Lots of comments on my column supporting giving to beggars. I wrote the column expecting that I might produce only one or two notes of agreement, but my heart was lifted by the number of soft-hearted readers who, like me, give to beggars. Of course, there were a few like this one from W...

In this day and age your answer was absolutely wrong! Enabling begging, alcohol and drug addicts exacerbates the problem!

Many of these people will not accept help from shelters because their addiction is more important to them! By funding their habit, you are making their circumstances worse.

Encourage people to give generously to shelters and organizations that assist the homeless. This is the Christian thing to do!

I respect that point of view, but I disagree with it. In our broken world, it is almost always the case that we cannot change the big things but can have an impact on little things. As Mother Teresa wrote, God does not call us to do great things. God calls us to do small things with great love. Amen.

The following notes lifted my heart and convinced me that many people are doing small things with great love...

(From K)

I read your piece on giving to the homeless. So many people have the same questions in our church. So now we have prepared snack bags that have a short blessing attached. When we see homeless people, we hand them a bag and they are always appreciative. My husband and I have always felt that any money we give no matter where is given in Gods name and no longer belongs to us and we dont question how its used.

(From J in New York)

I have worked in NYC for the past 38 years. I too had a dilemma about giving to the less fortunate. I finally realized that I was in a better place than those who asked for a handout. I then made sure that I always had a couple of singles in my pocket and would give to anyone who asked. Or I would put a couple of granola bars in my pocket and distribute them. If there was someone I saw on a regular basis, I would ask if there was anything I could get them. Usually they would ask for personal hygiene items. If I ever saw tube socks for sale, I would also give them out. The bottom line is that God, for whatever I did, has granted me and my family a very comfortable life. Thank you very much for this article, if only more people felt this way and not make assumptions, we would be a better society.

(From N)

I believe that most homeless people fall into two categories people with mental health problems and those who fell into homelessness because of circumstances. I fell into the latter category and without the help of friends and family I would have been living on the street. I agree with you saying not to judge others, assuming they are druggies or scammers. Most of these people are down on their luck and, as you said, who in their right mind would want to beg just to survive? It must be humiliating. I thank God every day for being here with me through the good and especially the bad things in life.

(M from Gainesville, FL)

I thank you for the reply you wrote regarding giving money to beggars. I would like to add one thing: I sometimes see someone who is asking for handouts accompanied by a dog. Rather than just give money, I prefer picking up a small package of dog food to give them. They always accept it with a smile. One even said that he was sure that his friend would share it with him!

And my favorite response that came from B...

I read your column often and often feel lifted up and given water by a greater soul than mine. I have traveled a lot and far these past six-plus decades. I have seen the beggars, the homeless, the needy, the liars, the helpless, the drug addicts, the lost, the hopeless, the lonely, the predators, the starving, the thieves, the spiritually bereft, the seekers, the musicians, the broken. This I avow to you. That every one of those descriptions of human behavior I have been and done! I give to anyone broken. I give that lousy dollar. Not to feel better about me. THEY are me! Greater souls than mine have pointed out that divinity is in the shadows of human action. My last gasp is a quote from you Great changes come from small change. I thank you with fondness and am looking forward.

Send ALL QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS to The God Squad via email at godsquadquestion@aol.com. Rabbi Gellman is the author of several books, including Religion for Dummies, co-written with Fr. Tom Hartman.

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GOD SQUAD: Reader responses to giving to the homeless - New Haven Register

December 23, 2019

Its not easy being teen. Negative images of adolescents populate the media and are associated withwords like moody, selfish, impulsive, disrespectful and even dangerous. Suicide rates among teens and young adults have reached their highest point in nearly two decades.

Adolescence is a particularly malleable time for mental and social development. Gaining a better understanding of the teenage brain and behavior can make this time an opportunity, rather than a calamity. In their recently published book, "Wildhood: The Epic Journey from Adolescence to Adulthood in Humans and Other Animals," authors Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and science journalist Kathryn Bowers reach across species to help us explore the teenage brain. Download Full Image

In their recently published book, "Wildhood: The Epic Journey from Adolescence to Adulthood in Humans and Other Animals,"authors Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and science journalist Kathryn Bowers reach across species to help us explore the teenage brain.

Natterson-Horowitz will visit Arizona State University on Thursday, Jan. 16, to share her insights with anyone who is curious about teenage behavior. Free and open to the public, the event will take begin at 5:30 p.m. at theBiodesign Instituteauditorium.

Natterson-Horowitz is an evolutionary biologist and a visiting professor in the Department of HumanEvolutionary BiologyatHarvard University. She is also acardiologistand professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiology atUniversity of California, Los Angeles.She is a New York Times bestselling author of the book "Zoobiquity: What Animals Can Teach Us About Health and the Science of Healing,"co-authored with Bowers.Her new book makes the case for a species-spanning approach to research that includes veterinary and evolutionary perspectives.

Before reading 'Wildhood,' I had no idea that adolescence was ubiquitous in the animal world. 'Wildhood'is an extremely innovative work of science and communication that brings together so many different fields to better understand human adolescence, said Athena Aktipis, director of the ASU Interdisciplinary Cooperation Initiative and co-lead of theArizona Cancer Evolution Center. Aktipis is also a professor atASU Department of Psychology.

According to the Washington Post, the authors make clear that, in a fundamental sense, adolescent animals and teen humans encounter the same sorts of challenges and that what may strike elders of any species as nutty, exasperating behavior is not only inevitable for most creatures in that stage of development but truly valuable.

Natterson-Horowitz and Bowers write, The same four universal challenges are faced by every adolescent human and animal on earth: how to be safe; how to navigate hierarchy; how to court potential mates; and how to feed oneself. Safety. Status. Sex. Self-reliance. How human and animal adolescents and young adults confront the challenges of wildhood shapes their adult destinies.

Natterson-Horowitz and Bowers tell a story of the California sea otter. One specific kind (of otter) joyrides into the death zone, and its not the mature adults. Its certainly not the baby pups. No, the magnificent knuckleheads that swim into the cold, barren, shark-filled Triangle of Death are adolescents. Sometimes they die in a flash of teeth and a swirl of blood. But more often than not, these thrill-seeking animal 'teens' emerge with hard-won experience, newfound confidence and more sea smarts than they had as parent-protected, dependent juveniles.

Human "adolescents frequently put themselves in danger deliberately," Natterson-Horowitz and Bowers write, adding: "Adolescent risk-taking is seen throughout the animal world."

Natterson-Horowitzs visit is sponsored by the Arizona Cancer Evolution Center at ASU, funded last year with $10.8 million from the National Cancer Institute.

The goal of the Arizona Cancer Evolution Center aligns with Natterson-Horowitzs work in that the research team applies evolutionary and ecological models to cancer biology in an effort toadvance the fundamental understanding of cancer and its clinical management. Led by Carlo Maley, the Arizona Cancer Evolution Center team has studied how cancer evolves in whales, elephants and other animals. Ultimately, their end goal is to surface new ways to prevent and treat cancer. Maley is also an associate professor in the School of Life Sciences.

Barbara Natterson-Horowitzs work looking across species to learn about health, disease and behavior is really pushing the boundaries of medicine, Maley said. Her work is also inspiring for the kind of work we do at the Arizona Cancer Evolution Center, learning about cancer from studying patterns of cancer across species.

For more information, contactCristina.Baciu@asu.edu.

Written by Dianne Price

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Cliques, binges and bullies: What animals tell us about teen behavior - Arizona State University

Here we are in the last column before the odometer rolls over to mark another year. The past year has been notable for reasons both personal and otherwise. Ill begin with the first.

Its not the years, its the mileage, said Indiana Jones via the pen of Michigans own Lawrence Kasdan. In truth, I put a lot of mileage on this foul rag and bone shop of the heart during the past six decades, eventually suffering a relatively minor heart attack only weeks before my 60th birthday.

That was the downside of this momentous year. The upside was becoming a grandfather for the very first time and witnessing the publication of another daughters significantly researched first book. Im immensely proud of my offspring, and both indeed are worthy of a fathers adulation specifically and objective praise in general.

For reasons unknown, the Worlds Most Beautiful Woman has asked me to refrain from effusively praising her sheer awesomeness. Suffice it to say, each year spent by her side seems to get better and better.

Outside my immediate sphere, the world continues to spin. Acquaintances, family members, friends, and old classmates shuffled off the mortal coil, flourished or maintained their course.

Never before this year have I witnessed more the mercurial temperament of the cosmos. Likewise, never before have I embraced more the birthday lines of Dylan Thomas: Four elements and five senses/And man a spirit in love. Ahh, but I do go on!

Just as Thomas indicated in his lifes last completed work, faith has a peculiar way of returning with a vengeance, if thats the correct word. Faith as a child is easy, faith as an adult requires some heavy lifting. But once the muscles of faith are exercised and developed, it becomes once again second or even first nature.

Henceforth most everything seems a blessing. Faith awakened, it spins its morning of praise persistently and perpetually while coloring reality in the radiant hues of Gods limitless palette.

Sometimes, the coloring is inside the lines, my friends. Humankind explores and adds to its repository of knowledge regarding the natural world. After millennia of practice, were still repeating the same mistakes and following blind alleys, however. Unfortunately, were imperfectible human beings too often succumbing to easy solutions or clever machinations resulting in unforeseen consequences.

Other times, the colors leak outside the prescribed lines of what can be interpreted as normal into the supernatural and metaphysical. In this realm, a temporal utopia is recognized as impossible and human nature fatally flawed yet still kissed by the Divine.

For the time being, at least; the past century has witnessed a surge in movements led by those too clever by half. For them, religion was interpreted as inconvenient to their immediate agendas, disparaged as an opiate in their attempts to elevate half-understood science and crackpot theories.

While it is true some Christian religions have veered from the path of righteousness in pursuit of earthly glory in hellish ways, the secular obeisance to human institutions has resulted in dramatically worse the past 100 years. In fact, theres no legitimate comparison to be made.

The willing retreat of Christian faith from the public square or the forced banishment thereof in service of the separation of some invented church-and-state, either/or balderdash has provided to a large degree diminishing cultural returns from art and politics to society and human behavior.

When we aspire to a heaven on earth rather than aim to attain a berth in an eternal heaven, we forfeit the necessity to act properly in the moment and often instead embrace an ends-justify-the-means credo.

No government on earth can deliver on utopian promises, nor can any human. To paraphrase rock sage Pete Townshend, You gotta have faith in something bigger.

Bruce Edward Walker (walker.editorial@gmail.com) is a Morning Sun columnist and Midwest Regional Editor for The Center Square.

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Column: This year's last column | Opinion - The Morning Sun

Share on PinterestHaving a plan in place to deal with tense topics can help you avoid conflict at your next holiday gathering. Getty Images

While the idea of all things jolly during the holidays is comforting, the reality of getting together with friends and family can sometimes include figuring out how to navigate less-joyful topics of conversation.

With the current divisive political climate, this season may be particularly packed with tense talk at your next gathering potentially putting a damper on your holiday celebration.

The problem, especially when we talk about politics, is that people take it so personally. They make part of their identity the political ideology or the person. So if you so strongly identify with the president of the United States, and someone says something bad about him, then you feel like youre being attacked personally, Patrick Wanis, PhD, a human behavior expert, told Healthline.

If you identify with a particular political ideology and someone attacks that, then you feel like youre being attacked personally, he added.

However, for some people, spirited talks are healthy if they involve a dialogue where both people are genuinely interested in understanding the others position rather than trying to get them to buy into theirs, said Karen Ruskin, PsyD, a relationship and human behavior expert in Gilbert, Arizona.

If youre trying to sell your perspective, then that creates disharmony and discomfort and friction and misunderstanding and not feeling like your voice is heard, Dr. Ruskin told Healthline.

She explained that the political debate between family and friends is not just about politics.

It becomes about feeling not understood and not heard and when we as humans dont feel understood and heard, especially by the people we care about most it hurts us. Thats why talking about something that can be such [a] difference of opinion can be harmful for the relationship, Ruskin said.

However, the following tips may be able to help you navigate difficult conversations that crop up at your next holiday gathering:

Jacob Z. Goldsmith, PhD, licensed clinical psychologist at The Family Institute at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, said that while it takes practice, setting boundaries is the best way to navigate difficult conversations.

People think of boundaries as inherently problematic, as if the healthiest relationships would be ones with no boundaries. Healthy relationships definitely involve boundary setting. If someone is unwilling to respect your boundaries, its a really good sign that thats not a healthy relationship, Dr. Goldsmith told Healthline.

He advised people think of setting boundaries in terms of communicating with and managing people.

Ideally, we want to communicate with people. We want to say, I love you and we need to stop talking about this right now or Im happy to have a conversation about this, not at the dinner table in front of everyone else. Lets have a cup of coffee tomorrow and hash this out,' Goldsmith said.

Telling those in the discussion that youre overwhelmed and need to take a time out is another communication approach he recommended.

If communicating doesnt work, going into management mode is needed, which involves leaving the table during a heated discussion or not attending a family gathering to avoid a person.

Ill acknowledge that in some families thats necessary, if you have a really toxic family member. But the first choice is to openly communicate, said Goldsmith.

Dr. Wanis said the biggest sign that boundaries have been crossed is when personal attacks are made.

Its fine if people debate passionately about something they believe in. The problem isnt when its conflict, its the type of conflict and its when conflict becomes a personal attack, he said.

Other signs that a conversation should end include:

If setting boundaries is difficult around a person who intentionally pushes your buttons, Wanis said recognizing the reason why the person aims to argue with you can be helpful.

He explained the following are usually the main reasons why:

Once you understand their motivation, Wanis said it can be easier to not react to their provocations.

Its learning to detach yourself from an outcome. If you want this person to approve or validate [you] then they have control over you, he said.

You hear the words and you dont react because you dont have to prove anything, he continued. The moment you believe you have to prove something or that you have to convince someone of something is when youre going to get yourself in trouble.

Wanis pointed out that another strategy is to ask questions.

Say, Why do you like President Trump so much? or Why do you not like President Trump so much? And if you are just willing to listen, not only will you learn something, but you might learn something about the person and might get a greater insight into their core values, and you might realize they are probably not that different than you, he said.

If you need to change the subject, he advised saying something along the lines of, If President Trump bothers you so much, dont think about him. And then ask the person to tell you about what theyre most passionate about in life to change the subject.

When youre the host, so much goes into making sure your guests feel comfortable and welcome. If you anticipate heated discussions at your party, here are a few ways to set the tone:

Include a simple statement on the invitation, such as, To ensure a fun time is had by all, please respect that there will be no political discussions.

If you want to allow the discussion, Wanis says to set the ground rules and tell your guests upfront, Im happy for you all to be at my table, and to discuss and debate, but the moment there is a personal attack on someone, I will ask you to leave,' he said.

If its a dynamic going on within the family or with friends, then there is humor and seriousness to this. Put a sign on your front door that says, Leave the attitude at home,' Ruskin said.

If you know theres someone who tends to be really provocative, talk to them ahead of time or pull that person aside when they arrive and tell them to leave the politics, religion, and other hot topics aside.

Its harder when there is a power dynamic, so if youre a young adult and hosting and its your parent or grandparent or aunt or uncle, you may not feel comfortable pulling that person aside and saying, Hey, you tend to antagonize people when you talk about politics, so then you need to tell someone else to [speak with them]. If its a grandparent, ask a parent to talk to them, Goldsmith said.

If you want to avoid sitting around and talking all night, Ruskin said its a good idea to plan activities or games throughout the night.

Pace the games, too. Maybe plan a game before the meal to set the tone, and after the meal to [break up dinner conversations], she said.

If theres a topic you want to discuss with family and friends over the holidays, Goldsmith said to prepare your thoughts and know when its time to stop talking.

Before the holidays, think about what your [goal is], because if you want to have a difficult conversation you cant just jump into it particularly after everyone has had two or three drinks in the middle of Christmas dinner. Its going to feel like a gotcha moment and the alcohol doesnt help, he said.

Goldsmith suggests asking yourself how you want to feel at the end of the talk. Avoid going into the talk with the goal of convincing people to think or believe a certain way.

When you think about it that way, you are able to take radical responsibility for your own behavior and own experience. Doing that allows you to insert a pause where youre not just impulsively or reactively jumping in, but rather moving in a mindful and committed way, he said.

Once you share your thoughts, be prepared to listen and be empathic of what other people are saying even if you dont agree.

The hallmark of really deep conversation is empathic listening, which doesnt mean you have to agree, but that you have to step into the other persons shoes long enough to understand how and why they feel what they feel, Goldsmith said.

When we experience tension, we experience tension emotionally and physiologically because theyre connected, Ruskin explained.

We dont compartmentalize our emotions and our brains from our body, she said.

For instance, if youre feeling angry or anxious about a dialogue, your body goes into fight-or-flight mode.

Your heart rate will go up and if your heart starts to pound, the brain thinks, Alert. Something is wrong, because the brain doesnt know the distinct difference between why the heart rate [is increasing], it just thinks theres a problem, and now the brain isnt as calm as it was because youre not getting as much oxygen to the brain [when] youre feeling tense, Ruskin said.

Goldsmith agreed, noting that research shows being under enormous amounts of stress has both physical and mental side effects.

However, he said, theres a balance because being able to express yourself with loved ones has mental health benefits, too.

Many people dont feel mentally healthy when they are holding inside a lot of things. Its important for a lot of people to feel close to their family and the holidays are a time for a lot of people to get their one shot at getting a break being away from work and relaxing for a little while, so to have that taken away if there is tension can feel really lousy, he said.

In the short term, its more stressful to talk about this stuff, but in the long term it can feel way better to develop relationships in which you can actually talk about these things, Goldsmith said.

Cathy Cassata is a freelance writer who specializes in stories around health, mental health, and human behavior. She has a knack for writing with emotion and connecting with readers in an insightful and engaging way. Read more of her work here.

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Impeachment, Politics, and Keeping the Peace at Holiday Gatherings - Healthline

I grew up studying the architectural drawings on the back pages of The Register-Guard in Florence, Oregon. Later, I graduated from Southern Oregon University where I was in the first class to graduate with a bachelor's of science in environmental science with geography and economic honors. I've lived most of my life in various rural Oregon communities. I have a master's degree from Cornell University in planning. I studied geographic information systems and predicted the rise of Google Maps in my thesis.

Family has brought me to Portland, and during this time I have gotten to know the Rose Quarter Freeway Widening Project. My children are slated to attend Harriet Tubman when they reach middle school. I also was in a cargo bike crash at the Rose Quarter. When I see a problem I want to solve it. This area is a puzzle of rivers, street cars, bridges and people. As a former sub-contractor for Oregon Department of Transportation, I took it upon myself to figure out a solution, for the kids.

As you know, Portland's freeways are congested most parts of the day. There are no easy solutions. Building more roads leads to more congestion and Oregon's greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector keep rising with every additional freeway lane. This phenomenon is called "induced demand" and, in short, the more connections in a system the slower it goes. This is observed on the freeway network from downtown Portland to downtown Vancouver, there are too many interchanges too close together with outdated merging patterns and safety features.

At the Rose Quarter where I-84 and I-5 converge is where ODOT has been pushing an additional auxiliary lane to ease congestion and increase fluidity. Its project proposal was put out for an environmental assessment consultation in the spring of 2019. The analysis for greenhouse gas emissions used false data (predicted vs. surveyed). The National Environmental Protection Act process utilized auxiliary lane loopholes generally applied in rural areas and comes with a heavy price tag. Five hundred million dollars from House Bill 2017 has been earmarked for this project. Eighty-nine percent of Portland region comments rejected the freeway widening proposal.

We can't afford another freeway boondoggle like the Columbia River fiasco in 2014. This was the source data that was used for the Rose Quarter. It's wrong! The outsized interchanges of the Columbia River Crossing proposal had an additional $1 billion price on top of the actual CRC bridge proposal. Interchanges add to congestion, they don't solve it. Traffic models are notoriously bad for modeling human behavior in slow-merging patterns. That's why models never predict congestion. This is common knowledge in traffic modeling circles. It's common sense.

We need a mature network-based approach to managing the freeways for high-priority vehicles like freight and buses. State Sen. Lee Beyer's (D-Springfield) 100% environmental scorecard with the Oregon League of Conservation Voters belies the harm he has done to our urban transport network in Portland.

I urge you to contact Beyer and ask him to do a better job and respect the National Environmental Protection Act protection for vulnerable and minority populations. The Rose Quarter Freeway Widening deserves a full environmental impact statement, which would allow climate activists a chance to find high-capacity solutions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Please consider your vote for Beyer a vote for more increases in transport related greenhouse gas emissions.

For the last eight years, Beyer has been on, or chaired, the highest transportation committees in Oregon. In Portland alone, we have experienced more than 45 traffic fatalities in the last year. This is traffic violence on a regional scale for Portlanders, a situation that is unknown to most rural Oregon residents. Kids, elderly and the disabled are harmed the most. I've watched Beyer on these committees and he doesn't seem to care.

Maybe he's too busy with other committees to realize he is no longer fit to be offering transport planning advice to Portland commuters.

Roberta Robles was a GIS NEPA consultant for ODOT Bridge Replacement program 2003-05 and continued as freight and transport planner in New Zealand for four years. She is from the rocky Oregon Coast where the Siuslaw River meets the long white dunes.

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Guest View: Beyer must step up on transportation - The Register-Guard

This year, climate change was a top concern for college students and professors, and they found plenty of outlandish ways to express their concern. From disruptions to attempts to control human behavior, Campus Reform has gathered a few of the most outrageous things done on campus this year in the name of combatting climate change.

From disruptions to attempts to control human behavior, Campus Reform has gathered a few of the most outrageous things done on campus this year in the name of combatting climate change.

1. 50 climate protesters who disrupted Harvard-Yale football game learn their punishment

During the November 23 Harvard vs. Yale football game, student climate-protesters from both schools raided the field and insisted that the university erase their holdings on Puerto Rican debt and cease fossil fuel investments. The protestors had already delayed the game for thirty minutes before police intervened. Fifty people were reportedly charged with disorderly conduct, and the judge handed a sentence of five community-service hours to at least 29 protesters.

The judge said that as long as these conditions are met, the charges will be dropped. Later, some people from the Democrat party applauded the move made by these students by saying, When people come together to stand up for justice, we win.

2. Researchers at the University of Michigan have conducted a study attempting to Address the myths surrounding climate change.

U of Michigan created guidelines to help individuals spot fake news about climate change as part of a study that concluded that this type of fake news too easily spread on Facebook.

The researchers remarked that this research opens the door for research on other fake news, but says that fake news about climate change is especially problematic because climate change itself is an undeniable widespread, global problem..

Our findings suggest that being exposed to guidelines for evaluating news quality can lead individuals to be less likely to trust, 'like,' and share fake news about climate change, study co-author and UMich postdoctoral research fellow Caitlin Drummond told Campus Reform.

3. Georgetown Universitys Climate...Rebuttal event held by the campus conservative group is shut down by clown with bike horn

A group of environmental protesters crashed a College Republicans event titled Climate Forum: A Rebuttal. One protester was decked out in a clown costume and repeatedly honked a bike horn in an attempt to prevent the event from carrying on. Police were called to the scene after the protesters refused to leave the meeting, When the police entered the room, protesters started chanting, What do we want? Climate justice. When do we want it? Now! No one at the event was arrested, but police did prevent protesters from entering and causing further disruption

4. The University of London bans burgers to combat climate change could this come to the United States?

In August, the University of London banned the sale of beef products and increased the tax on plastic water bottles. This action was taken in light of the belief that beef could be damaging to the environment because cows produce methane gas.

"Our house is on fire...I believe Frances Corner and the university management are realizing this and making these changes to put their part of the house fire out. Regarding climate change, Goldsmiths Students' Union president Joe Leam said.

5. Taxpayers money is used to fund Harvards Climate Change Tree

Researchers at Harvard have used money from the U.S. Government to make a tree that has a twitter account to tweet about climate change concerns. This tree, dubbed the Witness Tree, is equipped with various measuring devices and uses the information collected to send automated tweets about the weather and other factors. It tweets in the first person, which will supposedly, make it relatable to a larger audience, but also allows the tree to include various implications in its otherwise scientific tweets.

The last 2 days were extremely hot for July. When is this heatwave going to end? the treetweeted over the summer.

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @SavannahDudzik

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Tweeting trees and clowns with horns: How far did universities go to combat the climate change monster this year? - Campus Reform

Craig Smith, EVP of Operations at Absorb Software

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Healthcare finally made the shiftit went digital. Overdue, perhaps and maybe less rapid than the transition by other industries but nonetheless notable. The age of the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) has dawned, and healthcare is riding the wave. You go, healthcare!

For healthcare organizations, the advent of IoMT means new technology tools like smart medical devices extending and streamlining care throughout the hospital. This gives clinicians more mobility and more efficiency in providing patient care. The shift to a completely digitized environment; however, gives the entire healthcare IT infrastructure something else to worry about: new cybersecurity risks.

Healthcare Cyber Threats Are Real

A recent study by Kaspersky confirms this cyber threat, with study data pointing to a significant lack of security awareness among healthcare organizations in both the U.S. and Canada. How big is this risk? Nearly one third (32%) of survey respondents said they had never received cybersecurity training from their employer, while 21% admitted they were not aware of the cybersecurity policy at their workplace.

This is a dangerously high level of exposure, especially when you consider the number of potential threats healthcare organizations face and the resulting impact on Personal Health Information (PHI) and associated data privacy regulations. Phishing attacks represent the biggest cybersecurity threat, cleverly disguised requests for login credentials to dupe unsuspecting employees into providing their usernames or passwords, which would then be used to gain unauthorized access to systems and data establishing an entry point into the target organization for data gathering and establishing an attack plan

Healthcare organizations urgently need a more proactive approach to security training.

Cybersecurity Isnt Just a Tech Problem

When it comes to cybersecurity, awareness matters. But business leaders need to think beyond their IT department and instead focus on training all employees on how to identify and address key risks. Everyone across the organizations regardless of his or her role needs to be equipped with knowledge and skills to protect against threats or attacks. And its not enough to just do the bare minimum to meet compliance or other regulatory requirements. Organizations need blended learning & development (L&D) and other training strategies that empower your employees to protect against cyber-attacks.

The following L&D guidance for cybersecurity training will help healthcare organizations overcome these hurdles and make security training more effective preventing untold costs in security incidents.

1. Make It Simple and Clear

People can be a powerful force when it comes to preventing cybercrime. But individuals often believe they are not a target, which exposes the organization to tremendous risk. Its important to address this misconception and explain the critical importance and benefits of leveraging a cybersecurity awareness and training program. Employee training should explain how threats work, and include recent examples of phishing messages. This will give learners a clear picture of how to detect possible threats, and respond accordingly. It is also recommended that organizations only focus on a single awareness and training topic per quarter to avoid overloading staff with too much information at one time.

2. Vary Your Training Techniques

Plan on using a blend of learning techniques to provide a combination of simulation and engagement. Why? This will build employee confidence in real-world security encounters. If you just lecture to your team, or more likely, have expert conduct the lecture, complete with ominous warnings about worst-case cybersecurity scenarios, your lesson may just backfire. Youll scare them about hackers, but not inspire any behavioral change. By blending the training techniques in your learning management system to include interactive components, videos, and a few real-life examples, you stand a much better chance of having the learning stick.

3. Keep a Steady Drumbeat of Learning

Continuous reinforcement of key lessons is more effective than long learning sessions that can be hard to digest. You can still perform annual cybersecurity training. But also assign microlessons and short quizzes throughout the year to keep learning fresh and top of mind. This way, when its test time everybodys ready to succeed. Thanks, coach!

4. Use Non-Experts

Perhaps the most important way to change employee behavior is by having the message about cybersecurity come from someone human and relatable. This approach can help employees build confidence in secure behaviors and avoid errors in real-world situations. Human behavior is more complex than just technical expertise. Including instructors with soft skills is crucial, according to a recent study of over 1,700 security pros from the SANS Institute. Enlist nontechnical staff members to create engaging learning modules, such as real-life examples your workforce can relate to.

The unique challenges of healthcare

Its been well established that healthcare is now more vulnerable to breaches than any other industry, and the implications of an attack go far beyond data privacy. Cyber incidents can potentially compromise patient safety and interfere with care delivery. Yet, healthcare workers are not getting the consistent education they need to keep organization and patient data safe. These vulnerabilities are exacerbated by the unique challenges healthcare presents, which makes training extremely difficult.

Unfortunately, there is no single, all-encompassing formula for ensuring that employees actually learn and apply the cybersecurity lessons theyre taught. Training can, however, go a long way in mitigating threats. By aligning with these tips, you can ensure your healthcare organization is taking the optimal steps to prepare your team for the new IoMT world, and its related cybersecurity risks.

About Craig Smith

Craig Smith serves as the Executive Vice President of Operations forAbsorb Software, acloud-based learning management system (LMS) engineered to inspire learning and fuel business productivity.Rising through the Absorb leadership ranks, Craig started as the Director of Technology before pivoting to lead Operations as its Vice President. Craig continues to leverage his IT roots to elevate the Absorb customer experience, drawing on his time as a developer at Honeywell International, building websites for clients at Autodata Solutions and leading a team of developers at AGAT Laboratories.

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4 Ways to Make Security Training A Priority in Your Healthcare Organization - HIT Consultant

Chanukah is generally presented as a commemoration of a landmark victory for religious freedom and human liberty in ancient times. Big mistake. Chanukahs greatest triumph is still to comethe victory of the human soul over artificial intelligence.

Jewish holidays are far more than memories of things that happened in the distant pastthey are live events taking place right now, in the ever-present. As we recite on Chanukahs parallel celebration, Purim, These days will be remembered and done in every generation. The Arizal explains: When they are remembered, they reenact themselves.

And indeed, the battle of the Maccabees is an ongoing battle, oneThe battle of the Maccabees is an ongoing battle embedded deep within the fabric of our society. embedded deep within the fabric of our society, one that requires constant vigilance lest it sweep away the foundations of human liberty. It is the struggle between the limitations of the mind and the infinite expanse that lies beyond the minds restrictive boxes, between perception and truth, between the apparent and the transcendental, between reason and revelation, between the mundane and the divine.

Today, as AI development rapidly accelerates, we may be participants in yet a deeper formalization of society, the struggle between man and machine.

Let me explain what I mean by the formalization of society. Formalization is something the manager within us embraces, and something the incendiary, creative spark within that manager defies. Its why many bright kids dont do well in school, why our most brilliant, original minds are often pushed aside for promotions while the survivors who follow the book climb high, why ingenuity is lost in big corporations, and why so many of us are debilitated by migraines. Its also a force that bars anything transcendental or divine from public dialogue.

Formalization is the strangulation of life by reduction to standard formulas. ScientistsFormalization is the strangulation of life by reduction to standard formulas. reduce all change to calculus, sociologists reduce human behavior to statistics, AI technologists reduce intelligence to algorithms. Thats all very usefulbut it is no longer reality. Reality is not reducible, because the only true model of reality is reality itself. And what else is reality but the divine, mysterious and wondrous space in which humans live?

Formalization denies that truth. To reduce is useful, to formalize is to kill.

Formalization happens in a mechanized society because automation demands that we state explicitly the rules by which we work and then set them in silicon. It reduces thought to executable algorithms; behaviors to procedures, ideas to formulas. Thats fantastic because it potentially liberates us warm, living human beings from repetitive tasks that can be performed by cold, lifeless mechanisms so we may spend more time on those activities that no algorithm or formula could perform.

Potentially. The default, however, without deliberate intervention, is the edifice complex.

The edifice complex is what takes place when we create a device, institution or any other formal structurean edificeto more efficiently execute some mandate. That edifice then develops a mandate of its ownthe mandate to preserve itself by the most expedient means. And then, just as in the complex it sounds like, The Edifice Inc., with its new mandate, turns around and suffocates to deathThe Edifice Inc., with its new mandate, turns around and suffocates to death the original mandate for which it was created. the original mandate for which it was created.

Think of public education. Think of many of our religious institutions and much of our government policy. But also think of the general direction that industrialization and mechanization has led us since the Industrial Revolution took off 200 years ago.

Its an ironic formula. Ever since Adam named the animals and harnessed fire, humans have built tools and machines to empower themselves, to increase their dominion over their environment. And, yes, in many ways we have managed to increase the quality of our lives. But in many other ways, we have enslaved ourselves to our own servantsto the formalities of those machines, factories, assembly lines, cost projections, policies, etc. We have coerced ourselves into ignoring the natural rhythms of human life, the natural bonds and covenants of human community, the spectrum of variation across human character and our natural tolerance to that wide deviance, all to conform to those tight formalities our own machinery demands in the name of efficacy.

In his personal notes in the summer of 1944, having barely escaped from occupied France, the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson of righteous memory, described a world torn by a war between two ideologiesbetween those for whom the individual was nothing more than a cog in the machinery of the state, and those who understood that there can be no benefit to the state by trampling the rights of any individual. The second ideologythat held by the western Alliesis, the Rebbe noted, a Torah one: If the enemy says, give us one of you, or we will kill you all! declared the sages of the Talmud, Not one soul shall be deliberately surrendered to its death.

Basically, the life of the individual is equal to the whole. Go make an algorithm from that. The math doesntThe life of the individual is equal to the whole. Go make an algorithm from that. The math doesnt work. work. Try to generalize it. You cant. It will generate what logicians call a deductive explosion. Yet it summarizes a truth essential to the sustainability of human life on this planetas that world war demonstrated with nightmarish poignance.

That war continued into the Cold War. It presses on today with the rising economic dominance of the Communist Party of China.

In the world of consumer technology, total dominance of The Big Machine was averted when a small group of individuals pressed forward against the tide by advancing the human-centered digital technology we now take for granted. But yet another round is coming, and it rides on the seductive belief that AI can do its best job by adding yet another layer of formalization to all societys tasks.

Dont believe that for a minute. The telos of technology is to enhance human life, not to restrict it; to provide human beings with tools and devices, not to render them as such.

Technologys ultimate purpose will come in a time of which Maimonides writes, when the occupation of the entire world will be only to know the divine. AI can certainly assist us in attaining that era and living itas long as we remain its masters and do not surrender our dignity as human beings. And that is the next great battle of humanity.

To win this battle, we need once again only a small army, but an army armed with more than vision. They must be people with faith. Faith in the divine spark within the human being. For that is what underpins the security of the modern world.

Pundits will tell you that our modern world is secular. Dont believe them. They will tell you that religion is not taught in American public schools. Its a lie. Western society is sustained on the basis of a foundational, religious belief: that all human beings are equal. Thats a statement withAll human beings are equal. Thats a statement of faith. no empirical or rational support. Because it is neither. It is a statement of faith. Subliminally, it means: The value of a single human life cannot be measured.

In other words, every human life is divine.

No, we dont say those words; there is no class in school discussing our divine image. Yet it is a tacit, unspoken belief. Western society is a church without walls, a religion whose dogmas are never spoken, yet guarded jealously, mostly by those who understand them the least. Pull out that belief from between the bricks and the entire edifice collapses to the ground.

It is also a ubiquitous theme in Jewish practice. As Ive written elsewhere, leading a Jewish way of life in the modern era is an outright rebellion against the materialist reductionism of a formalized society.

We liberate ourselves from interaction with our machines once a week, on Shabbat, and rise to an entirely human world of thought, prayer, meditation, learning, songs, and good company. We insist on making every instance of food consumption into a spiritual, even mystical event, by eating kosherWe liberate ourselves from interaction with our machines once a week. and saying blessings before and after. We celebrate and empower the individual through our insistence that every Jew must study and enter the discussion of the hows and whys of Jewish practice. And on Chanukah, we insist that every Jew must create light and increase that light each day; that none of us can rely on any grand institution to do so in our proxy.

Because each of us is an entire world, as our sages state in the Mishnah, Every person must say, On my account, the world was created.

This is what the battle of Chanukah is telling us. The flame of the menorah, that is the human soul The human soul is a candle of Gd. The war-machine of Antiochus upon elephants with heavy armorthat is the rule of formalization and expedience coming to suffocate the flame. The Maccabee rebels are a small group of visionaries, those who believe there is more to heaven and earth than all science and technology can contain, more to the human soul than any algorithm can grind out, more to life than efficacy.

How starkly poignant it is indeed that practicing, religious Jews were by far the most recalcitrant group in the Hellenist world of the Greeks and Romans.

Artificial intelligence can be a powerful tool for good, but only when wielded by those who embrace a reality beyond reason. And it is that transcendence that Torah preserves within us. Perhaps all of Torah and its mitzvahs were given for this, the final battle of humankind.

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Chanukah and the Battle of Artificial Intelligence - The Ultimate Victory of the Human Being - Chabad.org

And if The West Wing trio worked in Congressman Frank Underwoods Washington, they might just get shoved in front of a moving Metro train. When Netflix premiered House of Cards in 2013, it seemed natural to juxtapose it with the brighter era of political TV that preceded it. If only we knew at the time that the show was preparing us for a decade of dark political TV to comeand reflecting an overall perception of Washington that would soon have an impact on the real Washington.

Of course, Scandal and House of Cards were just TVfew people on the government payroll, after all, could afford those wardrobes. But these shows portrayal of the creeping rot of Washington didnt show up in a vacuum. Television can both set and reflect the mood of the nation, creating expectations about human behavior. After Barack Obamas 2008 victory, many mused, in seriousness, about whether Dennis Haysberts acting turn as President David Palmer on 24 helped get voters used to the image of a black president. Something similar might be at work now. Todays real-life sweeping nihilism about politicians motives, the widespread hatred of the swamp, the notion that the process is flawed and the rules of engagement themselves might not be worth following, was, if not created by television, then at least predicted by it.

To realize how dark TVs take on Washington has been these past eight or 10 years, its worth thinking about how relatively sunny the view was just a decade earlier. The aughts were full of political shows whose central politicians were virtuous and well-meaning, engaged in public service for the right reasons. This wasnt a just a liberal Hollywood thing; in ABCs short-lived Commander in Chief (2005-06), Geena Davis, a vice president who ascended to the Oval Office when her boss died, was a political independent. Foxs 24 (2001-10) didnt take a progressive view of issues like torturebut when Kiefer Sutherland and his fellow counterterrorism agents played fast and loose with the Geneva Accords, they did so for the sake of virtuous presidents and the safety of the American people.

And nothing screamed higher calling more than The West Wing, which aired on NBC from 1999 to 2006, tracking the righteous souls who worked for President Jed Bartlet. The soundtrack was stirring and majestic; the opening sequence was gauzy and triumphant; in most episodes, someone gave a speech about doing the right thing. When the actors showed up on the Democratic campaign trailas they did en masse for Hillary Clinton in 2016you sometimes got the sense that they actually believed they had been part of the government.

The West Wing, created by Aaron Sorkin, was a liberal wish-fulfillment fantasy, but it also mostly imbued Team Bartlets conservative antagonists with a certain kind of honor: They wanted power, but in service to their causes, and with ultimate respect for the system. (That point was underscored in a 2002 documentary-style Special Episode that featured gauzy interviews about the work of White House staffers, and included such Republicans as Marlin Fitzwater, Peggy Noonan and Karl Rove.) Even though the show premiered seven months after President Bill Clintons highly partisan impeachment trial, it was forever optimistic about the systemconfident that a few good friends and well-placed Sorkin-penned speeches could fix whatever ailed democracy. If there was political analysis embedded in The West Wing, it was the notion that the system fell short when the players didnt fight hard enough for what they believed in; when they were too willing to play the safe bet instead of taking a risk for the greater good.

Then came the end of Obamas first terma moment when, if you were a liberal with Sorkinesque optimism about Yes We Can slogans and transformative change, you might be coming to terms with the notion that politicians are imperfect, gridlock is pervasive and Mitch McConnell isnt just going to step aside to make way for your higher cause, whether its universal health care or closing Guantanamo.

And a new era of political TV shows took that disillusionment one step further. Shows like Veep and House of Cards offered a new, darker theory: The system can never work if everybody in politics is terrible and venal and self-servingand the very nature of Washington makes people terrible and venal and self-serving.

Veep, a kind of inverse of The West Wing that premiered in 2012, was a farce about ambitious politician Selina Meyer and her marginally competent, politically hungry staff. Here, majestic West Wing-style music is played in little jabs, like punchlines, between scenes where Meyer does her best to squeeze political capital from every situation. And her disdain for the actual public is glaringly obvious. (Ive met some people, some real people, and Ive got to tell you, a lot of them are f---ing idiots, she says in the first season.) Where the staffers in The West Wing were fast and loyal friends, Meyers staffers mock and undermine one another other without mercy. The closest thing Meyer has to a friend is the devoted body guy who brings her snacks on demand and whispers useful facts in her ear in public settings. In the series finale, she sets him up to take the fall for a political scandaland watches FBI agents haul him away, out of the corner of her eye, as she delivers a nomination acceptance speech at the party convention.

Veep was created by a Scotsman, Armando Iannucci, a veteran of scathing British black comedies about the moral compromises of government. He held no special reverence for American institutions, and he was keenly aware of the comedic possibilities when teeming ambition crashed into powerlessness. Around the time of the series premiere, Iannucci told the Los Angeles Times that he was partly inspired by Lyndon B. Johnson, who spent his vice presidency sort of sitting in his office waiting for a phone call. (The running joke in the first season is that Selina keeps asking if the president called, and the answer is always no.) Like the best satire, the show has an undercurrent of sadness; Meyer is acutely aware of how much toil and personal sacrifice it has taken to obtain whatever capital she has, and how much the struggle has changed her as a person. The finale offers a brief, melancholy image of her sitting alone in the Oval Office, having sacrificed every relationship to reach her goal.

House of Cards, too, had roots across the pond; it was loosely based on a British political-thriller series from the 1990s. But where Veep spun nihilism into farce, House of Cards turned it into high melodrama. The credit sequence shows the monuments of Washington in ominous time-lapse photography, with dark clouds sweeping overhead and shadows climbing up the buildings. The central characters, politician Frank Underwood and his wife, Claire, are so deeply committed to Washington power that theyd do anything to get itnot just the garden-variety TV fare of murders, affairs and bribery, but some truly sinister bureaucratic moves. In the second season, in order to blackmail a pregnant former employee, Claire forges health insurance paperwork to deny her a drug that would aid blood flow to her placenta. Im willing to let your child wither and die inside you if thats whats required, but neither of us wants that, she says, matter-of-factly.

The ruthlessness of politics was a running theme throughout the decade. Even soap-opera fantasies picked up on the idea of Washington as a force for ambition, evil and, really, not much else. The Oval Office, in our show, was a place that corrupted anybody who came near it, Scandal creator Shonda Rhimes told reporters before the series finale. And the closer you came, the more corrupt it made you and the more damaged it made you. This year, Netflixs The Politician, a Ryan Murphy political allegory set at a California high school, mocked the poll-driven, values-free drive of a budding politician and his handlers.

The most powerful way that TV predicted politics in the 2010s, though, was in its prescription for a fix: the suggestion that what Washington really needs is an outsider to swoop in and shake things up (or drain the swamp, if you prefer). Mainstream networks in particular offered another archetype alongside these power-hungry nihilists: the accidental politician who reluctantly takes high office, then comes face-to-face with that broken system. These shows might have been more optimistic about human nature than Scandal or Veep, but in their own way, they were just as cynical about Washington.

In 2016, ABC launched Designated Survivor, a political thriller starring Kiefer Sutherland, best known as fearless agent Jack Bauer in 24. Here, Sutherland plays Tom Kirkman, a mild-mannered career academic who serves as secretary of Housing and Urban Developmentbut is so bad at navigating Washington politics that one morning, he learns that president plans to fire him. He has one final duty: to be the Cabinet member taken to a secure location during the State of the Union address, just in case. As it so happens, that night, somebody blows up the Capitol.

Kirkman takes the Oath of Office with no trust, no mandate and no idea how to do the job, though viewers surely trust that his inner Kiefer Sutherland will come through. It does, in a mild-mannered way, as he fires subordinate generals, stumbles through international crises and finds it within himself, eventually, to deliver a stirring speech. (In the third season, he delivers his own State of the Union address, but goes off-script and caterwauls at Congress: The system is broken and you people broke it!) Through it all, Kirkman is fighting against a greater conspiracy: a network of corruption that wrongly believes hed be an easy mark. As other characters handle the action-adventure work, Kirkman stands his ground; its his rare integrity, his un-Washingtonian Kiefer-ness, that holds the nation together.

CBS Madam Secretary, which premiered two years earlier, has a similar premise: Elizabeth McCord, a former CIA analyst-turned-college professor, is tapped to become secretary of State after the current one dies in a plane crash. The president, a former CIA director, tells McCord he trusts her to think more expansively than most Washington lifers, and within reason, she complies, battling a White House chief of staff who would prefer she follow protocol more often. This is me not being a politician, she declares in one early episode, explaining an unconventional decision.

Madam Secretary is more like The West Wing in the sense that multiple characters have virtue. The president is a basically a good guy; the McCords marriage is a mutually supportive dream; the State Department staff is behind her. (So are some real-world political operatives: In one 2018 episode, former Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton, Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell appear together, as themselves, to offer bland advice about pushing for national unity after a crisis.) Still, the shows backdrop is a Washington thats compromised and divided, full of conspiracies and unworthy opponents, from secretive bureaucrats to government moles and ambitious two-dimensional senators. At the end of the first season, one such senator discovers that McCord shared classified information with her husband Henry. Issued a subpoena to appear before the Senate committee, Henry declares his intention to obstruct justice. This whole thing lacks integrity, he tells Elizabeth. I feel no ethical obligation to play by their rules.

Ultimately, Elizabeth barges into the hearing, takes Henrys place at the witness table and delivers an impassioned speech, saying she only broke the law because she cared about the country and didnt know who else she could trust. (Man, I have never heard a more eloquent defense for violating the Espionage Act, another character says, in admiration.) She storms out of the hearing without being dismissed. Soon afterward, the president informs her that the Justice Department has decided to let it pass.

Of all of the political shenanigans on television this decade, that 2015 scene might have been the most telling, and the most predictive of the real-life politics that were to come, not long after the episode aired. The West Wing never argued that the rules of political engagement can and should be broken. But today, real-life Washington is full of disagreements, not just about facts and outcomes, but about the basic codes of conduct, the processes that everyone needs to follow, the obligation anyone has to play by anyones rules.

Again, its just TV. But academic treatises have been written about how TV crime shows can create a warped impression of the criminal justice system, giving jurors outsized expectations, for example, of the power of forensic evidence. A decade ago, on political TV, we had an openhearted baseline expectation about how the system works, why it fails and what kinds of behavior gets rewarded.

But in these 2010s shows, the characters learn that breaking the codes of conduct and propriety will wind up taking you far. Selina Meyer of Veep and both Underwoods of House of Cards all get to be president in the end. Elizabeth McCord, of Madam Secretary, eventually becomes president, too. But, you know, a good one. So long as youre on her side.

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How TV Predicted Politics in the 2010s - POLITICO

Fraud is one of the most prominent threats facing the UK economy, costing a reported130 billion each year. Due to the relentless activities of cyber criminals, businesses, and consumers alike are suffering from the devastating effects of fraud. In the first half of 2019, there were over 1.3 million cases of payment card fraud, a 16 percent rise on the same period last year, according toUK Finance. Furthermore,half of UK businesses have fallen victim to cyber fraud in the past two years, explaining why 42 percent believe cybercrime will have the greatest impact on businesses over the next two-year period.

Data breaches in 2019, affecting major brands such as Capital One, have exposed 4.1 billion records. Cyber criminals can then use the stolen information to set up new bank accounts in the victims name, and any compromised passwords can be used in credential stuffing attacks.

However, although breaches and fraud are becoming normal, everyday events, there are steps businesses can take to protect themselves and their customers. Security needs to be baked in from the beginning not bolted on at the end to protect critical data. Here are some key questions businesses should ask themselves when evaluating their ability to tackle fraud in 2020.

The cyber-landscape is changing so rapidly driven by a combination of regulations, complex enterprise infrastructures, and increasingly sophisticated criminals that companies need to constantly assess and update their security systems and processes.

In order to detect and defend against modern attacks with greater efficiency, value and importance must be placed on dynamic and flexible controls. Organizations need to invest in the collection of high-quality data that will provide the basis for these controls, as well as the informed decisions they need to make on threats and criminal activity.

For example, were seeing the emergence of next-generation intelligent security, such as adaptive authentication, which uses AI and machine learning to score the increasingly vast amounts of data businesses collect, analyze the risk of a situation, and adapt authentication levels accordingly.

Using a layered approach to authentication, incorporating biometrics, behavioral analysis, and data from third-party tools makes staying ahead of the cybercriminals that little bit easier. Security moves from being a black and white binary story, to becoming precise and intelligent. Businesses need to regularly update their infrastructures and adopt a strong, multi-layered approach to security thats capable of detecting the most advanced and new strains of cyber-attacks.

Make no mistake, fraud is as much a business as any other, and this wont change in 2020. As such, cyber-criminals will focus their attacks that will bring them the greatest return on investment with minimal effort. As such, its important that your business is capable of securing all channels, as all are potential targets for criminals to exploit.

Criminals are already using an arsenal of tools and tricks to deceive individuals into handing over sensitive information via multiple channels. For example, more than 175,000 phishing sites were taken down over the past year by the National Cyber Security Centre, and Mimecast halted an astonishing 99 billion suspicious emails, ranging from sophisticated impersonations to volume-focused spam campaigns.

Mobile channels are also increasingly under threat. Apple and Google Play app stores are no strangers to malware infested apps. Despite an incredible amount of suspicious activity being thwarted, malicious software and websites still slip through the net.

In 2020, fraud will continue to follow the ebb and flow across different channels as new technologies or standards are introduced, making one channel more secure than another. As the saying goes, when one door closes another one opens. Its the job of businesses to predict those doors opening, and make sure theyre secure from the offset.

The best position security position you can take is one that incorporates both technology and human behavior.

While its important to have controls in place that can filter malicious content, such as fraudulent emails and suspicious websites, you shouldnt forget that human error can compromise even the best technological defenses. So having an educational program in place that trains employees on how to spot phishing emails, outlines what to do if theyre targeted, and provides other tips for staying secure is key. Crucially, this should be a process thats constantly revised, and training should be held at regular intervals so that staff dont lose focus of the most prevalent threats.

Ultimately, there is plenty of work still to be done to improve IT security and get ahead of attackers, whether its strengthening human or technical defenses. Despite modern companies placing far more importance on security than ever before, the threat of fraud remains.

But, by regularly assessing their security infrastructure, making sure every channel is covered and training their employees, businesses can put themselves in the best position to fight back against fraud in 2020 and beyond.

Published December 27, 2019 16:00 UTC

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3 security steps you should take to protect your company from fraud - The Next Web