May 2024 – London Drugs Cyber Attack, Hacking People, ‘Make a Difference’ Test

May Insights Email

Happy May, everyone –

Last month’s first edition of ‘Insights’ received some excellent feedback and engagement – thank you!

As a reminder, my goal in this monthly email is to bring value to other Winnipeg business leaders and executives. If at any point you’d prefer to be removed from future Emails, just reply with a ‘not for me’.

There’s a real sense of energy in the city right now. May long weekend is coming up which usually marks the start of lake season, new projects like the redevelopment of Portage Place have been announced, and new flight routes are coming to James Richardson International, including Nashville!

Here are some article and events that caught my eye recently. If you have anything you’d like to share – something that’s happening in your business, an event or announcement, let me know.

Thanks for continuing to make Winnipeg a vibrant, exciting place to work and to grow a business. Wishing you a successful month ahead. If you’d like to connect with me on LinkedIn, you can do so here.

Michael

Cybersecurity / Tech News

Another month, another cyber-attack. This one forcing London Drugs to close 80 of its stores in Western Canada out of precaution:

London Drugs closes stores until further notice due to cyberattack

The widespread availability of AI tools like ChatGPT has essentially automated content creation. We’ve already seen the implications this has for academic institutions evaluating students’ papers. Deciphering between unique, human-created content and that generated by bots is a challenge that will only increase in difficulty. It’s creating issues for Google, as well. The search giant is undergoing a massive algorithm update, and of the goals is to determine which pages, articles, and blogs are using AI-generated content in an effort to present better search results. If you’re using AI as a blog or website writing short cut, you may want to reconsider.

Google’s Core Update is Biggest Algorithm Update in History

While we often think about ‘hacking’ in terms of computers, Rachel Tobac hacks people. She’s a professional social engineer, hired by companies to test whether their employees can be compromised or tricked into providing access or information. She’s successfully conned banks, Fortune 500 companies, and more. She even went through a lengthy hiring process posing as a candidate for hire. This episode of the Darknet Diaries podcast will make you think carefully about processes and policies your business may be lacking, and just how easily someone like Rachel could get access to your network without a single line of computer code.

Darknet Diaries Episode 144 ‘Rachel’

Leadership / Personal Growth

While there are a multitude of personality profile tests available – Meyers Briggs, DISC, KOLBE and others, my favourite will always be Larry Little’s ‘Make a Difference’ test. It’s only 20 questions, the results are instant and easy to interpret. Are you a Leading Lion? Much-Loved Monkey? Competent Camel? Or perhaps a Tranquil Turtle?

Understanding the different personality type on your leadership team can be an excellent exercise to build trust and cooperation. You can take the test for free here:

Eagle Centre for Leadership ‘Make A Difference’ Test

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