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Whether you’re just starting your business, experiencing your first growing pains, or ready to move your business to the next level--visit the Galveston County Small Business Development Center before you do anything else.

We’ll help you learn how to develop a business plan, find financing, attract customers, grow your sales, fulfill your promises, develop foolproof procedures and make more profit.

You can take advantage of our hands-on, no-cost consulting assistance; or attend our practical, affordable business workshops online, at our convenient Texas City center, or at one of several outreach locations around Galveston County.

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409-933-1414

Cyber Security: Danger Around The Corner! Cyber-Sec Predictions

Businesses and consumers alike have been affected by the almost daily threats of data breaches and the impact of these have on a continuous basis. Will such threats enable identity fraud, send a business under or even give adversaries further power to conduct ever more dangerous attacks? Michael Sutton, CISO at Zscaler, has crafted his top five predictions for the year ahead and what this will mean for the threat landscape.

He discusses:

• Nation states ‘offensive offense’ – It’s likely 2017 will see the US and other nations step into a cyber mudslinging contest

• AI will be used for good and evil – Another platform that holds mass quantities of data will be susceptible to savvy criminals in 2017

• Ransomware gets physical – Encrypting data will be replaced with extortion via disabling physical systems

• Data breaches 3.0 – The next wave as criminals seek to alter, not exfiltrate data with corporate espionage in mind

• Cyber insurance disruption – Risk scoring algorithms will need to go far deeper with internal corporate security systems to calculate the likelihood of a breach

“Offensive Offense – Increasingly, motivations for offensive nation state sponsored attacks have gone into a new realm and have been driven primarily as an effort to undermine the credibility of another government or in some cases influence public sentiment.”

“Rise of the Machine (Learning) – Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) are the current buzz words du jour in the security industry. Machine learning will revolutionise security because humans simply can’t scale in the same way that but machines do and we’re willing to invest in perfecting the neural networks that drive them.”

“Ransomware gets Physical – Most ransomware to date remains relatively unsophisticated, relying primarily on social engineering as the infection mechanism. Attackers don’t need to pull 0day tricks out of their bag to infect PCs, when signature based defenses are easily evaded and humans remain gullible. What is changing, is the targets that the attackers are going after.”

“Data Breaches 3.0 – First we had the era of the financial data breach with the likes of Target, Home Depot, Michael’s and Neiman Marcus all suffering massive thefts of debit/credit card data across 2013 and 2014. Healthcare then bore the brunt of the attacks announced in 2015 with Anthem, Premera and Carefirst all acknowledging that millions of records had been stolen. In 2017 we can expect a third data breach phase, with attackers seeking to alter, not exfiltrate data.”

“Disruption in cyber insurance – The insurance industry is one that’s ripe for disruption. With data breaches becoming the norm, cyber insurance has also become a must have item for large enterprises. Insurance companies are desperate to get in on the game, but they have a big challenge – how do they calculate the likelihood of a breach? Life insurance is easy – plenty of people have lived and died and we have solid data on it.”

Pro Axia Consultants: Why move traditional enterprise apps to the cloud?

Today, you can see enterprise IT departments having a hard time deciding whether or not to move to cloud. Many of which depend on traditional applications for their daily operations. Indeed, traditional apps are old but they usually serve business-critical functions. Pro Axia Consultants knows that a lot of people working in IT have encountered apps such as a five-year-old Java application or an owned .NET application that uses SQL servers.

Hundreds of articles available online had described the benefits of cloud-aware-apps, but this article aims to discuss some cloud benefits that were not usually mentioned in most of those articles.

Let's begin with cloud having the ability to adopt slowly. Companies being unsure where to start makes them put off cloud adoption. Cloud is not all about race; it should be considered by businesses as a process. In order for some enterprises to determine which parts of their application perform better and simpler to handle in cloud, they take their traditional, huge app and tease it apart to separate the pieces of the application.

Cloud is affordable, meaning you'll get more for less. Companies attempting to make their app work in the cloud will develop a version of it then call it a test and break it apart. Companies can spin up cloud servers and get rid of them, making it low-risk and high-rewarding. Its cost is only a small percentage of what companies are used to pay for traditional infrastructure.

Instead of hiring a full-time hardware specialist, cloud providers can handle much of the work involved in keeping the infrastructure running. Good news is that it is more affordable than hiring those full-time professionals. Delivering real value to the business includes new projects from the IT staff and cloud can help them fully concentrate on that matter.

Cloud is obviously one of the reasons why the nature of IT is being dramatically transformed. Cloud adoption allows your team to implement new agile development practices if your business involves software. With cloud, you can be sure that your business will stand strong amidst of the competition. The team at Pro Axia Consultants understands that the primary element vital to the survival of many businesses today is the ability to speed up the development lifecycle and reduce time to market.

Pro Axia Consultants also claims that every piece of a traditional app shouldn't be altered into a fully cloud-native app all at the same time to ensure that your business will not be left behind in the new generation of cloud IT. It is essential to find out first which components of your apps can live, and even succeed, in the cloud.

The benefits of investing in commercial property by Bacall Development

Safety is the main reason why some people invest in commercial property since it's the main interest of many. Based on recent reviews, commercial property will still perform for you even if the economy slows down, unlike in residential property. And when the economy is strong, commercial property increases its value and gives you a stable income.

But if you're still in doubt or just planning to start out in this venture, Bacall Development explains the benefits you can gain from investing in commercial property through the following paragraphs to help you make up your mind. The firm is a full-service commercial real estate company that has been involved in this field for decades.

Strong returns are not a surprise to some when it comes to commercial property. You can gain both income and capital growth in a commercial property since it provides strong and reliable returns. However, making a quick gain shouldn't be your only objective because this endeavor requires great effort and patience. You should take advantage of a growing investment over time where you can get a return consistently above inflation.

Aside from higher returns, commercial property is oftentimes more secure - a crucial point to others that can result in a steady income. Leasing commercial real estate usually ranges from three to ten years as opposed to short-term leases of residential properties.

Because of the mentioned benefits above, reviews state that the risk is lesser if you invest in commercial property than in residential property or the stock market. This data is based on overall analysis of both properties.

According to Bacall Development and its associates, commercial property can catch the attention of different sectors in the economy. Because of the dependence of retail property on consumer spending trends, it has the highest direct relationship to the economy, along with industrial properties. Office buildings are most likely to perform depending on long-term supply and demand. Exposure to various sectors can deliver great benefits to you and to avoid fraud as well.

Acquiring tax benefits is imaginable with a commercial property. Most commercial properties attract handy building allowances as well as depreciation allowances on plant equipment within the building.

Protection against inflation is also one of the benefits of investing in commercial property. Reviews reveal that commercial property has been considered as a good protection against inflation over the years. It has a good record of outpacing inflation over a long period of time.

Investment control? Yes, it's possible. You have a significant level of control over your investment in case you're an owner of a direct property. You have control on various areas such as change of use for the property, disposal, redevelopment, renovations, the terms of the lease, the type of tenant, and upgrading.

Furthermore, you have the ability to add value in a commercial property investment through improvement of the appearance, renovation, lease restructure, subdivision or enlargement, and upgrade. You can further leverage your commercial investments as you improve the property and it grows in value. By borrowing more against your improved equity, you can quickly be in a position to control a sizeable portfolio of properties.

However, Bacall Development needs you to know that there are still disadvantages in owning commercial properties. What are mentioned above could be the total opposite to others based on their individual experience. The firm suggests that you must choose the right commercial property to have a strong capital growth and gain a great rental return. You must know what makes a good commercial property.

Tips For Making Travel More Affordable, Bacall Associates

Some companies understand this need of every individual, that’s why they’re giving their employees free trips to help them rest for a while to help them work more efficiently once they return. However, not all companies are like this because they want their employees to work more for them but pay them less. That aside, Bacall Associates guarantee that traveling can be really inexpensive, and fun and rejuvenating at the same time.

Do you love to travel so much but you don’t have enough time and money to do it? Worry no more because Bacall Associates will share some money-saving tips that can help you travel to the place you want. You can trust the organization’s judgment because it is a renowned boutique PR, marketing and sales support agency that specializes in travel at the top end of the market. After reading this article, you will never excuse yourself from traveling anymore.

Stay in youth hostels

If you’re a young traveler, it’s often a good idea to stay in youth hostels to save money. Don’t let yourself drown into the wrong ideas or myths about youth hostels because this kind of place allow young souls to see the world without spending too much money since they’re inexpensive to stay in. You’ll also get a chance to meet new people who are doing the same as you. But since you’re staying in a youth hostel, you should practice extra caution because of safety reasons.

Book in advance

If you can handle your trip well in advance, then it’s a good thing because this will give you the best pricing especially if you’re going to travel during holidays. Bacall Associates always recommends booking in advance to make sure that you can get the best discounts where you can save up to 80%.

Innovative marketing events and PR - Bacall Associates

Wonder why a lot of clients had the pleasure and privilege of working with Bacall Associates? It’s because the company has been one of the most professional public relations companies around the world for several years and their shining reputation in the industry is one of a kind.

Each of Bacall Associates’ staff has a vast knowledge regarding travel as well as public relations, marketing and sales. You’ll witness exceptional professionalism in their work with their august ability and energy in providing ingenious and fresh story ideas. The staff’s positive attitude also leads them nine times out of ten to come up with a solution for any given situations.

Most of the testimonies from their clients include awe to the company’s unsurpassed knowledge and expertise in the field of all things luxury as well as their huge assistance for them. With this, Bacall Associates proved to have outshone all others.

Clients also have the greatest respect for Bacall Associates’ professionalism and competence. They’re also proud of the company’s devotion to their work as their queries are always promptly answered.

Bacall Associates always follow a proactive approach to the market via an excellent network to all relevant media, travel trade and society authorities. They have flawless style and know the most effective ways of getting the best media response. Most clients cherished their relationship with Bacall Associates and promised to remain being a partner of the company in the coming years.

Bacall Associates is proud to have a creative and diligent team that’s committed in achieving their objectives. It is the only company to have succeeded in securing a major consumer award for one of the Hilton’s resort properties.

The company operates to a very high standard and represents their clients in the most professional and positive manner. Clients are also impressed with the level of contact that Bacall Associates have within media circles and with all their efforts that have benefited the clients greatly in promoting the image and profile of their firm.

Bacall Associates provides great care and attention to their clients through the unrivaled dedication of their team. Their team includes true professionals that have in-depth knowledge and extensive experience, and have an instinct for different publications’ needs.

For more than 20 years, Bacall Associates has always been honest and easy to work with in all of the dealings of their clients.

Meet Bacall Associates’ Team

Jeff Bacall is the company’s managing director. He has worked in public relations, marketing and sales for over 30 years. He has a good experience in both in-house and external consulting for travel and lifestyle firms. He has taken up leadership roles in the airline industry and has worked with both small and large scale hotels and residences.

Charlotte Lowe joined Bacall Associates after studying marketing at Bournemouth University. She gained great experience on a work placement year at a high profile rewards and incentive agency. She discovered her passion for travel at such a young age.

Zoe Slater graduated at University of Manchester in 2008 with a BA (Hons) in Politics and Modern History degree. After graduating with her masters in multimedia journalism at Bournemouth University in 2009, she worked as a freelance journalist for several publications and the Press Association. She has always had a passion for travel and after working with the in-house press and marketing team of the Zetter Group, she decided to join Bacall Associates to work on adifferent portfolio of accounts spanning Europe and Asia.

Other dedicated members of Bacall Associates include Flora Gandolfo, Claire DaBreo, and Nat Frogley.

Give them a call at +44 (0)870 428 8401 because they’d really love to hear from you, or why not drop them an email at pr@bacall.net and they’ll get back to you as soon as they can.

Mossack Fonseca: Recolecta de Libros a beneficio de la Fundación Pro Niños Darién

¡LO LOGRAMOS! Al iniciar un nuevo años escolar, los colaboradores de Mossack Fonseca se complacen en apoyar a la Fundación Pro Niños de Daríen en su recolecta de cuadernos de 200 páginas.

La donación entregada de parte de los colaboradores de Mossack Fonseca y amigos fue de 783 cuadernos, 101 libros de actividades para colorear y 4 libros de figuritas. Confiamos que serán de gran ayuda en las comunidades donde serán entregados para contribuir con el desarrollo intelectual de nuestra niñez.