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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...]

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...]

Women can benefit from mentoring.

                Mariana Vega. On Saturday March 5/2016, I attended the inaugural Mentoring Walk to celebrate the International Women’s Day, (March 8th). Rendez Vous and Vital Voices hosted this event, and a panel discussion with the purpose of empowering women to grow professionally and become leaders.   Maria Gabriela Hoch, Vital Voices Argentina Honorary President & Co-founder, conducted the event. Natalia Martínez-Kalinina, General Manager at CIC, facilitated the discussion and the distinguished guests were Teresa Weintraub, Managing Director at Merrill Lynch, and Emily Berlin, Senior Consultant at Global Power Generation, SoEnery International.   As I expected, most of the audience were … [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...]

Trump against Journalists

  I personally don’t like the journalism style of Jorge Ramos. Some time he seems intimidating and tries to push the limits with whomever he is interviewing, be it at president of a country or a celebrity, you name it. However it surprise me that Mr. Donald Trump, the famous billionaire, as he claims himself to be - famous for his “raw & exaggerated way of talking”, the tough business man of NY, had to have his security detail remove Jorge Ramos from his recent press conference in Iowa. Why did this happen? It was not until someone in the audience, mention that “even President Obama could take the heat, face to face in an interview with the renowned journalist”, was Jorge Ramos allowed back in to … [Read more...]