Tag Archive for 2023

Frank Lloyd Wright for the Work From Home Era

Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation logoSteelcase (SCS) has brought designs by architect Frank Lloyd Wright to the work from home era. The newly created Racine Collection is a line of home office furniture from the Grand Rapids, MI based firm. The Racine Collection is re-interpretation of Mr. Wrights 1939 work for the SC Johnson Administration building located in Racine WI. Steelcase manufactured the original furniture for the project in 1939.

Frank Lloyd Wright futurist

Steelcase logoNot only was Frank Lloyd Wright a groundbreaking architect, he was also a futurist. Stuart Graff, President and CEO The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation explained how in 1932 Frank Lloyd Wright predicted work from home and how the new pieces fit with Mr. Wright’s vision of the future.

One of the things he says is we no longer need to go into the dense dehumanizing urban cores to work. We’ll be able to use new technology like radio waves, because that was the new technology in 1932, to send our work to these central offices.

The collection initially includes desks and chairs. The Frank Lloyd Wright Racine collection desk has a multi-tiered tubular tabletop that can be 84-inches long. The terraced shelf, originally meant to improve paper flow can now be used as a monitor stand. For being 80+ years old, the Racine desks look incredibly modern. With everything elevated off the floor, cleaning around the desk is easier.

.  Frank Lloyd Wright Racine Signature Desk

The collection is available in black, bronze, and, the walnut and Racine red configuration of the original designs. The colors are derived from a photograph of Wright’s pencil set.

Faithful to mid-century modern originals

Steelcase Frank Lloyd Wright Racine CollectionThe 1939 mid-century modern style of the designs remains faithful to the originals. Some changes were required for the work from home era. The desks and chairs were increased in size, as Steelcase found that only 20% of American men would have leg clearance in the original design. The iconic three-legged chairs have also been modified to have four legs, due to stability concerns. Other details, like changing the spring-operated drawers in the desks to magnets, were also implemented.

General manager of partnerships at Steelcase Meghan Dean said…it was important to be in dialogue with the [Frank Lloyd Wright] foundation and say ‘hey, we have a better way’ without affecting the original.”

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The re-interpreted mid century modern furniture is not for the faint-of-wallet. The Frank Lloyd Wright Racine Desk can cost you over $9,000. The accompanying chair costs over $2,400. Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation CEO Graff said, “Legacy is a living thing and not a backwards-looking art collection…”

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedInFacebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

What You Need to Know About MailChimp Security

What You Need to Know About MailChimp SecurityJust in time for Data Privacy Day. Mailchimp, one of the largest email service-providers worldwide with 13 million active customers. suffered a security breach. On January 11, 2023 the Mailchimp security team reported that an unauthorized actor download the data of 133 customers of the Mailchimp service.

Mailchimp data leak

Data privacy day The Mailchimp security team identified an unauthorized actor had accessed tools used by Mailchimp customer-facing teams for customer support and account administration. The unauthorized actor conducted a social engineering attack on Mailchimp employees and contractors, and obtained access to Mailchimp accounts using employee credentials compromised in that attack.

Impacted organizations include WooCommerce, online gambling site FanDuel, Crypto darlings Yuga Labs and the Solana Foundation.

CSC405: Introduction to Computer SecurityMailchimp says they temporarily suspended account access for Mailchimp accounts where they detected suspicious activity to protect our users’ data. They have notified the primary contacts for all affected accounts on January 12. Mailchimp has been working with their customers to help them reinstate their accounts.

Recent data breaches

MailChimp has announced several data breaches in recent months. In August 2022, a cyberattack targeted its cryptocurrency-related customers. Mailchimp also revealed a security incident in March 2022.

data leakSpeculation is swirling online about the security of parent company Intuit other product lines (which includes TurboTax, Credit Karma and Quickbooks). TurboTax suffered its own security breach in 2021. Questions are also being raised about a possible central backdoor into Intuit, which the company denies.

If you have questions regarding a notice you received or the incident in general, please reach out you can email ciso@mailchimp.com. The company has not announced the appointment of a new CISO since Siobhan Smyth left the position in August 2022 shortly after the August 2022 was announced.

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multi-factor authenticationInformation exposed in data breaches like this is commonly used by attackers to target users with phishing attacks or attempt to reset passwords to gain account authorization. This is why multi-factor authentication (MFA) can help. Even if the bogus password resets were successful the MFA can prevent the attacker from going further.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedInFacebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

Click At Your Own Risk – Risky Celebrity Report

Click At Your Own Risk - Risky Celebrity ReportWith the recent changes at McAfee, they are no longer doing their annual risky celebrity online report. Not to worry, Surfshark has stepped up to tell what pop culture icon is riskiest celebrities to search for on the innerwebs. Surfshark, based in the Netherlands, describes themselves as a cybersecurity company focused on developing humanized privacy and security solutions. Surfshark and Nord Security merged in 2022 to form the current company.

SurfsharkThey searched the web with for pop culture terms with different qualifiers, like “Torrent,” “Download,” “Stream,” or “MP3.” They then collected URLs from the first five pages Google of search results and ran them through a malware detector (https://sitecheck.sucuri.net/). The “% of URLs with potential malware” metric reflects the % of URLs that were flagged as “medium risk” or above by this tool.

2022 Risky Celebrity #1 Robert De Niro

MIDNIGHT RUN US 1988 ROBERT DE NIRO A UNIVERSAL FILM Date 1988, , Photo by: Mary Evans/Ronald Grant/Everett CollectionThe riskiest celebrity to search for in 2022 was Robert De Niro. This is the first time the Academy Award winner topped the riskiest celebrity list. Mr. De Niro has earned two Academy Awards, one for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Vito Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola‘s The Godfather Part II (1974) and the other for Best Actor portraying Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull (1980). Other notable roles include Midnight Run (1988), Goodfellas (1990), Joker (2019), and Meet the Parents (2000). According to Surfshark a Google search for Mr. De Niro can result in a malware link over half the time (54.1%).

Jake Gyllenhall is the second most riskiest celebrity to search for on the intertubes. The actor who is most famous for his roles in Brokeback Mountain (2005), and Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), in which he portrayed Quentin Beck / Mysterio. 53.6% of searches for Mr. Gyllenhall on the web result in a malware attack according to Surfshark.

Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the LambsSir Philip Anthony Hopkins the British stage and screen actor was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1993. He has won two Academy Awards, and two Emmy Awards. Now he ranks #3 on the 2022 Surfshark riskiest celebrities online. He received an Academy Award for Best Actor for The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Mr. Hopkins also had a re-occurring role in the MCU Thor franchise (2011–2017). His 2021 Academy Award winning role in The Father (2020) undoubtedly increased his attractiveness as a hacker lure. Over half (53.6%) of the online searches for Sir Hopkins can result in a malware attack on your system.

2022’s Riskiest Female Celebrity

Kate Winslet is the riskiest woman to search for in 2022 according to Surfshark. 52.6% of the searches for the Titanic (1997) star can include results that link to malware. Her role in the 2022 Avatar: The Way of Water, a sequel to James Cameron’s Avatar (2009), earned over $1.7 billion to rank as the seventh highest-grossing film of all time made her excellent bait for hackers to spring on unsuspecting web surfers.

Margot Robbie as Harley QuinnAussie Actress Margot Robbie takes #5 on Surfshark’s list. Her roles as Harley Quinn in the DC Suicide Squad films. 52% of the searches for the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) actress can return malware.

Brad Pitt ranked 9th on Surfshark’s 2022 list. Mr. Pitt has appeared in the the riskiest celebrity role more than most pop culture creatures. He previously appeared on the top ten list of riskiest celebs in 2009, 2010 and 2011. In 2022 he starred with risky celeb #5 Margot Robbie in Babylon.

Risky movies target kids

Many of the most dangerous films to search for have younger audiences. Younger users are more likely to click on links containing malicious software. Of the 8 most dangerous movies to search for, half were released by Disney

Toy Story 3 produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures#1 Finding Dory has a 46.7% risk of including malware
#2 Beauty and the Beast 44.9% risk of including malware
#5 Toy Story 3 40.4% risk of including malware
#8 The Lion King 40% risk of including malware

Hollywood is not only attackers can spread malware. Surfshark found the searches for sports teams can also be risky

#1 New Orleans Pelicans 43.1% risk of including malware
#2 Miami Heat 43.0% risk of including malware
#3 Boston Celtics 41.8% risk of including malware
#4 Texas Rangers 41.7% risk of including malware
#5 Miami Marlins 40.7% risk of including malware

Missing from the top ten is perennial hacker favorite and Academy Award winner Sandra Bullock. Searches for Ms. Bullock were slightly less than half (49%) likely to contain malware in 2022. who ranked in the top 10 in 2010, 2013 and 2015. Another favorite, Julia Roberts scored 36.2%. She ranked in the top 10 in 2010 and 2020 risky celebrity lists.

 

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedInFacebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

Why You Should Stop Using Meeting Speak

Why You Should Stop Using Meeting SpeakAs project managers, we have lots of meetings full of buzzwords and “meeting speak.” The way we talk about our meetings can define what happens in those meetings according to Rae Ringel certified executive coach and founder of The Ringel Group. She wrote for the Harvard Business Review that even at a time when so much is beyond our control, we remain in control of our own speech patterns.

In the article, she suggests it is time to drop meeting-speak from your meetings. She suggests the following you delete the following common meeting-speak phrases from your virtual or IRL meetings.

Top meeting speak to delete

We’re going to wait five minutes for everyone to join

We’re going to wait five minutes for everyone to joinThis meeting-speak dishonors those who joined on time. It diminishes the effort to be punctual for a meeting. As the leader, start your call on time. If you must wait for a key meeting member, start with a team-building ice breaker.

An ice breaker is a meeting activity that is meant to help foster a sense of community and build rapport between group members. Yes, ice breakers can sometimes feel cheesy, but are meant to be a fun opportunity to get to know your team, while making people more comfortable. When people are more comfortable, they are more likely to participate and engage in your meeting.

Ms. Ringle offers the example, she asks everyone to remove one distraction. That may mean moving something off their desk, opening a window in their room, or closing a window on their computer. This can set the tone for the call that this is the most important thing you are involved with right now.

You’re on mute

Mute buttonThis meeting-speak can quickly signal that a speaker needs to click the unmute button. But the phrase, often uttered by multiple people at once, has become annoying. Ms. Ringle says that it makes the person on the receiving end of the comment feel silly, as though they still don’t know how to locate the button with the microphone icon. She suggests a gentler response like, “If you’re speaking, I can’t hear you.” This shows them that you truly want to hear what it is they have to say.

Let’s take this offline

This can be used to put-off the user or their idea. In this age of virtual meetings, how will the issue be discussed if not online? The author writes what you probably meant to say was, “That’s an important topic that’s beyond the scope of this meeting. I’ll email you when we wrap up.”  Be sure to follow-up.

I’m going to give you 10 minutes of your life back

I’m going to give you 10 minutes of your life backThe executive coach points out that by framing a few extra minutes as an opportunity to give people their time “back” set the wrong tone. The meeting-speak unwittingly send a powerful message that our organization’s gatherings take from team members, rather than contributing to our team’s collective accomplishments.

The goal of all meetings should be to well-structured, well-run, and concise. If you can pull that off ahead of the budget time congratulations. She recommends that the next time you find yourself tempted to offer your teammates a few “minutes of their life back,” consider saying, “Wow. Because everyone was so productive, we’re done 10 minutes early. Thank you so much for your presence and participation. Have a great day.”

More meeting speak to avoid

Some of mine own are …

You guys…

Guys? Is everyone on the call a guy? It is very informal. When you start referring to work colleagues, bosses, or even clients like this, you’ve crossed the line into the realm of the unprofessional.

#@$%^$#

Strategic cursing is professional. Cursing because you’re not creative or articulate enough to come up with something better to say is the mark of an unprofessional person.

That’s not my fault!

When plans fall apart, professional people seek to find a way to make it work –unprofessional people’s first priority is to shift the blame.

We’ve always done it this way

Oh, okay, I guess that ends all debate. Unprofessional people are afraid of change and progress, and saying this makes that clear.

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This is one of my 2023 work resolutions. I am going to work these examples out of my meetings.

 

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedInFacebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

Quick Microsoft Teams Shortcuts to Increase Your Productivity in 2023

Quick Microsoft Teams Shortcuts to Increase Your Productivity in 2023Microsoft Teams saw a huge uptick in users during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and the growing practices of social distancing and working from home. Rising from 20 million users in November 2019 to 44 million in March 2020, then 75 million by April. Teams has managed to retain these users post pandemic, and has grown considerably since. In 2022, Microsoft announced that Teams reached 115 million daily active users (DAU). Stats from 2018 say that the average meeting lasts 48 minutes. That makes for a lot of time spent in Teams. The following are tips and tricks to be more productive when using Teams.

Command Teams to do your bidding

Command Teams to do your biddingCommands are shortcuts for performing common tasks in Teams. You can use Teams commands to update your status, go to a specific channel, show your recent files and saved messages, and more. To use a command, type “/” and then your command in the command box at the top of Teams. 

Command What it does
/available Set your status to available.
/away Set your status to away.
/busy Set your status to busy.
/call Call a phone number or Teams contact.
/dnd Set your status to do not disturb.
/files See your recent files.
/goto Go right to a team or channel.
/help Get help with Teams.
/join Join a team.
/keys See keyboard shortcuts.
/org See someone's org chart.
/testcall Check your call quality.
/unread See all your unread activity.
/whatsnewSee what's new in Teams.
/Displays all commands.

Manage Notifications

Manage Teams NotificationsThe stream of notifications in Teams can feel a little overwhelming, especially when you need to focus on an important task. There are a few simple ways to reduce interruptions.

Update your Teams-wide notifications. Click on your profile picture in Teams.

  1. Click on Settings and then Notifications
  2. Locate “Missed activities emails”
  3. Click on the pull-down and select the frequency you want to receive emails for ‘missed activity.’

Microsoft Teams Notifications page

I recommend at least “Once every hour” to reduce email volume, and pressure to check what is happening in Teams.

Block incoming calls

Teams can be very intrusive, especially when you need to focus on the immediate task at hand. You can use the /DND command to block incoming calls and notifications. Of course there are some users you want to or have to quickly respond to. In order to always get calls or notifications from these team members, you can grant them priority access. This means you’ll still receive notifications from these individuals when your status is set to ‘Do Not Disturb’.

To grant priority access in Teams, Update your Privacy. Click on your profile picture in Teams and then Settings.

  1. Click on “Privacy”
  2. Click on “Manage priority access”

Microsoft Teams Privacy page

This will bring up the page where you add specific users whose notifications will still go through even when you are in “Do Not Disturb” mode.

Microsoft Teams priority access page

 

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedInFacebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.