Dear Blogger...we need to talk

Dear Blogger...we need to Talk

Things just aren't working out between us anymore. I feel like I'm maturing and your just the same blogger you were back when you met Google. And, well, I met someone else. Yeah, it's Wordpress. I know what I said about Wordpress before, that it seemed too complicated and "who needs all that crap", "I'm not launching a new website, I'm putting stupid business tips on a blog". But, it turned out to be easier than I thought. So, the Miami Business Networking at andycohn.blogspot.com is moving to a fresh new location. I liked my time at Blogger, and I'll always appreciate the times we had, thank you Google. But, it's time to move on to Wordpress. Now don't cry Blogger we can still be friends and I might even come by and update once in a while when and get Google to index my SEO really fast, I've noticed. But I just need something more mature. I know everything had been going great, but when I wanted to have my business blog be at www.alcrisk.com/blog instead of http://alcrisk.blogspot.com or blog.alcrisk.com, you said no, so I started seeing other platforms. So, alcrisk.blogspot.com is moving to wordpress too actually ALC Risk already moved it's Insurance and Risk Management Blog a week ago. The Miami Business blog is actually going to be a whole lot better now with subpages and cool widgets like a Miami Business Networking Events page and I will start having Miami-based Business Consultants, Coaches and Experts submit posts to provide really great content for the Florida business community. The new site is www.miamibusinesscoaching.com . Please bookmark and share it with everyone on the social mediasphere when you like what you see. And blogger, don't be a stranger, come by some time, but call first, ok?...Google you can stop by as much as you like.

Your friend,

Andy Cohn

P.S. As I was saying, Miami Business Coaching is a new blog by Andrew Cohn, CEO and President

of ALC Risk Solutions , a full service insurance agency in Miami, Florida, specializing risk management and insurance for small businesses in Miami, Florida. Why would an insurance agent launch a blog about Business Coaching in Miami, Florida? As a business insurance agent in Miami, Andrew Cohn meets with a variety of business owners every day discussing what works and doesn’t work for their business.

The main role that Andrew plays for Miami businesses is to assess their risk management strategies and to evaluate their business practices in relations to risk management and insurance. The articles from Andrew Cohn of ALC Risk Solutions for Miami business coaching will be primarily about risk management in business practices. For the blog, Miami Business Coaching, Andrew will be looking to speak with Miami, Florida’s top business coaches, business consultants and business advisors and offer them the opportunity to provide business tips and advice to the readers of the Miami Business Coaching Blog.

The Miami business coaching blog is not just for business coaches in Miami, Florida. Feel free to submit pertinent information if you are in Miami, Florida, or if you’re anywhere providing business coaching in Florida. You also don’t have to be a business coach or business consultant. Andrew Cohn is looking to receive business tips and advice for the Miami business coaching blog from any business to business specialist including business marketing experts, business finance experts, business human resources specialist, business technology consultants and all other useful areas that the Miami business coaching blog can benefit from.

In addition to providing business tips and advice in Miami, Florida, the Miami Business Coaching blog would like to provide an accurate and up-to-date calendar of business networking events in Miami and networking events throughout South Florida for Professionals. Andrew Cohn is a member of various networking groups including being President of the Pinecrest Chapter of Business Networking International Miami-Dade, The South Dade Chair of the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, University of Miami Citizens Board, The West Kendall Business Association and the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce.

There will be many more updates to the Miami Business Coaching blog in the future, so please subscribe to our RSS feed on the site. You can contact Andrew Cohn at acohn@alcrisk.com and visit the Miami business Coaching blog at www.miamibusinesscoaching.com

Business Social Networking Review

Business social networking sites have really sprung up as a way to market your business. Major corporations have inundated the sites like Facebook and Twitter, but they're not flocking the smaller sites as quickly. Even with the large corporations on Facebook and Twitter, they are still great social networking sites for your business to use.

Over the last few months I launch my company Facebook Fan Page for ALC Risk Solutions. I've also been tweeting for my personal twitter account. Now, I've decided to try to explore some of the other business social networking sites to see what kind of results I get, and whether I'd like to recommend them to my colleagues and friends and on my various blogs.

One thing I've started to notice is that some of these sites are great for business social networking with your current business network by trying to enhance your current relationships, and determine your business network's sphere of influence. Others are designed more for lead generation through business social networking with unknown contacts. Others try to focus their business social networking site on marketing and advertising through Search Engine Optimized features like blogging and press releases. And still others try to focus on being a business social networking site that is mainly a knowledge resource, and to establish yourself as an expert in your field. All of these goals are great, and I'm don't judge one of them to be more important than the other. I do judge business social networking sites on whether they do it well. I put the Google page rank because presumably you are going to be linking to your site, so the higher the page rank, the better it should be for your site's search engine optimization. However, I'm not a web-professional, I'm an insurance agent, so I don't know if these business social networking sites have a way to prevent page rank link leak. But it's there, I used a chrome extension to determine the Google Rank, so don't blame me if they're wrong, sorry.

These are the sites that everyone knows and many people use and ALC Risk Solutions uses them for personal and business social networking as well:

• Facebook - Google page Rank 9

Facebook is the number social networking site in the world. It's great for lead generation and cultivating and solidifying your current relationships with clients and business network

• Twitter - Google Page Rank 9

Think of Twitter as the greatest market research tool ever invented. There's great tools to help you use Twitter as a business social networking site like TweetDeck

• LinkedIn - Google Page Rank 9

Many people consider LinkedIn to be THE business social networking site. LinkedIn doesn't have the games and childish apps found on MySpace or Facebook, but it also isn't very interesting either. LinkedIn isn't very real. It's basically people posting their resumes and requesting people to say how great they are.

• Plaxo - Google Page Rank 7

Plaxo is trying a bit too hard, but right now I like it because it keeps the contact info of the people I'm connected to up-to-date. I have a feeling that Google or Microsoft will realize they should do this and it'll be relatively useless unless they do something soon.

• MySpace - Google Page Rank 9

Myspace is losing popularity quickly and will probably be another Friendster or AIM pretty soon. However, I put a page up because it still has more users than most other websites and I was able to get www.myspace.com/miamiinsurance

These are some of the other business social networking sites I've joined recently and my review of them, as well as a link to the ALC Risk Solution profile page on the business social networking site:

• Fast Pitch Networking - Google Page Rank 5

PROs - SEO; Live Chat; Press Release Distribution, Find Current Network. This is a great Business Social Networking Site. It has different membership levels ranging from free up to titanium. The titanium is a little costly, but the level I'm at is perfect costing around $80/year. The usage is simple and easy and looks nice. They also give you the ability to talk to members in an instant message arena. My favorite thing about Fast Pitch Networking is that they offer Press Release distribution to Google News and Yahoo news and news media for only $45. Every press release I distributed was on the first page of Google for the keywords I optimized them for, and was higher than any other place I put it.

CONs - Major disadvantage is that it's still rather low on members, and connecting with members isn't the easiest thing in the world.

• ActiveRain - Google Page Rank 5

PRO's -Great SEO, about 50% of the blogs I've posted have gone to the first page of Google for at least one day. The Site is also very addictive because they have a great point system based on your activity and it makes you want to be active if you are competitive by nature. Lastly, it's a great site for real estate information and to give yourself credibility on the real estate topic that you are an expert in.

CON's - It's not a great business social networking site unless you have real estate related business. Even when I post liability and auto insurance content it rarely gets picked up by Google. Second con is the site doesn't do a great job of connecting members with other members. This is business social networking site has both paid and free memberships. But, only the paid memberships will get your posts to the outside world, free members' post can only be read by other members.

• PerfectBusiness - Google Page rank 4

To be honest, I set up the profile and explored it for a couple days and let it sit. This is a free business social networking site, with a paid subscription available. I am just on the free subscription now. From the brief amount of time I spent on it, I found some good articles, but to write an article you have to pay.

• Focus - Google Page Rank 6

Focus has really good content, but they are looking for longer projects as opposed to simple blogs. It doesn't have the greatest SEO benefits.

• Entrepreneur E-Connect - Google Page Rank 6

This is a business social networking site from Entrepreneur Magazine. I like the magazine, and I think this is a great idea. The site looks nice and they brand their logo well, giving the magazine advertising and the networking site credibility. They also give their members good profile URLs, mine is http://econnect.entrepreneur.com/MiamiInsurance . A big negative is that I don't think there are many active members yet, myself included. I set up my profile and didn't much more. However, going forward I'm going to use it more. Plus it's FREE!

• Loopthing - Google Page Rank 4

This is a nice looking site, but it's not very user friendly. I cant really do anything useful on it and I haven't connected with anyone. It's a little bit of a waste of time.

• Biznik - Google Page Rank 6

Biznik offers free, pro and VIP memberships. I signed up for 1 month for the VIP Service, and I will be cancelling it. I posted a few items to Biznik including press releases, classifieds and blog posts. I paid for it, so I gave it a good shot to impress me. Despite it's 6 Page rank, in a search on Google for "ALC Risk Solutions", Biznik does not appear until the bottom of the fourth page.

• Ryze - Google Page Rank 7.

Ryze claims to have over 500,000 members, which is pretty good for Business Social Networking Sites. But the site just doesn't look very nice and I never really felt like using it much. It does let you use HTML on your profile which I like. They offer paid and free memberships, but the paid ones don't really offer much that you can't get for free. Overall, I really don't like Ryze, but I'll keep my free profile up and see if I change my mind.

• Incompany - Google Page Rank 1

Despite its low page rank, I really like InCompany. First, it's a very nice looking business social networking site, many sites, including ones I really like, are too cluttered looking and not very esthetically pleasing. The best thing is it's free, and it lets you set up an Online Store on your profile with PayPal. Another great aspect of Incompany is that your profile is located at www.incompany.com/******** so I have www.incompany.com/insurance . My profile and posts have ranked pretty high on Google.

• Xing - Google Page Rank 8.

This is another free to join/paid upgrade business social networking site. I will probably try the pay for a month when I drop Biznik. Currently I haven't really been using it very much.

There are other business social networking sites that I've signed up for and have profiles on, but I really haven't used them enough to give a good review. I'm going to try to post a follow up to this blog once a month to give feedback on what sites I'm using and what I recommend. Let me know if you know any other sites you like to use for business social networking. Two other articles that I recommend regarding business social networking are from Inside CRM and at Site Point an article by Alyssa Gregory of Avertua, LLC.

My business is commercial insurance and my specialty is technology insurance at ALC Risk Solutions in Miami, Florida. If you own or are an executive at a business social networking site or any other social media, contact me about internet liability insurance for social networking websites. You can read my articles, on the Basics of Internet Liability Insurance and on Internet Liability Insurance for Social Networking Sites.

Best Business Productivity Tool

Best business productivity tool…I’m not talking about a Netbook or Smart Phone and I’m not talking about some $300 a month best business productivity tool. I’m talking about Copy2Contact. Copy2Contact is the best business productivity tool I’ve ever used and it’s also the best priced business productivity tool.

ALC Risk Solutions, a Miami-based insurance agency is now an affiliate of Copy2Contact, the world’s best business productivity tool. President and CEO of ALC Risk Solutions, Andrew Cohn commented, “Copy2Contact has said my insurance agency hundreds of hours over the past year we’ve been using it. It really is the least expensive and best business productivity tool I’ve ever used.”

So what does the best business productivity tool do? Copy2Contact instantly creates new contacts, appointments and tasks into your Microsoft Outlook, NetSuite, Salesforce, CRM and even your Blackberry or Palm device from almost any text including emails, websites, word documents and PDFs. It’s the best business productivity tool for many reasons.

One reason it’s the best business productivity tool is because it is so simple to use. All you do is you select the text and then with the text selected hold down “Ctrl” and press “C” and “C” again. The best business productivity tool does the rest. Copy2Contact recognized the text as an event, task or contact and populates the corresponding fields. For example take a look at the screen shots from my email signature using the best business productivity tool, Copy2Contact:

This is my signature in an Outlook email. I simply highlighted the text, and click “CTRL, C, C” and voila:

Copy2Contact instantly populated the name, company, job title, website, email, phone numbers and address. It really is the best business productivity tool I’ve ever used. You can start using the best business productivity tool for free by downloading the free trail here. Or you can just start using all the features by purchasing it now.

You can also view a quick video showing how Copy2Contact works and see for yourself why it is the best business productivity tool available for the price.

For more information or questions regarding Copy2Contact, the best business productivity tool, you can speak with the CEO of ALC Risk Solutions, Andrew Cohn by calling (786) 664-7475 or email acohn@alcrisk.com.

Using Social Networking in Risk Management and Human Resources

Social Media has created many risks, but also many opportunities for businesses, if they are mindful in how they utilize it properly. One area in which social networking can provide a great tool for risk mitigation is in your human resources department. When a company decides to begin their hiring process, they are exposing themselves to a set of risks which are not easily controlled. The more people who you expose yourself to, the more people there are that can possibly take legal action against you. Asking the wrong question in the interview process could end up creating a legal problem for your company. However, making a bad choice in the hiring process, especially for a small company, can have an even greater effect on the business. No one wants to hire a partier or an antagonist. At ALC Risk Solutions we provide our clients with insurance solutions for human resources, like Employment Practices Liability Insurance which will cover your company for law suits dealing with wrongful termination, harassment and discrimination. But, we also believe that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". Risk management is that prevention, and social networks are one of our tools.

The problem is that as an employer you are limited in regards to the personal questions you can ask a potential hire. That is where tools like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and others become your best friend. I'll give a recent anecdote to explain. We recently finished our search to find a nanny after many weeks for our 9 month old daughter. We had been using to really great websites that are available for finding care givers, SitterCity.com; and Care.Com. They are both great website, and I highly recommend them. Care givers post their profiles, resumes, references, pictures, ect, on this site, and you can contact them and set up interviews. They even make it very simple to get comprehensive background checks through the websites. We met with a bunch of great candidates. In the end we were torn between two ladies. One was slightly older, and didn't speak English (my wife is fluent in Spanish, I'm not) and the other was a recent college graduate. The younger one really impressed us. She was going to do yoga with our 3 year old, and she was really into healthy eating and exercise, and just seemed like a lot of fun.

Later that night, I searched her email address in Facebook, and I saw many red flags that made our decision for us. It was not that she occasionally went out to bars, or anything like that, everyone is human. No, she was a proud supporter and apostle of Professor Timothy Leary and Hunter s. Thompson. These are the two individuals that are best known for their encouragement of the use of hallucinogenic drugs like LSD and Acid. Not exactly Mary Poppins.

Needless to say we hired the other lady.

Social Media needs to be used in your business's hiring process as well. Facebook allows users to control their privacy very well. However, many of the people that should keep their lives private chose not to. Twitter will give you less information, but although there are privacy settings, few people chose to utilize them. MySpace is less known to me, but from my understanding the user decides what the public can see, and what only their contacts can see.

A few do's and don'ts with using Social Networking in the Human Resources department:

1. Don't friend a potential hire because their page is private – I don't know the legal ramifications, and they probably haven't been played out yet, but doing so, and using that information against them, could create a law suit
   
2. Don't tell the candidate that they were not hired because of their facebook page, and do not tell employees they were fired because of their facebook page. Recently a teacher was fired because of pictures she posted on her facebook page. Read the Washington Post Article Here. Now they are being sued. There were no grounds to dismiss her for that, so dismiss your employees for a different reason if their private facebook page bothers you that much. Likewise, just the tell the person, "The position has been filled". End of Story.
   
3. Do a Google search on the candidates. You would be surprised how much information everyone has out there. Do a Google Web search, do a Google Image Search. If they are in a regulated industry, like insurance, go to your State website, like the Florida Department of Financial Services, and make sure they are licensed like they say they are. Even do a search of your State's division of corporations. Maybe they were an officer of a previous company, maybe they still are.
   
4. Do a background search on your finalist. You can use websites, but you should really hire a qualified private investigator. My go to guy is Rich Bragassa, from Rich Bragassa and Associates. He's basically an information broker and a risk avoidance specialist.
   
5. Lastly, Don't forget that everyone is human, and you want to hire a human. It's ok if there are some questionable things, you just don't want full blow Category 5 Red Hurricane Flags. If someone is so boring that they've done nothing wrong, you, a half delinquent in your younger years, probably won't get along with the pious individual.
   

For more risk management tools and insurance, including Employment Practices Liability Insurance, contact Andrew Cohn of ALC Risk Solutions at (786) 664-RISK (7475)

Status Updates – Where You Are…And Where You Aren’t

Status Updates – Where You Are…And Where You Aren't

 

 

Account    Miami Business Networking

 

Going forward with my blog for ALC Risk Solutions I am going to start blogging about different things people can do to mitigate their risks and their business's risks. As an insurance agent my job is to analyze what a company is doing, and try to figure to out how to control their risks a variety of ways. The easiest way is risk transference; this is done by purchasing insurance. But, the cheapest and most effective ways are risk mitigation, and risk avoidance. You cannot simply avoid all risks, but there are a few things you may not have thought about that you can do, and can stop doing to lower your risks.

The first thing is regarding social networking. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter are great ways to communicate with friends, reconnect with old friends, and promote your business. You promote your business through status updates, and sharing notes and comments about your everyday life. The problem occurs when you start telling people where you are through these status updates. Blackberrys and iPhones have made it very easy to update everyone, but I really caution everyone to stop updating where they aren't.

For example, if you tweet, "On my way to the Miami Hurricanes game". You've told anyone that wants to know, that you are probably not going to be home for another 4 hours. A crook could use an application such as Tweet Deck to update them whenever anyone on Saturday says they are going to the game. They could then find your name, and do a search on the property appraisal's website. If you are a homeowner, they now know where you live. And thanks to your tweet, they know you aren't there.

Status updates aren't the only way to tell people where you are. Twit Pic and uploading pictures to facebook from your mobile phone can also give it away. My recommendation is to keep your tweets from divulging your location, and keep your Facebook and MySpace Pages private. I will have more Risk Mitigation tips coming soon regarding why to keep your facebook page private. You can find out more about ALC Risk Solutions at www.alcrisk.com and you can email me, Andrew Cohn at acohn@alcrisk.com or call, (786) 664-7475.

The Launch of ALC Risk Solutions

    Welcome to ALC Risk Solutions. ALC risk's goal and vision is to bring a new approach to the everyday purchase of insurance for families and small and medium size businesses. ALC Risk Solutions is an affiliate of JFIA Boca, Inc, an independent Nationwide Insurance agency in Boca Raton, Florida. Insurance and financial services have become a commodity. With the emergence and success of E-Surance, Geico and Progressive Direct in the insurance marketplace and the successes seen by E-trade and TD Bank, insurance and financial services have become as easy to purchase as a laptop or song from I-Tunes. Online insurance buying is easy and it is convenient, but it is not always less expensive, and if you would like service or if you have questions, online is probably not the route to go. ALC Risk Solutions is offering its clients a choice in the route they would like to go, and we are charging the same price regardless of your decision.

    If you are the type of individual who wants to do what e-surance says "quote, buy, print"; we will accommodate you. Our website will be equipped with an easy, in-depth questionnaire which our agents will review. For auto insurance we will send you quotes from 12 insurance companies within minutes. This option will be quick, convenient, and you will have the peace of mind of knowing that a skilled, licensed, insurance professional has reviewed your questionnaire and the quote. ALC Risk Solutions can replicate this process for basically all of your lines of insurance. For homeowners insurance ALC Risk Solutions has access to numerous insurance companies ready and willing to write homeowners and condominium insurance throughout Florida, including in South Florida counties of Miami-Dade, Monroe, Broward and Palm Beach. This process can be done in a similar way to the auto insurance, in which you can submit an application online, it will be reviewed and quoted by a licensed insurance professional, and you will receive your quote very quickly. We can do this for all of your personal insurance including umbrella and excess liability insurance, boat insurance, personal watercraft insurance, RV Insurance, Motorcycle Insurance, Individual Health Insurance, Life Insurance, Disability Insurance, Long Term Care Insurance, and your insurance for fine art and jewelry. ALC Risk Solutions can also provide the process for insurance procurement for most small businesses.

    Online quoting does not make ALC Risk Solutions any different from other independent insurance agencies. So what makes ALC Risk Solutions different? For the same price as the premium you pay for your personal and business insurance policies, ALC Risk Solutions will sit down with you and design you a personalized risk management plan. Andrew Cohn, the founder of ALC Risk Solutions, has experience in both financial planning with the former American Express Financial Advisors, currently Ameriprise Financial and with a large commercial insurance agency, Wilson, Washburn & Forster Insurance. ALC Risk Solutions has combined both of the processes to develop the Personal Risk Management Plan and the Business Risk Management Plan. This service is offered free of charge to any customer of ALC Risk Solutions. ALC Risk's agents will sit down with you at your office or over the phone to go through an in depth questionnaire. This questionnaire will help us to analyze your risk potential, coverage gaps and areas where we can save you more money. Large corporations do risk management planning with their insurance agents, and they even higher Chief Risk Managers to help control their risk. These large corporations understand that with planning they can save money in the long wrong. But, you do not need to hire a personal risk manager, or become the CEO of a fortune 500 company. Let ALC Risk Solutions design a personal risk management plan for you, your family and your business.

Cyber Terrorism

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Jonathan Bernstein, President of Bernstein Crisis Management. Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc. is a national consultancy providing 24/7 access to its president, Jonathan Bernstein, and a network of carefully screened and highly experienced crisis management experts who are on call nationwide and in many markets overseas. Bernstein Crisis Management engages in the full spectrum of crisis management services: crisis prevention, response, planning, training and simulations. The business was created and has been operated since January 1994 on the premise that its clients' executive leadership wants direct assistance from senior-level crisis management professionals.

On the Bernstein Crisis Management website, there are numerous great articles dealing with a variety of issues related to all the realms of identity theft. These articles include crisis management and public relations, dealing with the blogospheres, and most importantly crisis prevention. The article that I am reprinting specifically deals with Cyber Terrorism. I feel that this is an issue that at first only affected the large, financial institutions. But now, as the economy crumbles around our feet, more and more cyber thieves are going to try out cyber terrorism on the middle markets and maybe even the small business of America. To protect your company, you need to speak with someone like Jonathan Bernstein, and you need to get an Internet Liability Insurance policy that covers you for Cyber Terrorism. Cyber Terrorism insurance is found in many, but not all, internet liability insurance policies. But, most companies do not have internet liability insurance policies, and they are unprotected and face serious consequences to their company, their reputation, and their clients.

This article was originally title, "ISP Thwarts Cyber-Terrorists: LinkLINE Communications Turns Crisis Into PR Success":

Editor's Note: this is another of those rare occasions when a crisis has been very public and the client is justifiably proud of its response and willing to share the results with others. As I've told linkLINE's management, their willingness to take some direction on this challenging situation reflects great credit on them; I assured them that I've known other organizations not nearly so willing to "do the right thing."

The Crisis

"We think that someone calling himself 'Mr. Zilterio' may have accessed our customer records, to include credit card numbers. He's threatening to reveal that information to our customers and the press if we don't pay him a large amount of money."

That was the initial call I received from Marc Benzakein, one of the founders of linkLINE Communications (www.linkline.com), an expanding, relatively small (15,000 subscriber) but profitable Internet service provider based in Mira Loma, California (note: in their business, "profitable" is rare).

In that phone call, and a subsequent meeting with linkLINE's management/crisis response team, I learned that:

• According to federal authorities and information available to anyone who does a search for "Zilterio" on the Internet, the same individual may have extorted as much as $4 billion from other organizations who wanted to sweep the situation under the rug for fear of losing business.
  
• linkLINE, with law enforcement direction, had been stringing Zilterio along for a little while identifying how he got past their security. In the process, they traced the bank account to which Zilterio wanted money wired through Russia (where he said he was from) to Yemen, a known hotbed of terrorism.
  
• The ISP felt strongly that it was ethically and morally wrong to give in to what could clearly be construed as "cyber-terrorism."
  
• linkLINE had taken the steps necessary to ensure that the security hole which Zilterio may have exploited was plugged.
  
• A significant loss of customers could be devastating to linkLINE because of its still-small size.
  

Crisis Response Team Meets

As a crisis response team, we agreed that:

• linkLINE's customers needed to be notified of the threat before Zilterio communicated with them. This meant that the entire "response package" needed to be in place between our Thursday afternoon meeting and the following Monday evening. We all wanted to move even more quickly, but double-checking some security preparations precluded any more haste. The team member in touch with Zilterio felt he could stall him as long as necessary.
  
• The best approach, very much in keeping with linkLINE's operating philosophy, was to express compassion for the concern this might cause customers, provide them with information they would need as a consequence of the situation, while also calling for them to unite with linkLINE in combating cyber-terrorism.
  
• Close coordination would need to be made with the security offices for the four major credit card companies so that (a) linkLINE customers would have the least-possible work to do regarding the possible exposure of their credit card numbers and (b) that linkLINE's relationships with the credit card companies remained sound.
  

Pre-Announcement Activities

During three intense days of preparation:

• linkLINE management contacted the four credit card companies, who were very appreciative of linkLINE's proactive response, agreed to put a special watch on linkLINE customer credit card numbers to see if they were fraudulently abused, and assured linkLINE that customers would not be held liable for any such fraud.
  
• A Customer Alert letter was drafted for release late in the evening of Monday, March 18. That letter has been posted for "Crisis Manager" readers at:: http://www.piersystem.com/clients/bernstein/linkline1.txt
  
• A press release was drafted for distribution in the early morning of March 19. That release, as an MS-Word doc, is temporarily archived at: http://www.piersystem.com/clients/bernstein/Linkline2.doc
  
• A Customer Q&A was drafted in preparation for posting on linkLINE's website. That Q&A can still be found at: http://www.linkline.com/corp/securityfaq.asp
  
• A special Customer Service Response Guide was created and customer service reps trained on its use.
  
• linkLINE's crisis response team identified other key stakeholders, besides customers, who might need to be called or contacted when the news was released, and prepared to make those communications.
  
• Marc Benzakein was trained to be the primary spokesperson on the situation, with another member of the team as backup spokesperson.
  

The Announcement and Results

Zilterio did not act during the preparation period, and linkLINE was able to launch its crisis communications campaign.

• In the late evening of March 18 and early morning of March 19, respectively, the Customer Alert went out by email and the press release by PR Newswire (California circuit only, as 95% of their customers were in-state, and knowing that even the California circuit also goes to Internet news sites and certain other key media).
  
• While customer call volume did go up, it was not overwhelming; linkLINE had contingency plans for what to do if it backed up, but the Customer Alert, combined with the Customer Q&A, apparently satisfied the vast majority of customers.
  
• Most of the calls and emails that DID come in were highly complimentary of linkLINE's response. Some examples:
  
• "In today's world of competition and LOVE of money very few companies are up front when they have a problem that could affect their business. YOU GUYS ARE THE EXCEPTION. Thanks for letting us all know the truth. Because of people like you I feel much safer on the NET. THANKS AGAIN."
  
• "I would like to commend you on your handling of the Zilterio blackmail incident. Prompt and full disclosure through email and your website is the exact way to go. This kind of professionalism makes me happy to continue with linkLINE as my ISP. Nothing is 100% secure; what separates the pros from the rest is the response to a security breach. Your response measured up in every respect."
  
• There were some people who were initially very disgruntled, but linkLINE execs did a great job of communicating in a caring and informative manner that made customers more comfortable.
  
• A few credit cards were voluntarily (by customers) or involuntarily (by banks, when they were also ATM cards) suspended, but even those customers were understanding. And as part of their preparation, linkLINE had made it easy to switch to another credit card (securely) or use another method of payment.
  

Today, two weeks later, linkLINE had no net loss in customers and has continued to enjoy its usual level of growth.

Editor's Note: Unfortunately, Zilterio hasn't stopped doing his thing -- there's a Dow Jones story out today about his attack on another company. Any organization which maintains confidential information on its Internet-accessible servers is vulnerable and would do well to (a) assess its level of vulnerability and (b) be prepared to respond if and when a security breach occurs. Not merely operationally, but in terms of legally appropriate public relations.