legitimate website before making a payment. Checking previous customer reviews is often a good touch point for safe online shopping. Also, always check that payment pages are secure, and log out once finished shopping online.

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Online Security: Increase in Cybercrime to Boost the Global Antivirus Software Package Market

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Online Security: Increase in Cybercrime to Boost the Global Antivirus Software Package Market

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Technavio analysts forecast the global antivirus software package market to grow at a CAGR of close to 10% during the forecast period, according to their latest report.

The research study covers the present scenario and growth prospects of the global antivirus software package market for 2016-2020. The report also segments the market based on end-users into home users and corporate users, with corporate users accounting for over 60% of the market share in 2015.

According to Ishmeet Kaur, a lead analyst at Technavio for enterprise application research, “Antivirus software packages are expected to gain maximum traction in APAC during the forecast period as enterprises in this region are highly dependent on the Internet and wireless technologies, which are more vulnerable to data theft and cyber-attacks.”

Technavio ICT analysts highlight the following three factors that are contributing to the growth of the global antivirus software package market:

·         Increase in cybercrime

·         Rise in number of online transactions

·         Growing dependence on Internet

Increase in cybercrime

Cybercrimes include malware, hacking and denial of service (DoS) attacks, computer viruses, fraud, identity theft, harassment and threats, and phishing scams. With cyber-attacks becoming more complex and sophisticated, the demand for antivirus software is growing. Mobile devices are becoming the most preferred devices for web browsing, e-mailing, making online purchases, accessing social media, and downloading apps. Therefore, they have become potential targets for cyber-attacks as they are increasingly being used to perform personal and business tasks by enterprises and individuals.

The increase in the number of cyber-attacks has raised awareness and fear among organizations with respect to the different security risks. For instance, in 2015, enterprises in the US alone, faced an annual loss of more than USD 525 million due to cybercrime. Most of the losses were due to malicious code and DoS attacks. This is compelling organizations to adopt antivirus software packages.

Rise in number of online transactions

Online transactions are gaining prominence among individual consumers because they are very easy, quick, and convenient. However, these banking and e-commerce transactions are most vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Therefore, vendors in the market are providing advanced features in their antivirus software packages to make online transactions secure and prevent fraudulent activities.

The availability of multiple online shopping websites, attractive offers, and a variety of choices are factors that are encouraging users to shop online. Users are increasingly using the Internet for financial transactions because they are quick and convenient.

“Security threats such as identity theft and phishing are on the rise due to an increase in the number of online transactions. Thus, the need for antivirus software packages is increasing with the rise in online transactions,” says Ishmeet.

Growing dependence on Internet

The worldwide use of Internet is growing at an exponential rate, with the number on internet users exceeding 3 billion in 2015, which was more than six times the number of Internet users in 2000. This is due to the spread of education and developments in technology ensuring better connectivity.

The Internet has penetrated the lives of individuals from all walks of life. People are increasingly using the internet for everyday activities and to stay connected because of which they end up posting a lot of personal information on the Internet. The increased dependence on web applications has made people vulnerable to identity theft. Cases such as phishing and data theft are on the rise, and new forms of attacks are emerging. Therefore, it has become essential for end-users to adopt antivirus software packages to protect critical information from security threats.

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UK Banks Looking Into 'Next Generation' of Digital Cards to Help Combat Online Fraud

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UK Banks Looking Into 'Next Generation' of Digital Cards to Help Combat Online Fraud

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The digital bank cards have a security code that changes every 20 minutes.

A new form of digitally-enhanced bank card featuring an unpredictable three-digit security code is currently being analysed by UK banks and financial institutions as a way of combating increasing levels of fraud, according to security firm Gemalto.

The technology, which has been dubbed the "next generation" of payment card, is known as Dynamic Code Verification (DCV) and works by ditching the permanent three-number security strip code in favour of a digital readout that changes every 20 minutes.

Gemalto, which is developing a version of the technology, claims it will help to drastically slash the amount of card-not-present (CNP) fraud – when stolen bank card details are used to remotely make illicit internet, telephone or mail purchases.

"It means that you physically have to have the card in your possession in order to make a purchase online or over the telephone," Lysa Coombs, spokesperson for Gemalto, told Sky News.

"If you have simply harvested the card's details to commit fraud, you won't be able to do that as you won't have the up-to-date security code," she added.

Howard Berg, the firm's senior vice-president said UK banks are now accessing the advantages and disadvantages of the technology. "We are certainly seeing card holders like it [because] there's little change to the process they are currently using," he told Sky News.

A Gemalto brochure describing the technology stated: "[It] allows issuers to replace the static 3-digit visual cryptogram traditionally used for online purchases with a time based dynamic CVV/CVC displayed on the customer's payment card or on their mobile.

"The code changes every 20 minutes, dramatically enhancing the security level of online transactions."

According to an official report from Financial Fraud UK released in March this year, titled the 'Year-end 2015 fraud update', losses on purchases made remotely increased by 20% in 2015 (to £398.2m from £331.5m). It indicated the spike may be due to data stolen through "hacks and malware."

The research paper also noted: "Financial fraud losses across payment cards, remote banking and cheques totalled £755million in 2015 - an increase of 26% compared to 2014."

Tony Blake, a senior fraud prevention officer at the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit, a police unit with links to Financial Fraud Action UK, the Metropolitan Police and the Home Office, said the new technology could help reduce online card fraud.

"It is a huge growth area and criminals are always looking at new ways to make money as more of us go online to do our shopping," he told Sky News. "The dynamically changing digital security number on the back of the card is one of the things in development which looks quite promising."

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Coalition Against Insurance Fraud: Election fallout ripples through anti-fraud world

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Coalition Against Insurance Fraud: Election fallout ripples through anti-fraud world

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Changes at the state and federal levels could affect enforcement

While the shock of the national elections continues to be felt, the Coalition is sizing up the likely impact on fraud-fighting.

The biggest concern is whether the Trump administration will continue the federal government’s aggressive stand in combatting healthcare fraud. FBI investigations and Department of Justice prosecutions have helped set records for arrests, convictions and financial recoveries in the last eight years.

Another potential concern is whether repealing the Affordable Care Act will gut anti-fraud programs that were part of the original bill. Medicare has much more capacity and authority to crackdown and prevent healthcare fraud today. Its ability to shut down scams quickly and use the latest technology such as predictive modeling could be in jeopardy.

Republicans also likely will push for interstate sales of health insurance. We’ve repeatedly warned that such an unregulated system will spur scam artists to sell fake policies to unsuspecting consumers.

Another potential casualty could be the Healthcare Fraud Prevention Partnership, an alliance of more than 60 private insurers and public agencies.

The partnership’s data-sharing program has helped save more than $260 million for healthcare payers. It would be foolish not to continue, but the program operates at the whim of the administration and HHS secretary. That’s one reason we advocated writing the program into federal law, but it’s too late for that now.

As for state elections, Wayne Goodwin, the insurance commissioner in North Carolina, lost his election. He’s a strong supporter of anti-fraud measures. Goodwin sponsors an effective fraud bureau, and chairs the NAIC Anti-Fraud Task Force.

The change of governors and insurance commissioners in other states, such as Delaware, also may affect law-enforcement efforts to combat fraud.

We’ll continue analyzing the federal and state results. We’ll report developments as they emerge. In the meantime, the Coalition stands ready to work with the new office holders to advocate strong measures that effectively combat insurance fraud.

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Coalition Against Insurance Fraud: Chilling mob-style
hits reveal fraud’s violent roots

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Coalition Against Insurance Fraud: Chilling mob-style
hits reveal fraud’s violent roots

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Mob-style hits sought in name of insurance money

Recent charges against a foot doctor challenge a belief among many consumers that insurance fraud is a relatively low-level, white-collar scam.

The issue: fraud as violence.

Foot doctor Ira Bernstein allegedly tried to hire thugs to beat up two insurance-fraud investigators and throw them off the track.

The Ramapo, N.Y. man and his girlfriend met with someone they thought was a hitman to kill his wife Susan — and rough up the fraud investigators, federal prosecutors contend. The investigators were looking into whether Bernstein bilked health insurers with false claims.

The purported hitman was a wired informant. He revealed the suspected plot to police.

Police also set up Hollywood-style murder photos. They applied makeup so the investigators would look mugged. The snitch then showed Bernstein the seemingly grisly images to fool the foot doctor into revealing more suspected evidence.

Bernstein could be innocent. He’ll have his justly deserved day in court.

Whatever the outcome, the case shines a light on a broader concern that insurance fraudis widely perceived as a relatively tame white-collar scam with few real victims.

Once embedded as a norm … this lax attitude edges dangerously closer to making an $80-billion insurance crime a socially acceptable way people can lard their bank accounts, live well, or exact policyholder revenge against insurers for high premiums paid out without claims.

Insurance fraud has a seedy history of Mafia-style violence — or threatened harm — against against investigators … judges … witnesses … and other hardworking professionals just trying to do fair justice. Blind panic and fear when cornered by courts and investigators can turn swindlers into murderers.

An insurance agent shot and killed two fraud investigators who were looking into his practices. Rhett Jeansonne and Kim Sledge were with the Louisiana insurance department. John Melvin Lavergne gunned them down at his Ville Platte agency, then shot himself.

Alarmed insurance regulators around the U.S. quickly strengthened procedures for how investigators can stay safer when visiting a suspect’s office or home.

Sallie Rohrbach died doing her duty as well. She was an auditor with the North Carolina insurance department. A troubled agent clubbed her to death with a chair while she was in his office reviewing his books for  possible theft of client premiums.

Tyesha Towanda Roberts offered to hired someone to shoot a witness involving insurance torchings of a home and two vehicles. The Baltimore woman wanted $10,000 to set up the murder. A cohort offered to help shoot the witness himself. Except that Roberts and her cohort spilled the plot to an undercover officer. Roberts was convicted, and will be sentenced in August 2016.

Nightclub insurer mogul Jeffrey Cohen plotted to assassinate the judge overseeing the bankrupt insurer’s liquidation.

Cohen deceived regulators into thinking his failing insurance empire was financially solid.

A former nightclub bouncer, Cohen drew up a hit list of Maryland and Delaware officials involved with his case. Plus driving directions to the home of the judge overseeing the insurer’s liquidation.

Seven assault weapons were seized at Cohen’s home. “Society needs to look at the fact that killing isn’t wrong in certain circumstances, and killing culls the weak,” he said in a sound recording. Cohen was handed 37 years in federal prison.

Buying the narrative that insurance fraud is tame feeds the dystopian mindset that eggs people to use violence to defend their schemes. Even seemingly average people can become killers when their fraud plots start unravelling.

So when you think of insurance fraud as a soft and minor crime … just visit Sallie Rohrbach’s grave. She’s buried in Raleigh Memorial Park in Fuquay-Varina, N.C.

Proposing ongoing blog about all things insurance fraud. Consumer attitudes that let fraud thrive … strategies for changing minds … new fraud trends and why they’re important …

Profile how people are victimized. How fraud crimes are investigated and convicted. Highlight breaking cases and fraud trends — and why they’re important.

Also look on light side — knuckleheads who bumble to bogus fake workers comp injury claims.

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Coalition Against Insurance Fraud: Allow EUOs without
court order

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Coalition Against Insurance Fraud: Allow EUOs without
court order

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Examinations under oath help insurers combat fraud and should be allowed without requiring time-consuming court orders in Kentucky, the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud and National Insurance Crime Bureau say in a joint amicus brief filed today with the state’s highest court.

“This tool benefits insurers and honest claimants by providing a means for determining the circumstance of accidents and the nature of injuries, and an intelligent, well-formed decision as to the applicability of coverage,” the anti-fraud groups say in the brief to the state Supreme Court.

Two Kentucky motorists claimed they were injured in a crash. They sought no-fault benefits, yet refused to take part in an examination under oath (EUO). The state appeals court said the insurer must obtain a court order to conduct the interview. State Farm appealed to Kentucky’s highest court.

EUOs uncover information that enables insurers to make intelligent claim decisions that can stymie fraud and help keep auto premiums affordable for honest drivers, NICB and the Coalition say. Importantly, EUOs also validate honest claims and help ensure payment as promptly as possible.

"EUOs are a time-tested tool, valuable tool. They are utilized in every form of insurance coverage,” the anti-fraud groups say.

Claims will be needlessly prolonged if EUOs must be resolved in courts instead of efficiently between insurers and claimants, the Coalition and NICB contend.

Requiring court orders “encourages litigation by forcing insurers to obtain a discovery order from a court every time it is necessary to investigate a claim,” the Coalition and NICB argue.

The expensive, time-consuming effort will weaken anti-fraud efforts in the Kentucky.

“The result is higher premiums, potentially higher coverage deductibles, and the threat that insurers will cease doing business in Kentucky if they cannot efficiently combat suspected fraudulent claims and financial loss becomes guaranteed,” NICB and the Coalition say.

Insurers must be empowered to resolve claims as promptly as possible. EUOs elicit vital information and thwart fraud that drives up auto premiums in Kentucky.

“EUOs allow the insurer to investigate the veracity of medical reports generated by providers. … They allow the insurer to verify that treatment actually took place, that the stated treatment was of the nature the provider claims, and that they value of the service actually provided comports with the bills the provider submits,” the Coalition and NICB contend in the legal filing.

The Kentucky Supreme Court is expected to rule on the case later this year.

*****

CONTACT:

Dennis Jay, Coalition Against Insurance Fraud; 202-393-7333

Frank Scafidi, National Insurance Crime Bureau; 916-979-1510

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Haws Corporation Tempered Water Nevada USA: Need a
eyewash but have no water?

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Haws Corporation Tempered Water Nevada USA: Need a
eyewash but have no water?

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NEW PRODUCT RELEASE

Model 7601.15 is a 15-gallon, air-pressurized, self-contained eyewash with an ASME rated tank with optional drench hose.

Model 7601.15 is an ideal solution for a facility’s ANSI eyewash requirements in locations without access to a continuous potable water source and where an ASME tank is required.

More specifically, Model 7601.15 is able to provide 15 minutes of flushing with the use of twin soft-flo eyewash heads.

• Features a 15 gallon (56.8 L) ASME rated stainless steel tank

• Protective measures include:

- air pressure gauge

- pressure relief valve

- tire-type air fill valve

• Measurements: 43-3/4″ (111 cm) high, 12-1/4″ (31 cm) diameter

• ABS plastic anti-surge eyewash heads with integral flow controls and dust covers

• Chrome-plated brass ball valve equipped with stainless steel ball and stem

• Additional features:

- Flow Regulation9082

- Fully Assembled

- System Certified

Certified by CSA to meet the ANSI Z358.1 Standard for Emergency Eyewash and Shower Equipment.

Note: Reference the Supplemental Equipment section [8.0] of the ANSI Z358.1-2014 regarding Drench Hose compliance.

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We Tested
50+ Free Security Tools so You can Use Them for Your Online Protection

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We Tested
50+ Free Security Tools so You can Use Them for Your Online Protection

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Heimdal Online Security – The idea that we should create a gargantuan list of cyber security tools started to spring in our minds around the beginning of this year.

We started from a simple idea: It should be useful. We need it. You need it. It will come in handy in the future, to have all those tools in one place.

In our journey into the cyber security and data protection world, we ran into lots of useful tools. Some of them were unmarketed gems that we had no idea that they even existed. We ran into most of them completely by mistake, while searching for something else (usually on Quora or randomly navigating on blogs).

When we finally decided to do it, to work on the list, we had no idea how and where to begin.

What tools should we include? What should we not? How do we tell if one is worthy and the other one is not?

Do we mention ultra-known products?

What about antivirus products? We haven’t tested them all since there are independent industry experts who do a much better job.

Should we mention the services that are duplicated and basically do the same thing? Or should we stick to the best?

Why? Who decides what’s best for someone and what’s not?

Should we stick to what’s free or should we also add paid products?

Eventually we came up with what we’re about to read. But first here’s a quick guideline that you should read before we jump right to the subject:

We don’t claim that this is the ultimate list. It’s not complete and it’s definitely not final. It probably never will be. We are aware that we missed lots of essential, important tools – by mistake or just because we can’t know them all. So please feel free to jump in with more useful tools that you feel they should be mentioned.

We stayed away from recommending antivirus, VPN or firewall products. There are independent industry experts who only do that. Instead, we prefer to list those experts or websites that will help you compare such services, in order to choose what’s best for you.

We tried to test them all before recommending them. And we only included tools that have free versions.

Click here to Continue….

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IFC Commits up to $200 million to IFC Emerging Asia Fund
to Invest Across Multiple Sectors in Asia

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IFC Commits up to $200 million to IFC Emerging Asia Fund
to Invest Across Multiple Sectors in Asia

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International Financial Corporation Securities Regulatory Commission World Bank Group

Washington, July 29, 2016—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, has committed up to $200 million to the IFC Emerging Asia Fund (EAF), which this week reached a first close. IFC is joined by the Korea Development Bank (KDB) and the Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF).

Central to the EAF is mobilizing additional capital in emerging markets of the Asia region, given the scale of investment, innovation, technological development and employment creation required for sustainable development in many low and middle income countries in the region falls beyond the range of the public sector, making the private sector central to finding and financing the development solutions that are needed.

Investments by the EAF will be aligned to IFC’s strategy for the region, which includes a focus on addressing the infrastructure deficit, and at the same time it will also help investee companies raise standards, improve risk mitigation and generate value.

“We are excited by the equity opportunities we see in emerging Asia and delivering further development impact through our clients,” said IFC Regional Director East Asia and Pacific, Vivek Pathak. “We are very pleased that major institutional investors such as KDB and FNPF are partnering with us to further IFC’s support of private sector development.”

The new global architecture for international development, the Sustainable Development Goals, launched at the United Nations in 2015, highlights that financing sustainable development requires low and middle income countries tap new sources of capital from both private and public sources, including leveraging global private capital to most skillful effect.

Two thirds of the world’s poorest people live in emerging Asia and yet it is the engine room of global growth being the fastest growing region and the largest continental economy by GDP in the world. This growth is a function of favorable dynamics such as the continued need for enhanced infrastructure, the emergence of a rapidly growing middle class and commitments by many governments in the region to political and economic reform.  Combined, these dynamics have created significant opportunities for investment in the region including China, India, Indonesia, Philippines and Asian frontier markets such as Vietnam and Myanmar.

About IFC

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. Working with more than 2,000 businesses worldwide, we use our capital, expertise, and influence, to create opportunity where it’s needed most. In FY15, our long-term investments in developing countries rose to nearly $18 billion, helping the private sector play an essential role in the global effort to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity. For more information, visit www.ifc.org

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Hamilton Marsden Shop Review: Tips for taking care of
bespoke furniture

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Hamilton Marsden Shop Review: Tips for taking care of
bespoke furniture

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Most homeowners today prefer to extend the lifespan of their bespoke furniture and maintain its appearance and functionality to treasure them for many more years to come. Due to the climatic conditions of your home, wood is often prone to changes in movement and color because of its natural characteristics. Eric Earl Hamilton Marsden will provide specific tips on how to take care of bespoke furniture made from wood in the subsequent paragraphs. Following these simple tips prepared by the team will help you reduce the damaging effects of such changes to your bespoke furniture.

Avoid direct sunlight

Eric Earl Hamilton Marsden's review regarding this matter was discussed in their previous posts, but the team will elucidate again the importance of keeping away your furniture from direct sunlight. It is apparent that there are damaging effects to the furniture once it is exposed to direct sunlight for a long period of time such as cracking and expansion. Shrinkage can also happen to the furniture if the wood dries out because of heat. Strong sunlight can result to bleaching and crumbling of the finish applied to the furniture. The use of shades, blinds and shutters are recommended to control the effect of sunlight to your furniture.

Maintain proper humidity

To keep the wood in good condition, do not let it dry out because it needs a good amount of moisture since it is partly composed of water. If the climate is in average condition, keeping a small bowl of water or a plant in the same room is enough for your furniture. But if the weather is very dry, a humidifier is needed to maintain the proper humidity of your home.

Keep out on sources of heat

Placing your bespoke furniture near or front of radiators, open fires or any other source of heat is not advisable. Turning on or off the sources of heat can result in a change in temperature which can greatly affect the dimensional stability of the bespoke furniture. As previously stated, heat can dry out the furniture and it is not good for its condition.

Use coasters or mats

Don't place hot or cold drinks, plates and crockery directly on the wooden furniture. It’s better to use coasters or mats under such items because even a glass of water can cause damage to the furniture due to the moisture condensing from the air around and underneath the glass entering the surface and causing discoloration

Put protective pads under fixed items

You should put protective cork or felt pads fitted underneath the items that you are using for decorating your home such as bowls, figurines, ornaments, and vases, which are sitting on the furniture for a long period of time. It's also wise to regularly move such items to prevent any discoloration on your bespoke furniture.

Clean regularly

You can remove marks on the bespoke furniture by using a lightly moistened cloth, and dry it with another cloth such as a soft microfiber cloth. Eric Earl Hamilton Marsden recommends dusting regularly to maintain the good condition of the furniture.

Quickly handle spillages

Use a clean and lightly moistened cloth to remove spillages of drinks or food on your furniture, and then dry the surface with a clean dry cloth. You must act quickly when there are spillages on your furniture because it will be impossible to completely remove them once they are left alone for a long period of time.

Silicone spray polishes are a no-no

After a certain period of time, aerosol spray polishes that contain silicone will just have a bad effect on the finish of bespoke furniture, so it's better not to use them on your furniture.

Don't use abrasive or chemical cleaners

Instead of using abrasive cleaners such as a cream cleaner, it's better to consult the maker of the furniture when your furniture needs careful attention because once those cleaners are applied to the furniture they will remove a thin layer of the material. You should not also use chemical cleaners such as stain removers and solvents on your bespoke furniture.

Control the temperature and humidity

Taking care of bespoke furniture is easy if you just keep the temperature and humidity of your home at relatively stable levels throughout the year.

In addition, Eric Earl Hamilton Marsden suggests following some tips on buying online to help you find quality bespoke furniture that will surely last for several years. It's simple to take care of bespoke furniture, simply follow those tips mentioned above and you will surely enjoy your furniture for many more years.

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International Organization of Financial Securities
Regulatory Commission: We comment on IOSCO's non-GAAP financial measures
proposals

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International Organization of Financial Securities
Regulatory Commission: We comment on IOSCO's non-GAAP financial measures
proposals

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Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited has responded to the International Organization of Securities Commissions' Consultation 'Proposed Statement on Non-GAAP Financial Measures'. We support addressing the issue of non-GAAP financial measures at a global level as it is pervasive, and believe it is in the best interests of global securities markets if the proposed statement applied consistently in all IOSCO jurisdictions and is not overlaid with local guidance.

The comment letter makes a number of additional points, including:

·         For the proposed statement to have maximum effect, we encourage IOSCO to develop a common definition of 'non-GAAP financial measure' and to determine which such measures should be subject to the common discipline

·         It is important for the efficient operation of global capital markets that national and regional guidance is consistent and does not contradict the requirements of globally-recognised financial reporting frameworks

·         We agree that the proposed statement should apply to 'any non-GAAP financial measure wherever the measure is disclosed outside of the financial statements' as it recognises standard-setters' responsibility in relation to financial statements, and is a way of achieving consistency in the use of non-GAAP financial measures across the annual report as a whole, but suggest that IOSCO works with the IASB to clarify what is considered to be an 'IFRS measure'

·         We encourage IOSCO to determine a consistent scope, application and enforcement of the proposed statement, as it is assumed that it would encompass information on websites and other non-regulated information, and some securities market regulators regulate press releases and web-based material, but others do not.

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Axia Consulting Ltd (Axia) is committed to following environmental best practice, where practical and within the resources available, in all its activities and in the provision of its products and services.

To this end Axia will:

• Minimise waste and maximise the use of resources within the business.

• Continuously seek to improve its environmental performance.

• Comply with UK and EU environmental directives.

• Encourage employees to be proactive in undertaking environmental initiatives.

• Monitor and review the company’s environmental performance on a regular basis.

More specifically, as an Enterprise Software Consultancy, Axia is committed to:

• Reducing the use of paper.

• Minimising the use of plastics (cd’s, etc) within its products and encouraging customers to use downloadable or email versions.

• Minimising unnecessary printing.

• Recycling waste items such as toner/ink jet cartridges, paper and cardboard etc.

• Encouraging the use of public transport instead of using cars for business travel, or if acceptable, communicating by telephone/email etc rather than by face-to-face meetings.

• Reducing the use of electricity eg by ensuring unused equipment is turned off when not being used and identifying practices that reduce power consumption.

• Choosing energy-saving IT equipment (when replacing or purchasing new equipment) that has been manufactured in an environmentally sound way.

• Disposing of old hardware responsibly - ideally being reused/reconditioned or if not, being recycled.

This policy will be reviewed annually to ensure its continuing effectiveness.

Director

Reviewed and updated: October 27, 2015

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Meir Ezra - Is it easier for you to say "yes" or "no"?

If you are like most people, "no" is more difficult. Saying "no" is like telling someone they are bad or wrong. People might feel rejected if you say, "no."

However, if you can't say "no," you will take detours on your road to success.

"No" Regarding Money

To build wealth you must say "no" at times.

For example, if you manage finances for a business or organization, you probably know how often people try to get you to say "yes." Yet if you agree to every financial request, your group goes broke.

"It is up to a financial manager to be very, very, very tough and to learn how to say no, no, no, no. In fact, it would be a very good thing if he stood in front of a mirror for ten or fifteen minutes a day saying `no.'"

-- L. Ron Hubbard

If you are the financial manager for a business or group, you must say "no" for the sake of your organization.

Even if you do not manage a group's finances, you ARE the financial manager of your personal finances. You also need to say "no."

"No" Regarding Time