This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
CISA has released Capacity Enhancement Guide (CEG): Social Media Account Protection, which details ways to protect the security of organization-run social media accounts. Malicious cyber actors that successfully compromise social media accounts—including accounts used by federal agencies—could spread false or sensitive information to a wide audience. The measures described in the CEG aim to reduce the risk of unauthorized access on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
This article was originally posted by the FTC. See the original article here.
One of our favorite things to do at the FTC — whenever possible — is to return money to people who lost it to scammers. That’s what we’re doing today. If you lost money to a business coaching scheme that did business as Coaching Department or Apply Knowledge, among other names, you should be getting a check in the mail soon.
According to the FTC, these companies made millions of dollars by falsely telling people they could earn thousands of dollars a month by paying for business coaching services and creating an online business. People spent thousands — and sometimes tens of thousands — of dollars on these coaching services before finding out they didn’t deliver on their promises.
This is the third check the FTC has been able to send to people who lost money to this business coaching scam and brings their total recovery to 48% of their losses. Previous checks were sent out in October 2019 and June 2020. The checks going out today total $25.6 million dollars and average $2,388.
If you paid money to these companies but didn’t get the earlier checks, reach out to the refund administrator Analytics LLC at 1-844-982-1005. To learn more about the FTC’s refund program, visit ftc.gov/refunds Remember that the FTC never requires people to pay money or give account information to cash a refund check. Spotted someone doing that? Report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.
This article was originally posted by the FTC. See the original article here.
According to the newest Data Spotlight, 40,000 people reported losing a whopping $148 million in gift cards to scammers during the first nine months of 2021. Those are staggering numbers which have increased each year for the past several years. Since 2018, gift cards have been the most frequently reported payment method for fraud. But which gift card brand do scammers ask people to buy, and lose the most money on? Google Play, Apple, eBay, and Walmart cards remain popular with scammers. But this year, Target gift cards are scammers’ top choice.
Most gift card scams start with a phone call from someone impersonating a branch of the government like the Social Security Administration, or a business. The caller might threaten to freeze your bank account and tell you that you must buy gift cards to avoid arrest or to keep access to your money in your bank account. They will tell you to stay on the phone as you head to the store to buy gift cards to, they often claim, solve the “problem” they are calling about. They will also ask you to provide the numbers on the back of the card you buy. These are all signs of a gift card scam.
If you find yourself heading to the store to buy gift cards because someone on the phone told you so, stop. No matter who calls, texts, or emails you telling you to pay with a gift card, it is always a scammer. The government and legitimate businesses will never call you demanding payment with a gift card.
As we head into the holidays, remember: Gift cards are for gifts, not for payments. Report gift card scams to the gift card issuer, and the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Visit ftc.gov/giftcards for more information and check out this quick video.
Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Data Exposed streams live regularly to LearnTV. Every 4 weeks, we’ll do a News Update. We’ll include product updates, videos, blogs, etc. as well as upcoming events and things to look out for. We’ve included an iCal file, so you can add a reminder to tune in live to your calendar. If you missed the episode, you can find them all at https://aka.ms/AzureSQLYT.
You can read this blog to get all the updates and references mentioned in the show (including the awesome speakers we had on!). Since we did things a little differently this month, here’s the special December update which contains the year in review (i.e., all the big updates this year across Azure SQL, SQL Server, and Azure Arc):
Last but certainly not least, the biggest announcement in the SQL Server space was, of course, the private preview of SQL Server 2022, the most Azure-enabled SQL Server release yet. New functionality includes Synapse Link support, Link feature to Azure SQL Managed Instance for DR, and new performance enhancements (with no code changes!). Get all the details at https://aka.ms/sqlserver2022.
Anna’s Pick of the Month
My pick of the month is Data Exposed! Marisa Brasile and I are working constantly to get you the information you need when you need it from the SQL Engineering team. So, as we round out the year, Marisa came on to tell us about all the series you might’ve missed (there’s been a lot!).
That’s it for now! Be sure to check back next month for the latest updates, and tune into Data Exposed Live the first (or second) Wednesday of every month at 9AM PST on LearnTV. We also release new episodes on Thursdays at 9AM PST and new #MVPTuesday episodes on the last Tuesday of every month at 9AM PST at aka.ms/DataExposedyt.
Having trouble keeping up? Be sure to follow us on twitter to get the latest updates on everything, @AzureSQL.
On a personal note — in 2021 we kicked off the News Updates series as well as Data Exposed Live. Thank you for joining us on this journey of learning, sharing, and growing. We hope you have a wonderful end of the year, and we can’t wait to see you in 2022!
We hope to see you next [YEAR], on Data Exposed :)
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Mozilla has released security updates to address vulnerabilities in Firefox, Firefox ESR, and Thunderbird. An attacker could exploit some of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system.
Today, we will highlight on another unappealing situation when we see customer who accidentally deleted the SQL DB Server which ultimately deleting the underlying databases as well. This is a scenario commonly hit because of automation tools such as Terraform.
It’s very important to note that: – Restore of a dropped server is not an officially supported scenario, and any attempt to recover will be laid under a best effort trial to recover the server and databases.
First Recommendation
*Do not* recreate the server again with the same name in case you want to restore the dropped the server and try to contact Microsoft support the soonest the possible.
Additional precautionary measures:
The following recommendations can help you to recover from these unintentional scenarios by either preventing it or restoring the important data whenever needed:
1. Implement resource lock to avoid accidental changes in Azure resources. you can lock at different levels like subscription, resource group, or resource to prevent other users in your organization from accidentally deleting or modifying critical resources. You can find more information, see: Lock resources to prevent changes – Azure Resource Manager | Microsoft Docs
2. Enable Long Term Backup Retention (LTR) This feature allows users to configure a single or a pooled database with a long-term backup retention policy (LTR) to automatically retain the database backups in separate Azure Blob storage containers for up to 10 years and recover database using these backups via Azure portal or PowerShell. LTR backups are completely independent and cannot be impacted by server drop. For more information, see:
3. You can export the latest copy of the database into a storage account before deleting the database. Export the database to BACPAC File can be done through various tools like Azure Portal, SQLPackage, SSMS and powershell. More information can be found in:
This article was originally posted by the FTC. See the original article here.
A recent FTC staff report shows what we’ve known for some time — that different communities report to the FTC about different concerns. Yesterday, we told you about how fraud affects the Latino community. Today, we’re highlighting some of the scams and other consumer problems that affect people living in majority Black communities.
The top report to the FTC was about credit bureaus, such as people in majority Black communities having trouble correcting inaccurate information on their credit reports.
Auto sales are a big concern. People living in majority Black communities filed a significantly higher percentage of reports about used auto sales than majority Latino and White communities did.
People living in majority Black communities also filed a larger percentage of their reports about issues with banks, lenders, and debt collection than people living in White communities.
Similar to reports from the Latino community, people living in majority Black communities reported paying scammers with payment methods that have little or no fraud protections — such as cash, cryptocurrency, money orders, and debit cards. People living in majority Black communities also filed more reports about payment apps or services and gift card or reload cards than people living in the other communities.
FTC cases also show some of the scams and unfair practices targeting or negatively affecting Black communities — cases involving money-making opportunities, for-profit schools, payday lending, and student debt relief programs. Check out the Serving Communities of Color Report to find out more.
It’s important for the FTC and other law enforcement agencies to know how fraud and other consumer problems affect different communities. That information helps us focus our work to bring more cases to combat those problems. It also helps us learn what topics we should cover in our outreach campaigns to help people avoid losing money.
Everyone can help by talking about fraud and sharing information in their communities. You can also help by reporting the scams you see. Tell us your story so the FTC knows how people are being affected and who is scamming people in your community. It’s easy to report at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
Brought to you by Dr. Ware, Microsoft Office 365 Silver Partner, Charleston SC.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
In recent years, retailers, consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies, and manufacturers have incorporated direct-to-consumer (D2C) business models into their go-to-market strategies to give end customers the options to order from anywhere and ship to everywhere. As the use of these online sales channels continues to expand, so too does the number of third-party fulfillment partners and options to evaluate and incorporate into their supply chain and commerce systems. Organizations with business-to-business (B2B), business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C), and D2C business models, require technology solutions that give them the ability to manage an increasingly complex order lifecycle from order source through orchestration to intelligent fulfillment and delivery.
According to Gartner, “83 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) stated they were expanding digital channels in 2021, while 79 percent plan to increase the use of self-service by customers and citizens.”1 With Microsoft Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management, companies can stay on top of their game through digital channels, as Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management enhances their digital order and delivery channels. It provides real-time visibility into each order from order intake to delivery, and customizable dashboards to help track and improve operational decision-making across every touchpoint of the order life cycle.
Overcome fulfillment complexity
Managing the entire order lifecycle is about placing your organization in a position to deliver on your order promise with every customer order. But there are other undeniable benefits, such as reducing logistics costs by overcoming fulfillment complexities that await companies, who demonstrate the ability to do this well. Indeed, according to McKinsey & Company, “since e-commerce fulfillments are significantly more complex, contract logistics can charge around 50 percent more than for traditional store fulfillment. Therefore, those companies that overcome the complexities stand to gain the most.”2
Companies can overcome the complexities of e-commerce fulfillment by utilizing Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management rules-based fulfillment orchestration system that uses real-time inventory and AI to optimize order flows. This solution offers advanced analytical capabilities to measure fulfillment effectiveness and business users can use the insights to re-model the order fulfillment journey using drag and drop tools to ensure that their customer needs are met on time and at the lowest possible cost. In addition, Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management provides out-of-the-box pre-built connectors to e-commerce order sources such as BigCommerce, Magento, and Orderful; delivery partners such as Flexe, Krber, and ShipStation, and to tax and rebate management partners such as Avalara, Flintfox, and Vertex. All these capabilities provide organizations the agility needed to overcome supply chain constraints and deliver on their order promise.
Apply artificial intelligence
To profitably manage the entire order lifecycle, companies increasingly need to use AI and machine learning (ML) technologies in the supply chain. In fact, according to McKinsey & Company, “successfully implementing AI-enabled supply-chain management has enabled early adopters to improve logistics costs by 15 percent, inventory levels by 35 percent, and service levels by 65 percent, compared with slower-moving competitors.”3
With Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management, AI and ML are used to analyze data to find and predict patterns in order flows and fulfillment processes. The results help bring new levels of insights that would not otherwise be possible for human team members to spot alone. These results can then be paired with AI-based classification and anomaly detection models to proactively identify and address fulfillment constraints and to improve delivery times, while simultaneously reducing costs. The use of AI and ML enhances decision-making across all order orchestration flows by delivering the capability to sense and predict constraints, disruptions, and opportunities to improve order and fulfillment processes.
Enhance inventory visibility
Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management solution architecture was designed to support the requirements of complex order processing environments, where there are many systems and apps in the overall order-to-fulfillment process. By bringing visibility into many disparate data sources and applications; order flows, inventory, and supporting functions can be significantly improved. Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management ships out-of-the-box with an integrated real-time inventory visibility service that is highly scalable and extensible, and provides a single, global view of all inventory positions across all legal entities.
Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management not only provides organizations with a single, global view of all inventory positions, but its fulfillment orchestration engine also uses real-time inventory data to optimize fulfillment processes to ensure optimal stock levels are maintained across all stock locations. The result is that companies can increase online product availability, improve cash flow by right-sizing stock levels, and guarantee a delightful customer experience by delivering every order on time and in full.
What’s next?
We have seen that Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management is an ideal tool for managing the entire order lifecycle. By utilizing rules-based order orchestration to overcome fulfillment complexities, leveraging AI and ML to derive actionable insights, and optimizing stock levels by applying a real-time inventory visibility service, companies can deliver on their order promise and turn order management into a competitive advantage. Moreover, Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management seamlessly integrates with any enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), e-commerce, Dynamics 365, and non-Dynamics 365 applications, allowing organizations to skip costly rip and replace implementations.
If you are ready to see how Microsoft Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management can help your organization to manage the entire order lifecycle, we invite you to get started today by contacting us or signing up for a free trial. Or, to learn more about how to meet your growing digital commerce needs and scale easily, while supporting the latest fulfillment methods, check the Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management resources on our website: Dynamics 365 Intelligent Order Management.
Sources:
“Gartner, Add Digital Payments as Part of Communications Platform as a Service Offering, Lisa Unden-Farboud, Daniel O’Connell et al, 27 August, 2021.” GARTNER is the registered trademark and service mark of Gartner Inc., and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and has been used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Zoho has released a security advisory to address an authentication bypass vulnerability in ManageEngine Desktop Central and Desktop Central MSP. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability to take control of an affected system. According to Zoho, this vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild.
This article is contributed. See the original author and article here.
Microsoft partners like eBaoTech, G-Mana, and Medicai deliver transact-capable offers, which allow you to purchase directly from Azure Marketplace. Learn about these offers below:
Digital Insurance Middleware Platform: eBaoCloud’s InsureMO is an insurance middleware platform that powers numerous insurance applications and connects them to a global ecosystem. Insurers, brokers, agents, and startups can connect to any API within InsureMO to configure and distribute their products and processes as well as cut launch time by up to 80 percent.
G-Mana – OTT Dynamic Ad Insertion: G-Mana provides a simple, holistic, and innovative solution to OTT and TV server-side ad insertion. G-Mana brings ad-tech expertise and video experience to seamlessly blend promos, teasers, and campaigns to create effective viewer engagement opportunities. Reach new marketplaces while monetizing OTT and SSAI server-side ad insertions.
Medicai: This collaborative medical imaging platform connects patients, clinics, and hospitals. The picture archiving and communication system hosted on Microsoft Azure enables Medicai to streamline digital pathways between your clinic and complementary medical specialties for patients and referrers, dramatically improving the response time per patient.
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