In 2022, the Internet Crime Complaint Center reported a staggering 21,832 BEC (business email compromise) complaints, resulting in losses exceeding $2.7 billion. These BEC scams, a form of social engineering, involve criminals sending seemingly legitimate emails requesting funds. As Tracey Santor of Travelers aptly puts it, “We all have to work as hard as the fraudsters do.”

Understanding Social Engineering

Social engineering fraud capitalizes on human behavior to deceive individuals into revealing confidential information or transferring funds. These scams exploit societal norms like trust and politeness. Methods range from simple phishing emails to intricate schemes involving replica login pages and personalized information. Recognizing these threats is crucial, as they are executed by skilled and persistent adversaries.

Common Social Engineering Techniques:

• Baiting: Leaving malware-loaded devices, like USBs, for unsuspecting victims.
• Phishing: General spam emails pressuring recipients to click links or share information.
• Email Hacking and Contact Spamming: Controlling an email account to send malware links.
• Pretexting: Using a fabricated identity to deceive targets.
• Smishing: Fraudulent text messages from seemingly reputable sources.
• Spear Phishing: Personalized emails targeting specific individuals.
• Vishing: Phone calls posing as trusted entities to gather information.
• Fraudulent Instruction: Impersonating a customer to redirect funds.

Your Best Defense: Your People

While technology plays a pivotal role in security, your employees are the frontline defense against social engineering. Here’s how to fortify your human shield:

1. Regular Training: Equip your staff with the latest information on threats and ensure they adhere to security protocols.
2. Customer Verification: Instead of offering information, ask customers to provide it. For instance, ask them to verify their contact number rather than suggesting it.
3. Know Your Customers: Familiarize yourself with customer behaviors to detect anomalies. Investigate any request that deviates from the norm.
4. Encourage Reporting: If an employee identifies a suspicious request, they should immediately alert the team. Sharing such experiences can prevent future attacks.
5. Celebrate Vigilance: Recognize and reward employees who thwart fraudulent attempts. This not only boosts morale but also reinforces the importance of vigilance.

Protecting Your Business

Even with stringent measures, firms can still fall prey to social engineering. It’s essential to be prepared. Paperless Insurance along with insurance carrier partners and their expertise in social engineering and fraudulent schemes, offer solutions tailored for asset management firms and other industries. As fraudsters continually evolve their tactics, firms must be equally persistent in their defense strategies. Investing in the right insurance solutions can mitigate the financial impact of such threats.

For comprehensive protection against social engineering fraud, consult with a Paperless Insurance representative today.

Applicants may apply online using the Electronic Loan Application (ELA) via SBA’s secure website at https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela.
Disaster loan information and application forms are also available from SBA’s Customer Service Center by calling (800) 659-2955 or emailing disastercustomerservice@sba.gov. Individuals who are deaf or hard‑of‑hearing may call (800) 877-8339. For more information about SBA’s disaster assistance programs, visit http://www.sba.gov/disaster.
The deadline to apply for these loans is December 8, 2015.

Maintain holiday lights. Inspect holiday lights each year for frayed wires, broken sockets or other signs of wear. Test each light string before hanging it on a tree or other flammable surface. Only use lights approved by a nationally recognized testing laboratory, such as Underwriter’s Laboratory (UL).

Make the right connection. Avoid connecting more than three strings of lights together and do not route extension cords under rugs or near walkways. Outside, keep electrical connections off the ground and make sure wiring is clear of downspouts, railings and aluminum siding.

Use the right lights. For outdoor decorating, use only lights and power strips that are approved for outdoor use.

Don’t leave lights unattended. Turn off or unplug holiday lights late at night or when you are away from home. This is not only safer, but it will save energy, too. Use a timer to automatically turn lights on and off based on a set schedule.

Use nonflammable decorations. If you use an artificial tree, choose one that is tested and labeled as fire resistant. Artificial trees with built-in electrical systems should have a UL label.

In addition to safety, focus on energy efficiency this holiday season. Light-emitting diode (LED) holiday lights provide the same bright colors you are used to, but they consume 75 percent less energy than traditional incandescent bulbs and they last up to 25 times longer. LEDs are also cool to the touch, which reduces the risk of fire hazard both indoors and out.

Warmer weather means more outdoor activities for the whole family, including cooling off in the pool. We want to help you make sure that you, your family and guests are safe. Here are a few tips that can help you stay safe while you have fun:

Always supervise swimmers and have life-saving equipment nearby:

• Maintain secure fencing and a locked entrance around the pool and deck area to prevent access when adequate supervision is not available. Install self-closing and self-latching gates.
• Make sure no one swims alone. Never leave a child unattended in the water or pool area, and make sure less experienced swimmers are always accompanied by a swimmer who has water life-saving skills.
• Equip your door, gate or pool with an audible alarm to alert you if someone enters the pool area or falls into the pool while it is unattended.
• Diving should be prohibited unless a specific area of the pool is designated for safe diving. Water depth and diving-restricted areas should be clearly marked.
• Make sure there is adequate life-saving equipment in the pool area, including life preservers and a rope with life-saving rings, a reaching pole or rescue hook.

Regularly maintain your pool during the season to keep swimmers and sun-bathers safe:

• Keep chemicals safely stored away from the pool area. Follow all storage and usage instructions recommended by the pool chemical manufacturer.
• Be sure electrical devices, including outdoor entertainment systems, are away from pools or wet surfaces. When using electrical devices outdoors be sure to plug them into a GFCI (ground-fault circuit interrupter). Keep the pool area clear of glass bottles, toys or other potential accident hazards.
• Inspect the liner. Rips and tears can appear undetected at the top of the lining.  Check for signs of wear and tear in areas where pipes or other items may have penetrated the liner (e.g., skimmers, hoses, etc.).
• For above ground pools, check metal supports for rust or deterioration. These may indicate areas where the pool could rupture or a person could be injured.
• Check the deck for safety hazards (e.g., protruding nails, loose boards, etc.).
• Ensure your pool has compliant anti-entrapment drain covers. Inspect them regularly to confirm they are not broken or missing. Visit the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act (P&SS Act) for additional information.  This act applies for all outdoor and indoor structures intended for swimming or recreational bathing, including in-ground and above-ground pools, hot tubs, spas, whirlpools and non-portable wading pools.

Some of the other emerging risks examined in the SONAR report includes the following:

• Cloud computing security
• Contagious emerging market crisis
• Eurozone crisis leading to deflation
• Short-termism of macro-policy measures
• Air pollution as mortality driver
• Concussion crisis in sports
• Democratisation of genetic testing
• Digital slander
• E-cigarettes
• Financial consumer protection regulation
• From closed to open business models
• Food and water safety: trade-offs with growth
• Secession risks in Europe
• “One size fits all” regulation
• Plant pathogen threatens rubber production
• Aluminium health risks
• Smart cities
• Demographic inclusion at the workplace
• Urban farming
• Action cam liability
• Epigenetics
• From 3D to 4D printing
• Missing aircrafts triggers technological change
• Collapse of oceanic ecosystems
• Enhanced humans
• Methane hydrate – an upcoming energy source?

Want to read full report? Click this link (PDF 1.54 MB): http://media.swissre.com/documents/SONAR_2014.pdf

We celebrate American Independence Day on the Fourth of July every year. We think of July 4, 1776, as a day that represents the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States of America as an independent nation.

But July 4, 1776 wasn’t the day that the Continental Congress decided to declare independence (they did that on July 2, 1776).

It wasn’t the day we started the American Revolution either (that had happened back in April 1775).

And it wasn’t the day Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence (that was in June 1776). Or the date on which the Declaration was delivered to Great Britain (that didn’t happen until November 1776). Or the date it was signed (that was August 2, 1776).

So what did happen on July 4, 1776?

The Continental Congress approved the final wording of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. They’d been working on it for a couple of days after the draft was submitted on July 2nd and finally agreed on all of the edits and changes.

July 4, 1776, became the date that was included on the Declaration of Independence, and the fancy handwritten copy that was signed in August (the copy now displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.) It’s also the date that was printed on the Dunlap Broadsides, the original printed copies of the Declaration that were circulated throughout the new nation. So when people thought of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776 was the date they remembered.

In contrast, we celebrate Constitution Day on September 17th of each year, the anniversary of the date the Constitution was signed, not the anniversary of the date it was approved. If we’d followed this same approach for the Declaration of Independence we’d being celebrating Independence Day on August 2nd of each year, the day the Declaration of Independence was signed!

How did the Fourth of July become a national holiday?

For the first 15 or 20 years after the Declaration was written, people didn’t celebrate it much on any date. It was too new and too much else was happening in the young nation. By the 1790s, a time of bitter partisan conflicts, the Declaration had become controversial. One party, the Democratic-Republicans, admired Jefferson and the Declaration. But the other party, the Federalists, thought the Declaration was too French and too anti-British, which went against their current policies.

By 1817, John Adams complained in a letter that America seemed uninterested in its past. But that would soon change.

After the War of 1812, the Federalist party began to come apart and the new parties of the 1820s and 1830s all considered themselves inheritors of Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans. Printed copies of the Declaration began to circulate again, all with the date July 4, 1776, listed at the top. The deaths of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams on July 4, 1826, may even have helped to promote the idea of July 4 as an important date to be celebrated.

Celebrations of the Fourth of July became more common as the years went on and in 1870, almost a hundred years after the Declaration was written, Congress first declared July 4 to be a national holiday as part of a bill to officially recognize several holidays, including Christmas. Further legislation about national holidays, including July 4, was passed in 1939 and 1941.

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1. North Dakota – up 3.6%
2. Utah – up 3.2%
3. California – up 3%
4, 5. Texas and Colorado– 2.9%
6. Nevada – up 2.7%
7. Idaho – up 2.6%
8. Florida – up 2.5%
9. Washington – up 2.2%
10. Arizona – up 2.1%

Top 14 cities and surrounding metro areas (1 million or more workers) for non-agricultural job growth, comparing 2013 to 2012:

1. Riverside, Calif. – up 4%
2. San Francisco – up 3.9%
3. Denver – up 3.6%
4. Houston – up 3.5%
5. Orlando, Fla. – up 3.2%
6. Seattle – up 2.8%
7. Phoenix – up 2.7%
8. Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, San Diego – up 2.6%

The full 50-state ranking and other job-growth data from McPheters can be found at the W. P. Carey School of Business “Job Growth USA website: www.wpcarey.asu.edu/jobgrowth. (Important: For the annual numbers, select “Total Nonfarm,” “12-Month Moving Avg.,” “December” and “2013.”)