Confusion, ignorance, stupidity or fraud?

A lotta padlocks
By Tim Lord   |   February 8, 2019

Imagine what would happen if you lost your most important work password—and everything it protected—with no chance of retrieval. Your data? Just “poof”—gone! How much would it cost your company? What if it were well over $100 million? Because that’s what just happened to Canadian crypto-currency exchange QuadrigaCX with the apparent death of its CEO, Gerald Cotten. A high price to pay for poor security practices.

A sad lesson

It’s clear that no one in the company instituted proper Identity Governance Administration (IGA) practices.

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Keeping private data private: Sometimes, it’s harder than rocket science

Keeping Private Data Private: Rocket Science
By Tim Lord   |   February 7, 2019

In late December of last year, the news emerged that on October 23rd, NASA had discovered a data breach that may have exposed personal data (such as Social Security numbers) associated with current and former NASA employees.

How does such a thing happen? The folks at NASA are smart and hardworking; they know how to make systems about as bullet-proof and reliable as any ever devised, and they’re no pushovers about IT security,

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Digital marketing asset risks: Churn, churn, churn  

Bottle of milk with glass
By Amy Valentine   |   January 30, 2019

Friction.” “The game of telephone.” “Paralysis by analysis.” In a business context, they can all amount to the same things: frustration and delay.

For any marketing project involving more than one person—which is another way of saying for any and every project—it’s all too easy to get caught up in the churn. Creating digital marketing assets is no exception.

How to work more efficiently with your team

At DeLaune,

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Digital marketing assets: Getting your message out there

By Jay Bretzmann   |   January 25, 2019

Have you ever gotten past a website login error, or been able to establish a new online account, only after getting a security code delivered to you via text to your phone?

Late last year, TechCrunch reported on a security oversight that illustrates the danger of sending passwords or passcodes over SMS: The message itself may have been exposed to attackers, as it was when at least 26 million authentication text messages were left unprotected by password or encryption on a server at California communications provider Voxox.

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An easy way to magnify your digital marketing assets: Be pleasant

Emoji signs
By Tim Lord   |   January 22, 2019

Being friendly and approachable is a small and easy thing, but it makes a huge difference, and it costs you nothing besides some thought.

Replies welcome

One company I admire, multi-factor access specialists Duo Security, sent a corporate email the other day that had a standout feature among digital marketing assets.

Instead of the too-often-seen disclaimer along the lines of “Replies to this email address will not be read” and an email address like “DO-NOT-REPLY@big-faceless-corp.com”—Gee,

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How do your digital marketing assets portray your benefits?

By Jay Bretzmann   |   January 15, 2019

As a young writer, the parable of the blind men encountering an elephant made an impression on me. The story is all about how someone without sight would interpret a being they encounter. Divorced a bit from reality by their lack of sight, the blind men had to rely on what they could feel.

First-time visitors to your website

Something similar happens when visitors visit your website for the first time—no matter that they can see and read.

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Add a Fresh Coat of Paint to Your Marketing Assets

By Jay Bretzmann   |   January 9, 2019

If you’ve ever sold a house or are looking to do so, one of the first things people will tell you is to add a fresh coat of paint—to just about everything. New paint is bright. It covers up dirt and generally forces you to repair a whole bunch of dings, scratches, and other flaws that make a house look older.

The same is true for your marketing assets.

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This year’s big security threats—sort of

By Tim Lord   |   January 8, 2019

If you’re inclined to ease into the new year with some IT security predictions for 2019, there’s no shortage:

Here are 10 from Tech Radar, five more from Security Boulevard, and another four from BetaNews. (I prefer TechCrunch’s snarkier approach.)

Are you selling the right data security basics?

The kicker is that even though there are new and more complex threats each year to keep up with,

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Digital marketing: Align your strategy, brand and message

By Tim Lord   |   December 12, 2018

strategy diagramstrategy diagram

Every once in a while, I hear someone put the em-PHA-sis on the wrong syl-LA-ble, and it distracts me to the point where I miss the meaning. The lesson? Messages need to be clear and delivered correctly. (With bonus points for brevity!)

Your name in lights

Similar disconnects happen when an organization’s digital marketing messages clash with its established brand. It’s something people know when they see it.

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Why does free software need paid advertising?

By Tim Lord   |   November 12, 2018

Why does free software need paid advertising?

Someone who emerged from a decade-long nap beneath a technological rock (decades-long, really) might be shocked to see how much of today’s IT landscape, from programming  languages to  virtual environments, infrastructure standards to critical networking software, and even entire operating systems, belong to no one.

Or at least, belong firmly to no single, particular person or organization—and are freely available to try out,

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