Ransomware is on the rise. And it is serious threat to businesses. Has your organization taken action to prevent ransomware from attacking?

Ransomware is a type of malware that infects a computer and blocks access to the files until a ransom is paid. It may even threaten permanent destruction of the information unless you pay.

When you think of disaster recovery and business continuity planning, do you think about the size of your business and whether or not it’s worth the time to create a comprehensive plan? Let’s answer this question with a question from none other than the great Yoda: “Judge me by my size do you?” If you recall the impetus to this question, Luke Skywalker had just failed at raising his X-Wing from the Dagobah Swamp because it was too big, or so he thought.

Students and teachers spend most of their school day in classrooms. And thanks to hardworking and creative teachers, these rooms are transformed into welcoming educational environments. They can bring life to an otherwise bland space with decorations and inspire students with innovative lesson plans.

A school’s primary function is to educate children. That sounds easy enough, but in practice, it requires a complexity of operations few organizations can match. Schools prepare and serve food, maintain play equipment and athletic facilities, welcome the public to sporting events and shows, provide basic mental and physical health care. And they do all this while caring for children and teenagers.

Both at work and at home, proper ladder selection, use, and maintenance are critical to your safety. Annually, ladder-related incident cause over 500,000 injuries and approximately 300 deaths. In the workplace, these injuries cost U.S. employers $11 billion annually. Lost work time, medical expenses, legal and liability costs, as well as pain and suffering.

How can you prevent ladder-related falls? It starts by understanding what causes these incidents.

Today we’re sharing insight from guest blogger Tag Birge, President of Cornerstone Companies, Inc. We hope you enjoy Tag’s wisdom and perspective.

Risks come in a variety of shapes and sizes. A risk I often see companies missing out on today is cash management. CFOs have a tough job trying to decide in what to invest excess cash. Finding income generating assets with low risk is almost impossible. With the inflationary environment, many low risk investments mean the value of that investment will decrease over time. In the past, places like bank accounts, treasuries, and Blue Chip equities had a reasonable expectation of out earning inflation while being very low risk.

If you ask any business leader what their most valuable asset is, an overwhelming majority would state it’s their people. Businesses invest millions, if not billions, of dollars in training and benefits for their employees. So when it comes to business continuity or disaster preparedness, why wouldn’t an employer want to ensure their employees were also prepared to handle a disaster?

CPR training can truly make a difference. Consider this story. One of our loss prevention consultants recently led a CPR course for a client and their employees. An employee who attended this training session soon put his CPR skills to use. While at church, a fellow parishioner had a heart attack and collapsed. This employee was able to perform CPR and keep the individual alive until help arrived. The impact of safety training such as CPR, AED, and first aid is far reaching – and literally lifesaving.

On May 11, 2016, OSHA issued a final rule related to collection of workplace injury and illness data. This rule helps to modernize injury data collection with the intent to better inform workers, employers, OSHA, and the public about workplace hazards.

Office environments are full of electronics, appliance, power cords, extension cords, and surge protectors. Take a look at your desk. I’m guessing you have several items just in your personal workspace, let alone the entire office.

These items have become such an integral part of our work that we don’t necessarily give too much thought to the hazards they bring with them. Electrical shock, burns, fires, and even tripping over extension cords. Electricity creates numerous hazards to your employees and your facility.