$400k Defrauded; Cyberattacked; Expensive Lessons; Don’t Let it Happen to You!

"…insights for scaleups"

HEADLINES:

Defrauded $400k — it was a bad night last night, finding out that Gazelles was cyber-attacked and $400k was cleverly "taken" from our Gazelles bank account, more below, but first…

Why Drucker is Still Relevant — Hermann Simon, a dear friend of the late Peter Drucker, wrote an insightful piece in HRB this week titled "Why Peter Drucker's Writing Still Feels So Relevant." Notes Simon, there are three reasons:

Bisociation is the skill of associating two unrelated ideas to get a new one – a skill many consider the key to creativity. Take 3 minutes to scan through this thoughtful piece. FYI, Simon, author of my favorite growth book of all time Hidden Champions of the 21st Century and the #1 book on pricing titled Confessions of a Pricing Man will be keynoting our Growth Summit in a couple weeks in Dallas – see many of you there.

How Was $400k Taken from Us – we believe the process started in Moscow last Tuesday when I was giving the day's closing keynote at the Atlas Business Forum – 3000 leading CEOs and entrepreneurs from around Russia. While on a public network that morning my email was hacked – I have some ideas how and I believe it was "automated" as an algorithm scanned for clues that there was an opportunity to steal funds. Clues? I receive daily alerts from my bank on our bank balances, so they could see we had a substantial amount in the bank. And I had just instructed my assistant to wire some funds to an account in Spain – so it was obvious how we worked together in getting this accomplished by observing our back and worth conversations.

So What Happened Next? — "they" sent an email to my assistant completely imitating my style, subject line, and signature asking her to wire funds to three different places. I'm in the middle of funding several real estate and investment opportunities so this didn't seem out of place. My assistant responded back to confirm and they responded appropriately for me, the whole time deleting these emails from our server after sending and receiving.

Deleted Bank Alerts — They also deleted my daily bank alerts which I didn't notice since I was busy with meetings in Moscow or travelling. Anyway, my assistant calls in the wire transfers because our bank had suggested that calling in was less costly in terms of exchange rates and fees when wiring internationally – but much less safe than using our CEO Portal which requires two people with dongles to approve (penny wise, pound foolish). With the call in, my assistant's voice is verified and then they call her back to confirm. Dumb process – my fault and the bank's for thinking that this is a sufficient "dual" response.

Almost Saved — To the bank's credit they did flag one of the three transactions to Hong Kong and suggested to my assistant that she call me to verify. She emailed me asking when we could talk while on the road. The perpetrators intercepted this email and replied, again in my style, that I was busy travelling, that the transfer was good, and to get the bank to send. Then these emails were deleted (we were able to recover all the deleted emails on the server to confirm they had been sent and received and the bank alerts erased.)

Expensive Lessons Learned — Anyway, the funds were wired and the likelihood we'll ever see them again is nil. Hard lesson exposing massive numbers of failures on my part. The big failure was not thinking it could happen to me! The second was falling out of some critical daily and weekly routines with my team, especially when travelling. And it underscored the importance of talking about these large transactions, not just relying on emails. The difference in time zones makes it difficult at times, but not an excuse.

Cybersecurity — it just so happens we have someone speaking at the Growth Summit on the need for small to mid-size firms to take cybersecurity more seriously. If they can hack into governments, they can hack into you! Lesson learned the hard and expensive way.

COACHING:

Have you ever wondered if working with a coach might accelerate your company's growth, exponentially? Do you have what it takes to move the dial from good to great? Click here to watch Gazelles International President Keith Cupp describes the four most important attributes of successful clients. Contact us at [email protected] for more information.

And if you're interested in becoming a world-class certified Gazelles International coach, please go to gicoaches.com/becomeacoach for more information. If you determine that we're a fit and wish to join our premier organization, we invite you to contact our Dir. of Coach Engagement at [email protected] or 877.217.2253 ext.700.

TECHNOLOGY:

Align Software puts everyone on the Same Page – Literally! See, in real time every person in your organization and how they are progressing on their priorities – alongside how they Align to the Company Priorities! Scale Up your Rockefeller Habits implementation with www.aligntoday.com – on your computer and on your phone.

Better Book Club — What's your team reading? Increase your books read per team member. Easy, Proven, and in the Cloud at http://www.BetterBookClub.com.