If you Google “cloud computing,” you are likely to find more than 200,000,000 results. Yes, that is 200 million of them. 

But you don’t even need to Google it. Just look around your office, and you are likely to find many cloud services that are in place:  from web content management, to e-commerce, sales and marketing, storage and backup, financial applications, web conferencing, and the list goes on.

On one side, there are some compelling benefits for cloud services, ranging from significant cost advantages, to easy access across the globe, and offloading the operational headaches of these systems to someone else.

But on the other side, there are risks relating to security, confidentiality, content ownership, stability of providers, among others.

Have you adopted cloud computing and to what extent? Share your experience with cloud computing in the following survey for a chance to win a copy of Cloud Surfing by Thomas Koulopoulos!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/cloud-services

Join us on Thursday, August 2nd for our Complimentary Lunch & Learn Webinar, "Living in the Cloud" to hear Thomas Koulopoulos, author of Cloud Surfing, A New Way to Think About Risk, Innovation, Scale and Success, provide valuable insights about this topic.

Barry Cardoza's presentation at our lunch & learn webinar this week (The Cyber Threat--No Boundaries) provided some invaluable insights on a topic that we may otherwise take for granted in our busy lives until it suddenly interrupts our life and bring it to a standstill: The cyber threat.

What are our threats today?

Barry indicated that the threats can come from a variety of sources including:

• Script Kiddies
• Criminals
• Industrial Espionage
• Insiders
• Foreign Governments

Here are some attackers profiles

1. Insiders: Insiders have a unique advantage due to access/trust. They can be motivated by revenge, organizational disputes, personal problems, boredom, curiosity, or to “prove a point.”
2. Script Kiddies: Relatively untrained hackers that find exploit code/tools on the Internet and run them indiscriminately against targets. While largely unskilled, they are numerous.
3. Criminals: Cyber based attacks offer new means to commit traditional crimes, such as fraud and extortion. Organized cyber-crime groups have adopted legitimate business practices, structure, and method of operation.
4. Terrorists: Cyber-attacks have the potential to cripple infrastructures which are not properly secured. In addition, cyber-linkages between sectors raise the risk of cascading failures throughout the Nation.

So what can we do?

The first thing we can do is to become aware of the issues and help create such awareness at our companies and communities. The next thing we can do is to team up with the variety of organizations who are working diligently at prevention and preparedness and become part of this effort.

Download Barry's presentation to learn more. Barry offered to help you customize this presentation and connect you with agencies such as DHS, Secret Service, and the FBI, so you can present it at your organization.  Contact Barry at BarryCardoza@BarryCardoza.com for more information.

About Barry Cardoza

Barry Cardoza, Certified Business Continuity Professional (CBCP), and Principal of Barry Cardoza LLC, specializes in Business Continuity Program Development, Enhancement and Analytics. Barry has over 40 years of experience in business management, business process analysis, and continuous process improvement.  This experience has been within many different industries and includes over 20 years within the banking industry.  Previously responsible for Union Bank’s Business Continuity strategy, policy, compliance, and program implementation.

Whehter your are delivering online courses as part of a corporate training program, a keynote speech at a virtual conference, or marketing and sales webinars to promote your products and services, here are some pointers for making your webinar successful:

Starting with some simple but important logistics

• Provide a support number, especially for 1st time users
• Provide a backup plan, like a recorded version
• If more than 10 or 15 participants, put people on mute
• Use the "raise their hand" and/or "chat/question" panels to manage interactions
• If you can, have a moderator (other than you) monitor/handle the audience questions

Remember that "Content is Still King"

• Content is still king, nothing will make up for mediocre content
• Live demos are much better than static slides
• Visuals like images and charts are far better than just text
• Let the session tell a story, and create some suspense whatever the topic is
• Include some polls, get some interaction going
• Make it short & sweet, 45 minute to 1 hour
• Include a short break if longer than 1 hour
• Talk with a smile and with energy, like it is the most exciting content and it is the first time you deliver it

And after the Webinar

• Get immediate feedback via web survey, or else you might never get it
• Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up!
• Adjust and do it again!

Happy Webinar-ing!