Victor Font Consulting Group, LLC

The DEX Intranet Specialists

We develop expert business solutions featuring Formidable Forms!

We will solve your business problems, We will improve your business, We will grow your business. We will help you succeed. We can show you how to do what you are trying to do. We will give you the right tools to be successful. We will not just tell you to do this or that, but teach you how to do it with examples. There are no limits on how far we'll go to improve your business. We will consult with you, listen to you, and focus on your goals.

As your innovative partner, we'll deliver world-class solutions and strategies that:

  • solve real-world problems and relieve your pain,
  • achieve your business needs and those of your target audience,
  • meet or exceed stakeholder expectations,
  • improve customer conversions and key performance indicators,
  • and most of all, produce measurable results!

We provide Business Planning and Consulting for Small, Medium, and Large Businesses. We have the experience and skill to help you with your business problems. Whether it be planning, marketing, or managing your business.

We have a 100% success rate for delivering projects on-time and budget, if you follow our process.

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Main Content

What You Need to Know About Cybersecurity

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Organizations rely heavily on the use of Information Technology (IT) products and services to run their day-to-day activities. Ensuring the security of these products and services is of the utmost importance for the success of the organization.

Today, Information Technology products and services face insidious threats from advanced malware and vulnerabilities that, if left unchecked, are designed to penetrate government, corporate, and infrastructure systems to gain control over those systems, rob unsuspecting victims, steal identities, damage reputations, hold us hostage, or worse.

Globally, Cybercrime damages are set to exceed $6 trillion each year by 2021.

Despite the growing threat of Cyberattacks, more than half of businesses that suffered an attack didn’t anticipate any changes to their security measures.

Ensuring the security of your IT assets is of the utmost importance for the success of your organization. So how exactly do you prepare for the dismal future these statistics suggest?

Cybersecurity vs. Information Security

The difference between Information Security and Cybersecurity is a debate that rages on with as many different answers provided as the experts you query.

The terms “Cybersecurity” and “Information Security” are generally thought of as synonyms, but they create a lot of confusion even among security professionals. Some believe that Cybersecurity is a subset of Information Security while others think the opposite.

Yet, some banking regulators like the Reserve Bank of India, Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Monetary Authority of Singapore, etc., all require banks to have separate Cybersecurity and Information Security policies. These regulatory agencies view Cybersecurity and Information Security as two distinctly different objectives.For the purposes of this eBook, we’ll embrace the meanings of Cybersecurity and Information Security as defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)1:

Cybersecurity: The ability to protect or defend the use of cyberspace from cyberattacks.

Information Security: Protecting information and information systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction in order to provide:

  1. confidentiality, which means preserving authorized restrictions on access and disclosure, including means for protecting personal privacy and proprietary information;
  2. integrity, which means guarding against improper information modification or destruction, and includes ensuring information non-repudiation and authenticity; and
  3. availability, which means ensuring timely and reliable access to and use of information.

Information ≠ Data

To throw another log onto the fire, let’s consider data security. Data security is all about securing data, but not every bit of data is information. So, what’s the difference between data and information? Data can be called information when it is interpreted within a context that gives it meaning.

For example, “123-45-6789” is data because it's simply a string of alpha-numeric characters. If this data is found on a HR system record, then we know this is someone’s social security number. Now it is information. Why? Because, it has context.

In fact, it’s personally identifiable information or PII, and that opens up a whole new can of worms. PII must be cybersecure. Significant fines and penalties can result when PII has been cyber-breached, especially in view of the new data privacy laws coming into effect.

To summarize:

  • Information is data which has some meaning.
  • Information Security is all about protecting the information, which generally focuses on its confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA).
  • Cybersecurity is about protecting information from being launched into cyberspace through cyberattacks and breaches.

To learn more, download our Free Cybersecurity eBook.

1 [Source: https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/ir/2013/NIST.IR.7298r2.pdf]


Nifty Little Networking Tip

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The Raleigh, NC area is great for business networking. In fact, it may just be one of the networking capitals of the world. With all of the Meetup Groups, social organizations, BNI groups, NCER, NFIB, NCDBA, NAWBO, and so on, there are more avenues available for exploring new business relationships than I ever encountered when I lived in the Northeast.

One of the most challenging aspects of networking is remembering where you met all of the people belonging to the stacks and stacks of business cards you collect. Do you clearly recall what you discussed as you scroll through those cards a week or two later, or what the follow-up item is that you promised to send?

Without a little reminder, I sure don't. Especially, with the thousands of cards I've collected over the years. Many of my colleagues note meeting details and snippets of what they talked about on the individual's business card in whatever little white space may be available. Sometimes, this isn't even possible because glossy surfaces make it difficult for ink to adhere to the finish.

For me, networking is not about going to a meeting and seeking new revenue opportunities. Although, new revenue streams are nice when they come my way. My primary purpose for networking is discovering how I can assist others achieve their business goals.

I am a firm believer in generosity marketing and help wherever and whenever I may. Giving always boomerangs in unexpected and welcome ways. Connecting new contacts with people that can help them reach their goals is a primary aspect of that responsibility.

So, here's a nifty little method that I use to make things easier for my new contacts. Hopefully, if they need my help in the future, they'll remember me and this little amenity I provided to make their networking life more fruitful. Take a look at the image below.

Victor Font Consulting Group business card back image
Business Card Back

Every card we hand out has this convenient space on the back for new contacts to document our encounter and make it much more memorable for them.

Have You Been Pwned?

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Yes, “pwned” is spelled correctly. According to the Urban Dictionary, the word “pwned” is:

A corruption of the word “Owned.” This originated in an online game called Warcraft, where a map designer misspelled “owned.” When the computer beat a player, it was supposed to say, so-and-so “has been owned.” Instead, it said, so-and-so “has been pwned”.

Rivera, Daniel. Urban Dictionary. Retrieved August 3, 2018

Has your email account or password ever been compromised? Do you even know?

You have personal computers, smart phones, social network accounts, and family members with the same, maybe even more than you. All of these devices and accounts are up for grabs if you don’t protect yourself and your loved ones. You are probably at greater risk of having your personal systems compromised than your company’s. You are vulnerable. Your account may have already been compromised. In today's parlance, having your account compromised is called getting pwned. Why don’t you check to see if you’ve been pwned?

You can check whether you’ve been pwned and have an account that has been compromised in a data breach at https://haveibeenpwned.com/. At the time of this writing, Have I Been Pwned has details on 297 pwned websites, 5,369,804,192 pwned accounts, 75,653 pastes, and 82,644,754 paste accounts.

Let's explain pastes. According to the Have I Been Pwned FAQs:

Often when online services are compromised, the first signs of it appear on “paste” sites like Pastebin. Attackers frequently publish either samples or complete dumps of compromised data on these services.

A word to the wise—when you check if you have pwned accounts, try not to have anyone looking over your shoulder unless you are absolutely certain you won’t be embarrassed by the search results. The website displays a list of every breach where your email has been compromised.

Gutenberg—The BIG Change Coming to WordPress

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Last week, WordPress released version 4.9.8 to the general public. If you subscribe to one of our care plans, the update has been tested and applied for you. But this release is different, there's a BIG change coming to WordPress that all of you need to know about.

Gutenberg, the new WordPress content editor is set to be released as the default WordPress editor in version 5.0. That's coming right around the corner. When you log into the dashboard of the 4.9.8 release for the first time, you'll see a prominent banner at the top of the page introducing you to Gutenberg that asks you to choose to install Gutenberg or the Classic Editor. The Classic Editor is the one we use now and are accustomed to.

Gutenberg is a very different kind of editor. Some people love it (I do), and some hate it. Gutenberg introduces the concept of content blocks, affectionately called Guten-blocks. The WordPress developers say this about blocks:

Blocks are the unifying evolution of what is now covered, in different ways, by shortcodes, embeds, widgets, post formats, custom post types, theme options, meta-boxes, and other formatting elements. They embrace the breadth of functionality WordPress is capable of, with the clarity of a consistent user experience.

WordPress Development Team, Gutenberg Git. Retrieved August 5, 2018

As we say all the time, content is king. Relevant content marketing is one of the primary methods encouraged to drive traffic, and ultimately, new customers, to your online business. Like it or not, Gutenberg is here to stay. While the Classic Editor will remain available in WordPress for a little longer, at sometime in the future it will be removed. It's time to learn how to use Gutenberg.

To make the transition easier, WordPress has released a Gutenberg training page. Try Gutenberg today at https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/.

ScreenFlow 8: A Must Have Update

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ScreenFlow 8 upgrade image, CC0 license from pixabay.comThis year seems to be the prime time for must-have updates. First came the MacBook Pro 2018. Now, It's ScreenFlow 8 by Telestream for the Mac.

I've long been a fan of ScreenFlow. I started using it several versions back when I switched from a Windows PC to a MacBook Pro for my daily computing tasks, application development, and book publishing work. I've tried competing products like Camtasia and even Apple's own Final Cut Pro. But I keep coming back to ScreenFlow because not only is it the easiest to use for a prosumer like me, it's very intuitive and requires a very short learning curve. I still use Final Cut Pro once in a while, but mostly for creating my own motion graphics for intros or outtros. All the rest is handled superbly by ScreenFlow.

ScreenFlow is my go to tool for screen video capture, creating tutorials, promo videos, book trailers, and such. I've always liked its features and interface. But now, the ScreenFlow 8 upgrade, with its 25 new features and 41 improvements and fixes, is a product you can love!

ScreenFlow 8 Highlights

Create New Project From Template

ScreenFlow 8 new from template featureScreenFlow 8 supports creating new projects from templates. If you do a lot of similarly styled videos like a tutorial series, video course, etc., you can prebuild your projects with just a few placeholders and all of your content immediately gets dropped into that project when you're done recording. ScreenFlow's new template feature will save you ton's of time!

Stock Media Library

ScreenFlow 8 Stock media libraryOne of my favorite new features is the incorporation of a stock media library. Yes, that's right! We now have access to a stock media library built right into the ScreenFlow 8 interface. No more searching the web for stock videos, audio, images, transitions, and chroma key support.

The stock media library includes over 500,000 unique pieces. With a library this large the interface includes filters and search capabilities to make the job of finding the perfect media element a piece of cake. Using the stock library requires a minimal subscription fee of $60/year. Where else can you find so much for so little a cost?

Other New Features

  • Track Thumbnails—Now you can see a quick and easy visual representation of your content via thumbnails displayed over the duration of a media file. Easily identify scene changes and areas of interest. No need to scrub through content to find specific moments!
  • Styles—Always want your camera in a certain spot with specific filters and a drop shadow? Well, regardless of the edits you make to any assets in your projects, you can now save those settings as “Styles” to easily re-use over and over. A massive time saver. Combine with templates for a mostly automated workflow!
  • Quick Narration & Voice-Over Additions—Need to record a quick audio clip? Quick narrations allow you to add narrations or voice-overs without leaving the timeline or configuring a traditional recording.
  • Detachable Editing Timeline—The new detachable editing timeline allows for a more customizable editing experience and enables multi-monitor editing by separating the editing timeline and canvas on to different monitors.
  • Additional Timeline Frame Rates—Additional Timeline Frame Rates of 24, 25, and 50 have been added. These are in addition to the existing 30 and 60 options.
  • Export Animated PNG (APNG) Files—ScreenFlow now supports APNG export. Like GIF’s, APNG’s are single file moving pictures that support transparent backgrounds but allow for higher quality and smaller sizes!
  • Freehand Annotation—Custom shapes and lines can now be drawn directly onto the ScreenFlow canvas for highly customizable annotations.
  • Instagram Project and Export Presets—Uploading to Instagram? ScreenFlow has you covered with built in project dimensions and export settings specific to everyone’s favorite social image site!
  • Frame for Selected Monitor—When choosing your recording monitor, a red frame now indicates the current selection… no need to remember monitor model numbers!
  • H.265/HEVC Decoding—Previously, HEVC could only be exported in ScreenFlow 7. You can now import and edit files encoded with HEVC such as iPhone X 4k recordings.
  • Arrange Menu—Various new options such as alignment, scale, and distribute allow you to more quickly arrange your media within your project.
  • Auto-Scale Large Imports—ScreenFlow will now automatically scale imported media to fit the canvas if the dimensions of the media are larger than the canvas.
  • Burn in Captions on Export—You can now burn-in captions if you need captions in a player that does not support caption tracks. Simply check the box during export.
  • Content-Type Badge for Items in Media Libraries—Media within your library now has a badge overlay depicting the type of media for easier identification.
  • Keyboard Shortcuts for "Close Gap"—Users can now set a custom keyboard shortcut for the “close gaps” function. Multi-select gaps and close with one shortcut.
  • Media Library Filtering System & Metadata Panel—New filtering system for the media libraries with metadata display tab. Click the filter button in the library pane to display.
  • Preview Audio and Video in Libraries Without Adding them to the Timeline—Audio and video files in libraries can now be previewed without first adding them to the timeline.
  • Save Frame as JPEG—Quickly export the current content as a still JPEG image.
  • Select Which Audio Channels are Recorded with Audio Interface Devices—Users can now select specific channels to record of a multi-channel audio interface. You no longer need to record all available channels.
  • Support Decoding MOV PNG Files—You can now add and work with MOV PNG files in ScreenFlow.
  • Support for GoPro CineForm Codec—ScreenFlow now supports the GoPro CineForm codec for import and editing.
  • Specify the Thumbnail Image for a YouTube Published Export—Now when publishing directly to YouTube, you can use ScreenFlow to select the image to be used as the YouTube thumbnail.
  • Upload to YouTube on a Schedule—When publishing to YouTube, you can now select and schedule a time in which you would like the video to be published.

The Bottom Line

I don't recommend products lightly. And I only recommend products that I use. ScreenFlow 8 is an exceptional upgrade and well worth the price, especially with the stock media library subscription.

U.S. Federal Data Privacy Law is Coming…

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Over the past month, the U.S. Department of Commerce met with representatives from Facebook and Google, consumer advocates, and Internet providers like AT&T and Comcast to draft a proposal to protect web users’ privacy on a national level.

The meetings are focused on developing a data privacy framework at the Federal level that could serve as a blueprint for Congress to pass sweeping legislation similar to the European Union's General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR). In June, Governor Jerry Brown enacted The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, which takes effect in 2020. California's law is modeled after the GDPR.
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According to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, 22 meetings with more than 80 companies have been held on this topic over the last month. A draft proposal from the Chamber of Commerce calls on Congress to adopt a law that preempts states so that local legislatures don’t try to pass their own more restrictive privacy laws as California has done.

“Through the White House National Economic Council, the Trump Administration aims to craft a consumer privacy protection policy that is the appropriate balance between privacy and prosperity,” Lindsay Walters, the President's Deputy Press Secretary, told the Washington Post. “We look forward to working with Congress on a legislative solution consistent with our overarching policy.”

What does this all mean for us? ​It means that every website that collects personally identifiable information of any kind from another human being will be subject to the fines and penalties imposed by these new laws. It also means that we'll be keeping business, intellectual property, and data privacy attorneys busy drafting new data privacy policies and procedures for data breach notifications for our online businesses, whether breaches occur or not.

And if the U.S. law is anything like the GDPR, we'll have to obtain consent before we can even send anyone an email and provide a way for consumers to control their own data and remove it from our sites, if they so desire.​​ It's only a matter of time until these new laws impact us. Start planning now to invest into the updates that will become necessary to protect your online business.