April is finally here and we turn a special focus to celebrating and protecting our Earth and honoring Earth Day (4/22). As co-chair of the Dutchess Chamber’s Living Green Committee, I am happy to invite one and all to a free event aimed at providing the local business community with actionable steps to achieving sustainability. …
The Emergence of the Class Action Data Breach Lawsuit: Just one more reason it is imperative to take all means possible when it comes to protecting customer information. A recent $3 million class action data breach lawsuit awarded by a Florida court in mid-March of 2014 sets the stage for many more such settlements. The…
As the president and owner of HV Shred, I am honored to be a part of The Women’s Enterprise Development Center, Mid-Hudson Valley (WEDC-MHV) “The Road to Growth: Scale Your Business. Up Your Game.” The Thursday, March 27th conference will provide future and current business owners the opportunity to gain valuable information about how to…
Continuing with our goal to educated businesses on proper compliance with the Red Flags Rule, today is an overview of the 4 step process. We will cover each step in more detail in the coming weeks. For now, here is an overview of the 4 steps: Step 1: Identify relevant Red Flags- the potential patterns,…
This week, we start a series aimed at educating business about their legal responsibilities regarding protecting consumers’ private information. First, some background: According to the Federal Trade Commission (the government organization charged with consumer protection), an estimated nine million Americans have their identities stolen each year. Identity thieves may drain accounts, damage credit, and even…
In a recent press release from the FTC, it seems scam artists have perhaps hit a new low. In the latest lure to trick people into clicking on links that will download malware to their computers, scammers are sending bogus emails with the subject line “funeral notification.” The message appears to be from a legitimate…
Perhaps even more frequently than every day, it seems like there is a new scam hatching. Here’s a new one we learned about from a fellow member of the NYS CPA Society. In a recent message board post, Mr. Mendlowitz warned to be on the lookout for ‘One Ring’ cell phone scams. It’s called the…
On-site shredding service is our main gig but those who follow this blog know we like to use this space to share public service announcements as well. There are few topics more important than protecting our children. The FTC has just released a its latest update on a great resource for helping to protect our…
HV Shred is all about helping our community protect private information. Last week, we covered the basic overview of app safety. More specifically this week, we cover location data. Some apps use specific location data to share maps, coupons for nearby stores, or information about who we might know nearby. Some provide location data to ad…
As always, HV Shred aims to provide valuable guidance to our community on how to protect confidential data. These days, we use apps for everything from banking to listening to music to finding the best restaurant for lunch. One thing we must consider in the process is the data we are sharing–even broadcasting as we…