phish·ing noun \ˈfi-shiŋ\

:a scam by which an e-mail user is duped into revealing personal or confidential information which the scammer can use illicitly

With so much sensitive information collected in email, it’s a target of choice for hackers. The method used in this case was a common one in which a seemingly innocent message with a hyperlink is sent to company email addresses, which if clicked on redirects to another page asking users to reset their passwords. Once they have “phished” login credentials from an employee, a hacker can then search for login information for other accounts.

For the full details check out The Onion’s blog post: How the Syrian Electronic Army Hacked The Onion.

More importantly, consider implementing their suggested security measures:

• Make sure that your users are educated, and that they are suspicious of all links that ask them to log in, regardless of the sender.
• The email addresses for your twitter accounts should be on a system that is isolated from your organization’s normal email. This will make your Twitter accounts virtually invulnerable to phishing (providing that you’re using unique, strong passwords for every account).
• All twitter activity should go through an app of some kind, such as HootSuite. Restricting password-based access to your accounts prevents a hacker from taking total ownership, which takes much longer to rectify.
• If possible, have a way to reach out to all of your users outside of their organizational email. In the case of the Guardian hack, the SEA posted screenshots of multiple internal security emails, probably from a compromised email address that was overlooked.

It started out with a simple idea: Why not expand the reach of our small publishing ministry (CruPress) by creating a website for free distribution of ministry resources? So, about three years ago, we created CruPressGreen:  a free digital archive for hundreds of Cru printed materials (PDF versions of bible studies, articles, posters, booklets, etc), and multimedia (video and audio files for training, promoting, and learning). With the help of the crew at VVI, the website has grown beyond our expectations – now reaching over 19,000 unique visitors each month from over 150 countries, resulting in over 100,000 monthly page views.

Giving away the bulk of our materials was risky, but it paid off. CruPressGreen has significantly increased the exposure of our store site, CruPress.com  where we sell our printed materials (books and other ministry tools). However, this winter we realized that the store site needed a serious makeover. Again, it was VVI to the rescue, designing a new & improved site. The new store site is much more simple, organized, and intuitive than before, making it easier for everyone – Cru staff, students, faculty, volunteers, etc. – to purchase quality ministry resources.

But the partnership with VVI didn’t end there. Like the rest of the publishing world, CruPress needed to keep evolving and boldly venture into the world of ePublications. The VVI crew seamlessly integrated an eBooks section into our store site, allowing us to easily add new titles as they become available on Kindle, Nook, and iBooks.

We couldn’t be more pleased with the Cru/VVI relationship. Because VVI is supportive of our mission, vision, and values, our partnership should continue to thrive for years to come.

* Neil is Senior Editor of CruPress, the publishing division of Cru’s Campus Ministry. He has been officing at VVI for the past four years, mostly because he really likes their coffee. Follow him on Twitter @ xNeilo.

VVI thrives on creativity and our clients depend on that fact. And more than anything else, it takes an awareness of others to harness the best creativity and productivity from our team.

Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos, mentions how being closer to your team gives you more opportunity for “collisions.” He further explains, “To encourage culture and collaboration isn’t accomplished by creating an insular, master-planned environment that you might find at big Silicon Valley tech companies.”

The idea is that, by giving your employees incentive to work in the community they are invested in and enjoy, they become more productive as a whole.

Consider the following:
Community >= Office > Working from home alone

Opportunities our crew has benefited from:

• Good Shepherd / The Banquet
• Church / Lifelight / Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ)
• Bowden Youth Center / Big Brothers & Big Sisters
• Various Coffee Shops (Josiah’s is our 2nd conference room)
• Sioux Falls STORM / Canaries Baseball
• SF Synergy / YPN

This list could get long . . . and it makes me proud to live in such an active community that offers so many opportunities to continue to grow as a productive and involved crew.

What filling/icing/sprinkles is to dessert, marketing is to business, and what marketing is to business, VVI is to marketing.

We are the sweet part, the colorful part, the part that is enjoyable.

In the perfect business model, every facet of business is needed. A business recipe is as important to follow as recipes for pie, cake and ice cream sundaes (again, that last one is debatable). You need parts of management, accounting, sales, finance, economics, and marketing.

But ask yourself, out of that recipe, what would you like to lick the spoon of after stirring up the batter? That’s right, marketing, which is why we shouldn’t take it too seriously.

That being said, we need to take components of what we do seriously. We take your brands seriously. We take our relationships seriously. We take our jobs seriously. We take our rationale seriously. But seriously, we have fun.

The beauty of marketing is that it can be changed. It’s not black and it’s not white. It’s not even gray. It’s a full spectrum of color. It’s freedom.

So what is the VVI recipe that makes people want to get involved? It’s equal parts employee personalities, passion for what we do, and senses of humor, with a dash of healthy friction for overall awesomeness. Mix in a whole heap of clients who give us the opportunity to collaborate on ideas, and the result is something awfully delicious.

VVI. Love it, live it, taste it.