HACKED

12/12/2022

Shocking! Samsung Galaxy S22 hacked in less than a minute - Mint....Interestingly, the Galaxy S22 phone was hacked four times during the event held from December 6 to December 8.

Elite Hackers Made Almost $1 Million Last Week, Here's How....The Sonos One smart speaker was also hacked. Hacking is not a crime. None of the zero-days are sold or redistributed by ZDI, instead, the ...

Uber has been hacked yet again with code and employee data released online...The unimaginative hacker goes by the name of “UberLeak” with a post on BreachForums that reads “hacked by autistic fisherman Arion and scammed all ...

This DeFi Protocol Just Got Hacked for $6.9 Million – Here's What Happened - Crypto News....Lodestar Finance, a DeFi protocol built on Ethereum's Arbitrum network, lost $6.9m in an exploit this weekend where an attacker manipulated a ...

NFT Project SATO's Proof all set to recover 1132 hacked BTC - AMBCrypto....Recently, the Twitter account “Where is my 1132 BTC” has received a lot of attention, describing the incident of 1132 BTC lost by hacking in a ...

Is Your Money Safe? Capital Region Bank Accounts Being Hacked....Trustco Bank's Executive Vice President, Robert Leonard, explains that a relatively small amount of debit cards were hacked, and that those who ...

Black Hat Europe redux: The top web hacking talks for 2022 | The Daily Swig - PortSwigger....Among other things, the researchers explained how “failing harder” requires “lots of time spent researching systems before they can be hacked”.

-=Stay Safe=-

MSP & MSSP, IT Industry Notes for December 11th, 2022

Sponsored by

November 6th, 2022

Arcoa Group

Why partnering with ARCOA makes sense
Electronics Recycling is an important and profitable part of the IT asset lifecycle, but it can be overwhelming with all you already do, varying state regulations, and the limited resources at hand. That’s where ARCOA comes in. When you partner with ARCOA, you get all the benefits of a big company without any of the capital investment. We’ve been doing this since 1989 and have the expertise, certifications, and nationwide resources to get the most for all your clients’ retired IT assets. Plus, positioning your clients as environmental stewards not only elevates their appeal to consumers, it meets government requirements and avoids fines.

What partnering with ARCOA looks like
Our role is to make it easy for you to bring more value to your clients. We work with you to help stretch your clients’ IT budget by reducing the total cost of ownership of their electronics. We’re experts at identifying and implementing the solutions your clients need for the end-of-use remarketing, recovery, and recycling of their technology assets. The sooner you involve ARCOA, the sooner you and your clients.

Cybersecurity Notes

Microland Recognized as a Leader for the Third Consecutive Year in the 2022

• named as a Leader in the 2022 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Managed Network Services
• recognized for its Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision in this space
• solution suite called Microland Intelligent Network Experience (m.i.n.e.) provides wing-to-wing network services from consulting and assessment to transformation services as well as managed services

directprint.io partners with ASG Africa

• has named ASG Africa as its sole distributor in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries
• terms of the agreement, ASG Africa will distribute directprint.io’s feature-rich, software-as-a-service (SaaS) print management solution that allows users to quickly and effectively deploy, secure, control, and track print in the cloud
• io is a feature-rich, transparent SaaS offering that allows users to quickly and effectively deploy, secure, control and track print management

Synoptek Acquires Optistar Technology

• announced it has acquired Optistar Technology Consultants (“Optistar”), the technology services business division of The Vertex Companies, LLC (“Vertex”) with offices spanning New York, Boston, Denver, and Seattle
• acquisition allows Vertex to divest its technology services division, Optistar, while also securing a global technology services partner, Synoptek, to support future growth and automation
• Synoptek is a global business and technology consulting and advisory firm that helps companies envision, transform and evolve.

Infinidat Gains Momentum as a Storage Solution Provider of Choice for Cloud Services ...

• announced that the company has grown its business delivering enterprise storage solutions to cloud service providers (CSPs), managed service providers (MSPs) and managed hosting providers (MHPs) to 31% of Infinidat’s customer base
• CSPs, MSPs, MHPs and hyperscalers are providing Storage-as-a-Service (STaaS) for a fast-growing customer base that demands cyber resiliency and uninterrupted access to storage capabilities

Buchanan Technologies Announces the Strategic Merger of

• announced the strategic investment and merger of Infosenseglobal’s (ISG) Oracle technology and applications service line with Buchanan’s Applications Services business unit
• Buchanan Technologies, a provider of enterprise managed IT services
• deal closed on December 1, 2022.

Open Line Selects and Deploys Salt Security API Protection Platform to Enhance

• announced that Open Line NL, a supplier of managed cloud services and applications, has selected and deployed the Salt Security API Protection Platform
• Salt platform allows Open Line to offer services to its customers that quickly identify and block API attacks and remediate potential risks, ensuring the security of its customers' critical data and services
• Open Line is a supplier of managed cloud services
• alt delivers deep context with real-time analysis and continuous insights for API discovery, attack prevention, and shift-left practices

Konica Minolta Honored with 2022 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Award

• announce it is the recipient of a Platinum 2022 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Award from American Security Today (AST) for its FORXAI Secure Access solution
• FORXAI Secure Access (pronounced FOR-SIGH) enables automated, secure point-of-entry workflows that combine facial identification with mask detection, thermal temperature screening and tailgating
• American Security Today (AST), the ‘New Face in Homeland Security™’, is the premier digital media platform in the U.S. Homeland Security and Public Safety Industry, focused on breaking news and in-depth coverage of the newest initiatives and hottest technologies in physical & IT security on the market today

Signs of recession?

Article recently written by Nouriel Roubini, Professor of Economics at New York University, and Chief Economist at Atlas Capital Team

• “The mother of all economic crises looms, and there will be little that policymakers can do about it.”
• “The world economy is lurching toward an unprecedented confluence of economic, financial, and debt crises, following the explosion of deficits, borrowing, and leverage in recent decades.”
• “In the private sector, the mountain of debt includes that of households (such as mortgages, credit cards, auto loans, student loans, personal loans), businesses and corporations (bank loans, bond debt, and private debt), and the financial sector (liabilities of bank and nonbank institutions).”
• “In the public sector, it includes central, provincial, and local government bonds and other formal liabilities, as well as implicit debts such as unfunded liabilities from pay-as-you-go pension schemes and health-care systems – all of which will continue to grow as societies age.”

Pennsylvania Again Selects Hughes for Managed Network Services Contract

• announced that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania again selected Hughes as a provider of managed network services under the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Last User Connectivity contract
• After an initial four years, the renewed agreement enables Hughes to offer statewide agencies its HughesON™ portfolio of end-to-end solutions, including managed broadband, SD-WAN, and VoIP

Lock in on Cyber Security with ARCOA

• customer has a staggered refresh cycle, the value of the equipment can be issued in the form of a credit growing over time
• identifying assets that are usually passed over and often have significant value

Airiam Hires Alan Villaseñor to Build and Manage SOC

• announced Alan Villaseñor will lead the company's security operation center (SOC). Villaseñor holds CISM, GCFE, CTIA, CHFI, ITIL, and CEH certifications
• Airiam, a managed IT and cybersecurity company with a focus and expertise on ransomware recovery

Cloud Managed Services Market Is Expected To Grow At A Rate Of 9.1% by Next 10 Years

• Global sales of cloud managed services in 2021 was held at US$ 86.1 Bn.
• With 9.6% the projected market growth during 2022 – 2032 is expected to be significantly higher than the historical growth
• Managed Network Services are expected to be the highest revenue generating cloud managed services type, with a projected growth of 9.1% during 2022 – 2032

Cloud4C Sets up New In-Country Cloud Data Center in Egypt to Meet Data Localization ...

• unveiled a new in-country cloud data center in the Arab Republic of Egypt in collaboration with Telecom Egypt, the country's primary telecom provider
• Cloud4C, is an application-focused cloud Managed Services Provider (MSP) and an end-to-end RISE with SAP services partner

Digital Workplace survey results

Conducted by DWEA, included workspace professionals globally

• 93.1% say that their cloud strategy includes cloud print
• 97% want to manage printing/scanning in house
• 58% say hybrid working is here to stay
• 53.5% are challenged to manage printing and scanning at remote locations
• 31.1% are challenged to manage all the print drivers
• 22.1% have issues supporting end users’ printing/scanning needs
• 54.6% are spending less time on print support if they switched to cloud

This Week in the Copier Industry Five Years Ago

Time sure can fly by!  The thread below is for the appointment of Laura Blackmer as Senior VP for Dealer Channel Sales with Konica Minolta.  Thus the Print4Pay Hotel congratulates Laura with 5 years of awesome service and support.

Enjoy These great Copier Threads from 5 Years Ago This Week!

"A real conversation always contains an invitation. You are inviting another person to reveal herself or himself to you, to tell you who they are or what they want."

David Whyte

Are you building relationships or are you building transactions?

Are the conversations you're having with your clients transactional in nature? If so, I am here to inform you, you will be become replaceable.

Tough pill to swallow but transactional selling is replaceable by another salesperson who comes along with a better transactional conversation.

You are a transactional seller when you….

• All you are concerned with and care about is the business at hand.
• Stay so hyper-focused on finalizing the sale that you forget there is another human on the other side.
• Fail to be fully aware and present as to the potential in the relationship. This means a true understanding of the goals, needs, gaps, values, fears and potential risk of your clients or future clients.

It is extremely difficult to build relational strength with your clients with a transactional mindset. These so-called relationships are unfulfilling and lack real strength. They lack real strength because they lack any kind of real depth.

It's concerning, in today’s society and business climate, we tend to have shallow, superficial relationships; as we have lulled ourselves into thinking they are much more than they really are.

It’s extremely hard for this kind of relationship to provide anything more than faint satisfaction and short-term results.

Are you inviting your clients into meaningful conversations or pushing them away with transactional behaviors and conversations?

DEEP CONVERSATIONS REQUIRE INTENT AND MEANING

“Our culture is all about shallow relationships. But that doesn't mean we should stop looking each other in the eye and having deep conversations.”

Francis Chan

Curious to know... Are you brave enough to share, kind enough to listen, and can you break-free from the shallows of small talk to dive deep into conversations with your clients?

Are you treading water, floating along the relational surface with your clients? Would you even know?

Are your conversations superficial, shallow and small or rich with deep meaning?

Psychologist Matthias Mehl at the University of Arizona studies conversations, and he defines small talk based on how much information is exchanged. "If afterwards I know nothing more about you than I knew before, then that will be small talk."

Let's think about this in the context of your client conversations, what are you learning about your clients and their business during each of your interactions?

There is value in small talk, but it still falls short of what many of your clients might be craving - meaningful conversation.

Matthias Mehl, refers to these kinds of conversations as "substantive", the key feature of deeper conversations is that you learn something.

This goes back to my point...

What are you learning about your clients and their business during your interactions?

He further states,

"If people start discussing information, then it becomes substantive … the most important point is that you get absorbed in the conversation, there’s information, there’s learning."

Just curious, what do all of you speak about when engaging with your clients?

Again, are you treading on the relational surface with small "chit-chatty" conversations or are you swimming in the business deep end, diving into conversational growth strategies?

You see, salespeople in superficial and shallow relationships with their clients will only talk about the present day because "future proofing" requires a deep investment of time, energy and commitment to relational betterment.

A relationship is shallow when it only exists on the surface and absent of any meaningful emotional connection.

Here is your mirror moment...

Are you a here and now sales rep or a forward-thinking sales professional?

Questions for you... And I really want you to think about them.

• Why do many salespeople have mediocre at best client relationships?
• Why do many salespeople struggle to form meaningful client relationships?

My response, because many salespeople can’t be bothered to learn how or have never been coached in building real relationships.

Here are signs you may have shallow client relationships...

• Lack of communication
• No discussions on the business future and what it looks like
• Lack of shared values
• Out of sight, out of mind
• Only meet in a sales opportunity or when an issue arises

Have you ever asked your clients what they expect in a relationship with you? Not your company but with just you?

If the answer is no, then I strongly encourage you to ask, as you just might learn something that could remove the shackles holding you back from "next level" sales.

DEEP CONVERSATIONS CREATE CONNECTION

"Sometimes you have to disconnect to stay connected. Remember the old days when you had eye contact during a conversation? When everyone wasn't looking down at a device in their hands? We've become so focused on that tiny screen that we forget the big picture, the people right in front of us."

Regina Brett

Your big picture are your clients. Are you focused on connecting with your clients? Are you committed to deep, rich and meaningful conversations?

I love what Nicholas Epley, PhD, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business says when it comes to connecting,

“Connecting with others in meaningful ways tends to make people happier, and yet people also seem reluctant to engage in deeper and more meaningful conversation.”

He went on to further state,

"If connecting with others in deep and meaningful ways increases well-being, then why aren’t people doing it more often in daily life?”

Applied to the sales community,

If connecting with your clients in deep and meaningful ways increases well-being and your sales funnel, then why aren't salespeople doing it more often?

Whether you are a sales leader or a salesperson, I urge you to get engaged with your clients.

You must shift your mindset, and refocus your thoughts as engaged relationships translate to an increase in sales opportunities.

Build true, deep and meaningful relationships, not just one-sided affairs and watch your sales skyrocket and your leaky sales pipeline become ever-flowing.

If you crave an ever-flowing sales funnel, then build an ever-flowing client relationship funnel

Here are three things you can do to build relational strength with your clients.

BRING AUTHENTICITY TO THE FOREFRONT

Your client relationships must be built upon trust and trust is based upon authenticity. Your clients B.S. meters are extremely sensitive, as they can spot insincerity, and commission driven conversations.

The authentic YOU must be a genuine reflection of who you REALLY are. You must believe it. You must own it. You must know what it stands for. You must know your strengths and your weaknesses. You must be congruent with it.

Sales professionals proudly wear their emotions on their business sleeve as they connect to the relational hearts of their clients

It's about the personal connection. If you are 'blowing smoke' up your client's backsides what's the likelihood, they will trust you or even help you to grow your business?

Authenticity is a magnet in a world full of empty suits

STOP BEGGING

Expanding upon your relationships – it’s about establishing trust, credibility, and creating meaningful value; all without selling.

Engage your clients, communicate with them, add substantive value to their business, solve their problems, create opportunity for them, educate them, but don’t be dropping the sales hammer on them all the time!

Stale sales experiences and relationships die a slow and very painful death.

What concerns me about salespeople and sales leaders today, whether you believe me or not, is the lack of a true understanding around what it means to build genuine relationships.

Stop begging and bugging your clients to buy from you at month end, quarter end or year end, when you've done very little to enhance the relational experience.

Why would your clients help you to grow your business when you haven't helped to grow theirs?

LISTEN TO THEM

Successful sales professionals simply listen.

There is so much you can learn when you just listen

Intentional and focused listening is the key to becoming a powerful sales professional inside the relationship economy.

Developing excellent listening skills separates the good from the great. When you listen to your clients you learn things, their business goals, their personal aspirations; all this to do one thing - strengthen the relationship and grow your business.

When you struggle to listen, you miss all the critical material to build a meaningful relationship.

The simple act of listening is one huge key to growing your business, strengthening your sales pipeline and enhancing the relational growth with your clients.

YOU MUST CARE ABOUT YOUR RELATIONSHIPS

“I’m not telling you it is going to be easy- I am telling you it is going to be worth it.”

Art Williams

Building client relationships requires discipline. Are you committed?

Long-term client relationships, and I know that is what you want, must be deep and must be built to weather the storms. There will be bumps and some choppy waters, however; the more you invest in these relationships the more you collect on these relationships.

I will leave all of you with this...

• Genuinely care about your clients
• Remember your clients
• Connect with your clients
• Celebrate with your clients
• Respect your clients
• Deliver on your promises with your clients

And most of all... Love your clients. Because if you don't, I guarantee there will be a Selling from the Heart sales professional to gladly step right in.

Would you like to increase your sales success and fulfillment?

This was my goal when recording all-new materials for the new Selling from the Heart Masterclass, to increasing your sales success and fulfillment in your business.

If you enjoyed the Selling from the Heart book, you’re going to love this masterclass! It takes the tools given to the next level.

Have yet to read Selling from the Heart? No worries, you will receive an audio version as a part of the Masterclass. As an option you can get a free signed copy of Selling from the Heart (just pay for shipping and handling).

You can get your copy here - https://www.sellingfromtheheart.net/book

Together, we will go on a journey where we’ll dive into how to apply the ideas in the book to help you achieve even greater sales success.

With each of the 10 sessions, you’ll receive questions that will help you increase your sales in a way that also makes selling more enjoyable and fulfilling.

This masterclass is configured with you in mind where you can complete the course in chunks from any mobile device, iPad or computer, based on your availability.

You’ll also discover fun bonus materials throughout the course.

ACCESS THE MASTERCLASS HERE.

This Week in the Copier Industry Ten Years Ago

There's not much to write about this weekend.  I'm focused on finishing the year with a few more orders.  I figure I need another I need another $25K in the upcoming weeks. It's not going to be easy because many of the opportunities have closed.  There is an outside shot for a $240K content deal, however it seems that opp is in the weeds.  With 50% of the selling month left, anything can happen.

Enjoy These great Copier Threads from Ten Years Ago This Week!

sponsored by

I thought it was time for a new banner.  Since I spoke with Greg Walters he gave me a few tips about the file sizes and working in Canva. Please let me know your thoughts about the new banners!

Enjoy These great Copier Threads from 15 Years Ago This Week!

Darkness

Evaluating options

Thus, it was time to send another email to the client and the response was "we are still evaluating our options".  Okay, so the typical response should be?  I used "I understand the need for options, can you tell me what your other option(s) are?  A few minutes passed and the response was what I thought it would be, they are looking at another device from a another vendor.

Ah Ha Moment

It was a few minutes until it clicked and thus I knew exactly what was going on.....the new IT Director brought in a competitor for a price check.  I'm thinking from his previous gig since he was the new IT Director.  I can't blame him for that and this can happen whenever we encounter a new Decision Maker. It's common that they will want to make a splash and raise the flag to show the owner/director that they saved them money by moving to a new vendor/manufacturer.

Buyers Can Be Liars

I'm too old to get upset when something like this happens, heck I've been on the other end of this when my DM moves to another account and brings me in.  However what I'm not a fan the deceit that he perpetuated with the comment that they wanted to see if we could give them a month to month on the maintenance agreement that was due to renew.

quid pro quo

I was able to flush him out with a series of covenants that I added to giving in to his request for the month to month maintenance agreement.  Meaning he gives me a copy of the current proposal and or allows me to match the price. In addition if I match the price that he will move forward with our proposal.  Seems he did not like this and replied that he is no longer interest in the month to month for the maintenance agreement from us (email response)  Yes, he never told that he ordered from the other vendor (I believe he did).  Something like this should always raise a red flag to all of us when a new DM comes in and asks for something that is out of the norm.

The IT Director knew exactly what he was doing.  He needed to buy some time because  he couldn't get the replacement copiers for some time, thus the reason for asked for the month to month.

Just thought this might help others when something like this comes up. Curious to hear from others if you've had something like this happen also.

-=Good Selling=-

HACKED!

12/7/2022

CloudSEK claims it was hacked by another cybersecurity firm - Bleeping Computer......codebase, email, JIRA and social media accounts" on multiple hacking forums. They also leaked images containing CloudSEK-related information, ...

WH won't say if Biden team told Twitter Hunter laptop 'hacked' - New York Post....“Did anyone from the Biden team communicate to Twitter that … this reporting stemmed from hacked materials?” Heinrich asked Jean-Pierre

Silver Miller Investigating Hacked Coinbase Accounts - .....exactly what that Coinbase Global Intelligence team means and how it affects Coinbase platform users who had their accounts hacked

Local restaurant owners fear business loss after social media pages were hacked - WCPO.....Arnold's Bar & Grill is one such victim. Owner Chris Breeden said he was on his Facebook page when the account was hacked and, despite his best ...

Justice Hacked: When Cyber Criminals Come for the Courts - Government Technology....“Eighty-six percent of our passwords were hacked in less than four hours,” Alaska State Court Administrator Stacey Marz recalled.

Apple offers hacking targets new options to secure data, chats - Reuters....The iPhone maker said that though it was not aware of breaches to iCloud servers or iMessage exchanges, hacking attempts are increasing

4 Nigerians Arrested in Europe Over US Charges Involving Hacking, Fraud - SecurityWeek....Four Nigerians arrested in the UK and Sweden have been charged in the US over their role in a scheme that involved hacking and filing false tax ...

Mount Laurel ex-cop faces additional charges related to hacking emails and distributing ...Ayron Taylor, 22, a former police officer in Mount Laurel, is facing additional criminal charges for allegedly hacking more than 2800 email ...

-=Stay Safe=-

HACKED!

12/6/2022

Amnesty International Canada Says It Was Hacked by Beijing -......The Canadian branch of Amnesty International said Monday it was the target of a cyberattack sponsored by China.

Samsung Galaxy S22 hacked twice on first day of Pwn2Own Toronto -.....Contestants have hacked the Samsung Galaxy S22 smartphone twice during the first day of the Pwn2Own Toronto 2022 hacking competition, ...

Kia India's Instagram account hacked.....The Instagram account of Kia India, the manufacturer of popular SUVs like the Seltos and Sonet, has been hacked.

After cyberattack on AIIMS, ICMR website faces 6000 hacking attempts in 24 hours....The website of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) faced around 6000 hacking attempts over a span of 24 hours on November 30 ...

Have you been pwned? See if your info has been hacked. - ....Have you been pwned? Learn what that is and how to protect your information online.

-=Stay Safe=-

Nothing is written in stone unless you have the order docs in hand. Yes, I hate to lose, however when I lost today with a very important opportunity I didn't feel that bad.

Don't get be wrong it sucked, however I did get a call from the client explaining why the went they way that they did and thanked me for the professional manner that I approached the sales process.  For me, the art of the phone call from the potential client meant that I did every thing right.

Sometimes even when we do everything right we can still lose because we did not have the right fit for the client.  All of the one on ones went well, all of the right questions were asked and it came down to a junta that meet to make the final decision.

In my case speed outweighed quality and price was never a consideration.  I was behind the 8 ball from the start because I knew the competition was going to be tough to beat, however all we can do is present our best stack.

With 13 selling days left this hurt, however I can also look on the brighter side of things.  The brighter side would be the 13 selling days that remain, of course it's not going to be easy to replace that revenue but if you don't try you don't get.

This is why we never count our chickens before they are hatched. It's time to get back to work and shed the tears of disappointment and look forward to finishing strong.

-=Good Selling=-