I’m trying to tie in my cleaner, a trip to Mogadishu and comments about danger here in Australia.
To start with, my cleaner didn’t come today because she said I didn’t pay her – which is true because I didn’t, but her invoice didn’t reach me – could be a lame excuse, but I didn’t see it.
I’ve read that I should not visit Mogadishu without professional security advice. A visit there shouldn’t be for you if you are not into terror attacks, kidnapping, extreme weather, severe droughts, heat waves, and floods.
I quite like visiting edgy countries; however, I’m passing up on a Somalia vacation this year.
An email I received from Macquarie bank says that We’ve seen the number of scams in Australia continue to grow, with 55% of the population being exposed to a scam in 2020-21.
A scam can take all your money, shut your business down and leave you not trusting anyone or anything again. Like the victims of violence and terror attacks, a scam has a victim and causes hurt.
The reason my cleaner didn’t get her invoice through to me is that at Your Business Angels, we have our “what’s this – shove it in junk meter” turned up very high, and anything that looks machine-generated – like an invoice from Xero is junked (od, because the same doesn’t happen when my lawn person sends me an invoice from MYOB).
So, having apologised and paid my cleaner, I have again asked that an invoice be made in PDF and sent to me via her email, which is an address my system will allow in as known.
We must get this right. I have the most fabulous cleaner.
There are some hassles we need to deal with when we have a high IT security level. Happy to work around things and pay for the next lot of “stuff” that we need to subscribe to build safety.
Like the UN personnel in Somalia who are protected by security teams, you need your computer and exposure to the outside world through being online, getting professional advice and getting security support.
And, while you won’t have your arm blown off or your grandfather’s estate cashed out for your ransom, having a computer online with the internet exposes you to some of the world’s nastiest people out to rob and hurt you.
Here are two things we recommend for our clients at Your Business Angels to do
1) The business computer is not the family computer – It’s used for business and the businesses finance only.
2) That all computers in your house have protection from the evil outside. Engage with someone who patrols it all the time and tells you of anything evil that arrives and fixes it.
Don’t be a victim, don’t travel to Mogadishu and get protection – absolute security on your computers and network…. can my clearer please come back?