My title page contents

Aggressive Ransomware campaign was recently released

A particularly aggressive Ransomware campaign was recently released.  It was observed and mention by several Companies around the world, their IT departments had notified that more than 120,000 E-Mails were sent daily over the last weeks. Ransomware is malicious software that encrypts files and demands payment for the decryption key. In the latest strain: The spam subject is an empty, “Fw:”, with a zip file attachment named: xls_convert_recipientname_randomnumber.zip. The body of the message indicates that the attachment contains requested invoices in Excel file format. The other campaign was sent with subject “Profile” containing a similar zip file attachment. The name of that attached file is: recipientname_profile_randomnumber.zip. As always, we suggest … [Read more...]

Jet.com blasting into e-commerce

Last Thursday’s event, hosted in Brickell’s Building & Co., brought Jet.com’s Director of Program Management Rick Paster to inform the Miami tech-scene about the company and some key strategies being implemented. Jet.com is an e-commerce site where adding a product to the checkout cart unlocks discounts for other similar, complimentary products, almost on an endless pathway; the user sees savings go up as the quantity of goods purchased also goes up. The company has been coined the “Amazon-killer”; however, Paster made the important point that the company does not consider itself a killer or competitor to Amazon, as there is room for many, diverse players in the e-commerce industry. It was refreshing to hear an executive reminding the public that competition and … [Read more...]

The State of UrbanTech – MIA 2016

Last Tuesday’s event The State of UrbanTech – MIA 2016 gathered a small but dedicated group to discuss the present and future impact of urban technology in cities, specifically Miami. The presentation began by asserting two interesting figures for future cities: 2 times population increase and 5 times decrease in greenhouse gas emissions. Cities are now being redesigned to fit more people while using less resources. Edward Glaeser’s book Triumph of the City assures this by emphasizing the fact that clustered cities are more productive and economically viable given the ease in flow of the new information economy and creativity. The problem, however, arises when cities are being re-imagined to a scale that is just not seemingly plausible. For example, the speaker at the event said … [Read more...]

IMA event: Terry B. Jones on innovation

Last Thursday, June 9, I had the pleasure of attending a discussion on innovation and shifting business strategy, led by Terry B. Jones. After a cocktail hour hosted at the NSU Art Museum in Ft. Lauderdale, the talk commenced in the auditorium across the breezeway. I must admit I did not know who Mr. Jones was, but I assumed he must be a marketing magnate, as the talk was organized by IMA. To my mistake and surprise, Mr. Jones is actually one of the founders of Travelocity and Kayak; so in a sense, he has developed businesses that market travel. Mr. Jones is in the business of facilitating the where and the when behind consumer choices, but he discussed the increasing importance for businesses to assess the self-reflexive why that drives consumer decisions. Businesses must break down … [Read more...]

Latin America’s Top 50 Brands

Analyzing the 50 most valuable brands in Latin America is not an easy task. Last week Millward Brown and MPP just did that, released their fourth annual Brand in Latin America,  they analyzed the region's six top economies: Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Argentina (PDF Doc Report). The 83 pages reports includes a extend breakout of the top 50 brands by country, even do there is been a despite slow economic growth in Latin America, they rise a 2% y/y/y. Some of the highlights include; Mexico, 17 top 50 brands, $49.4 billion value, +15% y/o/y Brazil, 11 top 50 brands, $32 billion value, +5% y/o/y Chile, 7 top 50 brands, $19.4 billion value, -23% y/o/y Colombia, 9 top 50 brands, $19.3 billion value, -4% y/o/y Peru, 4 top 50 brands, $6.1 billion value, +15% … [Read more...]