In today’s daily 5 Things You Need to Know feature, ThisWeekinWorcester.com explores five important items and stories that Worcester and Central Massachusetts residents should keep a close eye on.
These five things can cover a whole range of subjects and issues that we feel are pertinent to understanding what’s going on in the city and the cities and towns surrounding Worcester.
In today’s edition – Thursday, April 29 – a virtual race for the Ronald Tarentino Jr. Charitable Fund is scheduled for May, Amtrak offers 50% off to celebrate 50 years, nine Holy Cross students featured in an exhibition at the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery, Dunkin’ introduces coconut milk and the Better Business Bureau offers tips for business owners to fight against cybersecurity threats.
Virtual Race for the Ronald Tarentino Jr. Charitable Fund
The Officer Ronald Tarentino, Jr. Charitable Fund is holding the 2021 Tarentino Strong Virtual Road Race from May 15 to May 21.
Tarentino, an Auburn Police officer, conducted a traffic stop on May 22, 2016 when he was shot by a suspect. He died later that day at UMass Medical Center.
The Road Race marks the fifth anniversary of his death.
To learn more about the event visit the Fund Facebook page or register to participate on the Fund website.
Amtrak Offers 50% Off to Celebrate 50 Years on the Tracks
Amtrak is offering 50% off up to a maximum of $50 per segment for coach class routes across the country and its Acela Business Class.
The offer is valid through May 5 for travel between June 2 and November 14.
To see fares visit the Amtrak 50th Anniversary Sale page on its website.
Exhibition Featuring Nine Holy Cross Students Runs Through Graduation Day
The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Art Gallery at the College of the Holy Cross present the exhibition “Metanoia,” on view through graduation day, Friday, May 21, 2021.
The exhibition is the work of nine graduating visual arts students.
Students developed the artwork on view during a year-long Senior Studio Concentration Seminar. They are Isabel Dawson, Elizabeth Larkin, Kiera MacAneney, Yekaterina Martin, Grace Peluso, Fernando Torralba, José Tenorio Villagomez, Jasmine Williams and Simeon Lloyd Wingard.
Cristi Rinklin, professor and chair of the visual arts department taught the seminar course during fall 2020. Matthew Gamber, associate professor, led the seminar in spring 2021.
Meredith Fluke, director of the Cantor Art Gallery, guided the students through a professional installation of their work in the Cantor Art Gallery.
Dunkin’ Adds Third Non-Dairy Choice with Coconut Milk
Dunkin’ added coconut milk as a new non-dairy alternative to its menu on Wednesday, April 28.
With the addition, Dunkin’ launched the new Dunkin’ Coconut Refreshers and the new Coconutmilk Iced Latte.
Adding to its Dunkin’ Refreshers lineup, the Refreshers come in three tropical flavors:
- Pink Strawberry: Strawberry Dragonfruit flavors combined with coconut milk.
- Golden Peach: Peach Passion Fruit flavors combined with coconut milk.
- Purple Pomegranate: Blueberry Pomegranate flavors combined with coconut milk.
Dunkin’ is serving medium-sized Dunkin’ Coconut Refreshers for the special price of $3 from April 28 through May 25.
The other addition, Dunkin’s new Coconutmilk Iced Latte, delivers a blend of roasted espresso notes and sweet, nutty coconut.
Dunkin’ has offered almond milk since 2014 and added oat milk in 2020.
Tips to Protect Against Cyberthreats
Cybersecurity is on the rise with hackers exposing over 36 billion records in the first nine months of 2020.
Business owners especially face increasing threats protecting customer data. Here are 5 tips from the Better Business Bureau to protect your business.
Backup your data
Most businesses are familiar with data backups; in fact, over 90% of companies claim to secure their information through backups. However, out of this number, only 28% perform weekly data back-ups.
Nearly 70% of companies are losing precious information because they did not back up their recent data, according to Acronis.
Install security software
According to Tessian, 88% of cybersecurity breaches result from human error. In other words, most cyberattacks take place because of the unintentional actions of employees, such as clicking on malware or using a vulnerable password. A Google/Harris poll found that 65% of people use the same password across all or multiple sites, making it easy for hackers to access workplace systems.
Downloading security software can help prevent these mistakes from occurring. Besides anti-virus software and firewalls, it’s advisable to set up spam filters to protect against phishing campaigns.
Use encryption and MFA
Encryption is a technique that encodes information, making it impossible for hackers or anyone outside of your workplace to consume your data. The number of businesses that utilize encryption is on the rise, with nearly 50% of companies claiming to encrypt their data in 2020.
While encryption is a strong line of defense, it should not be your only one. Businesses should take advantage of multi-factor authentication (MFA) to prevent cybersecurity breaches in the first place. MFA requires extra information, such as a unique code sent to a mobile device, to protect against hackers.
Protect against internal threats
Verizon claims that 30% of data breaches come from internal actors. While you can do your best to hire trustworthy employees, it’s impossible to verify the reliability of every single person you hire. Methods to prevent internal breaches include:
- Outlining strict computer policies (forbid employees from bypassing firewalls)
- Installing IDS (intrusion detection systems)
- Changing passwords frequently (and especially when employees leave)
In just the past two years, the number of internal cybersecurity breaches has escalated to 47%, according to The Ponemon Institute, making it more essential than ever to implement these policies and changes.
Create an incident response plan
When it comes to physical emergencies, such as fires, most workplaces have a plan in place. However, and IBM study found that an overwhelming 77% of organizations do not have a response plan ready when it comes to cybersecurity. Considering that, according to a Black Hat USA survey in 2019, 65% of business leaders predict the occurrence of a security breach in their organization in the coming year, you should have a protection plan ready.
An incident response plan (IRP) is a set of instructions designed to help recognize, address, and recover from network security threats. In short, an IRP calls for creating a list of responsibilities for team members, summarizing technologies that the team should use, and detailing a data recovery process.
The main purpose of an IRP is to detect a cybersecurity breach as soon as it happens. In the unfortunate incident that employees fail to prevent the breach, knowing about the incident can lead to a smoother and swifter recovery. Believe it or not, in a 2016 Bitdefender survey, 74% of companies reported that they didn’t even know how hackers gained access.
