Reposted from SafeHaven Security

Workplace violence is a serious issue that affects employees across all industries and can have significant physical, emotional, and financial consequences for your company. Any form of workplace violence disrupts the work environment, undermines productivity, and compromises employee well-being. To mitigate these risks and set yourself and your company up for success, many organizations are turning to employee workplace violence training as a key component of their safety protocols. Here’s why such training is crucial for ensuring a safe, respectful, and productive workplace.

1. Prevents escalation of conflicts
2. Improves communication and reporting
3. Promotes a positive workplace culture
4. Prepares employees for emergency situations
5. Reduces employee turnover

A proactive approach to safety is your best bet. Implementing employee workplace violence training will foster a healthy, safe, and productive work environment where employees are more engaged, businesses are more productive, and legal and financial risks are minimized. Investing in workplace violence training is not just the responsible thing to do—it’s essential for the well-being of your workforce and the long-term success of your business.

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Reposted from Walden Security

Picture this. You are driving and pass a billboard. But this time, it’s not advertising the local coffee shop. Instead, it’s your personal information—your name, home address, who you voted for and a family photo. Never going to happen, right? But where else could all that information be found? We all know where this is going. For better or worse, we live in the age of social media. Social media is a powerful tool that thrives on sharing personal information. It connects us like never before but is a tool that can be easily abused. You may think you are safe if your account is private and because you are selective about who you add as friends. But everyone is at risk on social media. Because posting to social media is, in essence, posting your information to a digital billboard. Read these tips to ensure you are protected on social media: Be selective with your content and cautious of oversharing. Social media is a public platform meant for connection, not a digital diary. Your individual posts are puzzle pieces. Together, they can reveal more details about your habits, location and relationships than you may realize. Keep these content tips in mind: • Realize you cannot take it back: Once you publish something online, it is available to other people and to search engines. You can change or delete it, but once something is out there, you cannot guarantee it is ever completely deleted. • Be careful with photos: Photos can reveal more details than intended. If a school logo on a uniform is included, someone could easily Google the school location. Street signs and mailbox numbers could reveal your home address. Take care in analyzing the small details. • Vacation posts: Wait until you are home to post vacation photos and details. There is no need to broadcast your absence to criminals. • Separate professional and personal accounts. Take some time to review the privacy settings of each social media platform, which can be difficult to find and cumbersome to change. The National Cybersecurity Alliance provides links and steps to access privacy settings for various popular services and apps. Remember to configure the privacy settings immediately when you download a new app or sign up for a new account. Using strong passwords is a simple way to increase the safety of your digital footprint. Use complex and unique passwords that are at least 12 characters long and include letters, numbers and symbols. Avoid recognizable words or phrases—or your kids or pet names. And, yes, use a different password for each social media account. For further protection, consider enabling multi-factor authentication—the process of providing two or more proofs of control associated with a specific digital identity. Examples include face scans and onetime login codes. Social media apps collect information about where you are and your hobbies to target ads and other suggestions. However, many apps request location permission, but that permission is not required for the app to function. Check the location settings on all your devices and turn off location sharing when applicable. Do not allow friends to tag you, as they may not be diligent with their settings. Occasionally, search yourself online to see what information is easily accessible. It is critical to know what information can be found by a free, open-source search. By knowing that and applying countermeasures to protect your identity, you can keep yourself—and everyone around you—safer on social media.

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Reposted from The Art Newspaper

One of the most difficult challenges that museums have faced this year is escalating attacks by protesters on some of their greatest masterpieces. Although there may have been no—or minimal—damage to the works, if it continues, then something is likely to occur. London’s National Gallery has now suffered five attacks. In October it therefore announced a ban on bringing liquids into its rooms. This has increased security costs (thereby diverting resources) and has lengthened queues for visitors. Many hundreds of paintings have recently been glazed, at a considerable cost, and making it more difficult to avoid the distraction of a narrow shadow strip at the top of a canvas. Vincent van Gogh has been the primary target of climate protesters. Soup was thrown at Sunflowers (1888) in October 2022 by two environmental activists from the Just Stop Oil group, causing minor damage to the painting’s 17th-century Italian frame. In September 2024, on the day the perpetrators were being sentenced, the same painting and another Sunflowers version (1889) on loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art faced a similar attack. There were three other incidents. In July 2022, Just Stop Oil activists glued themselves to Constable’s The Hay Wain (1821). In November 2023, protesters used safety hammers to smash the glass of Velázquez’s Rokeby Venus (1647-51). And this October, two members of the Youth Demand group covered the glass of Picasso’s Motherhood (1901) with an image of a mother and child in war-torn Gaza.

Of course, other institutions in the UK and internationally have been hit. In January 2023, two protesters stenciled the logo of the global energy company Woodside onto Frederick McCubbin’s Down on his luck (1889) at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, and at London’s British Library in May this year, two environmental activists attacked the glass case holding the Magna Carta. Works of art have become targets in a way that Britain has not seen since the suffragette slashing of the Rokeby Venus in 1914. Sadly, we now have the spectre of copycats, with protesters of various persuasions seeing it as a quick way of getting a shocking image into the media.

War zones

Everyone in the art world and beyond has been horrified by the wars that are being fought in Gaza and Ukraine. Museums and institutions have generally tried to avoid involvement in the political issues, although the travelling show of Ukrainian Modernism represents a positive, non-provocative attempt to deal with the situation in artistic terms. In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine, 1900-1930s was at London’s Royal Academy of Arts until October. Individual artists have their own personal views and those from the conflict zones may try to represent something of what they observe and feel in their art. But artists—and art lovers—hold virtually no power in these desperate wartime situations. The military and serving politicians are the ones in command. However, what museums and galleries have demonstrated is that the art world is a truly global community. Hopefully ties between artists, and the dissemination of art internationally, might do a little to help bring diverse groups of people together.

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Reposted from CISA/DHS

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) announced the release of a new resource titled, De-escalation Action Guide, which is a companion product to the De-escalation Series. This new resource consolidates the existing De-escalation Series into a single, easily accessible product. The Action Guide provides organizations with strategies for empowering staff and community members to recognize, assess, de-escalate, and report suspicious behaviors that may indicate a potential threat.

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Reposted from CISA/DHS

The JCDC Planning Office is pleased to share the third edition of New and Noteworthy – a publication designed to keep critical infrastructure stakeholders and key partners informed of planning efforts underway to update the National Cyber Incident Response Plan (NCIRP) 2024. This edition contains important information about the upcoming public comment period as well as other recent engagements and outreach activities.  On Monday, December 16, CISA will announce the request for public comment on the draft update of the NCIRP. Developed in close partnership with the NCIRP core planning team (CPT) and Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD), CISA invites stakeholders from across public and private sectors are invited to review and share their perspective, provide feedback on findings, and contribute to this revision.  Please visit the Federal Register to submit comment by January 15, 2025. Federal Register: Public Inspection: National Cyber Incident Response Plan.  In the spirit of public-private collaboration, we encourage partners to disseminate this newsletter across their respective communities to ensure broad awareness of efforts underway and ways the critical infrastructure community can get involved.

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Reposted from AMM

 Join us where the arts and culture scene flow like the mighty Mississippi!
 We’re thrilled to announce that the 97th conference of the Association of Midwest Museums will take place in the Quad Cities (Illinois and Iowa) in summer 2025!  With 30+ museums of all shapes and sizes proudly working together to boost this 400,000-person bistate metro region along the Mississippi River, the Quad Cities are giving big creative energy with small town vibes. AMM 2025 sessions and events are sure to delight and inspire! PLUS the Quad Cities are a short drive (or flight) from many Midwestern cities, making it an easy destination for a retreat to connect with your peers and fill your well!
Save the Date!
We'll kick off the conference with a virtual day on July 23. Then, we'll gather together in-person at the RiverCenter in Davenport, IA, from July 30-August 2 for sessions, hands-on workshops, and time with our peers. Of course, we'll also get out and explore arts and culture destinations across this multi-city region!
In the coming weeks, we'll share more exciting news about this year's partners, conference theme, and the Call for Proposals. Stay tuned!
Member museums in the Quad Cities welcome you!
Your peers in the Quad Cities want you to come see the magic they’re making happen!
There are many ways for local museums and service providers to get involved in the planning process and get featured in the program. If you're interested in learning more, contact Charity Counts, executive director of AMM.

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Reposted from CISA/DHS

Today, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Australian Signals Directorate Australian Cyber Security Centre (ASD ACSC) and other U.S. and international partners published, Choosing Secure and Verifiable Technologies. This guide assists senior leaders in understanding the threat environment and highlights the areas in pre-and post-purchase procurement of digital products and services that should be considered. To help organizations understand the risks with technology procurement, this guide outlines several possible attack vectors or actions used by threat actors to compromise networks.  Along with these risks, recommended mitigation strategies are provided for organization to implement to protect their networks. With an understating of the risks and mitigation strategies, organizations will find themselves empowered to demand evidence from manufacturers that their software development process aligns to Secure by Demand principles. The guide provides several key indicators, consequences, and questions to ask manufacturers that help organizations assess whither the product is secure and verifiable or outside their risk tolerance. Procuring organizations must establish, document, and understand the predetermined security requirements they need in a product or service. Organizations are encouraged to review and implement the recommended actions into their procurement process. An executive summary is also provided.

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Reposted from AAM

In addition to saving on the Annual Meeting, AAM members enjoy year-round benefits, including:

Access to a members-only resource library

Discounts on professional development programs and resources

Subscription to Museum magazine and weekly updates

Join AAM today and unlock the savings, support, and resources that will help you and your museum thrive.

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Reposted from AAM

November/December 2024 Preview

Widening The Circle-Explore the expanding influence of DEAI and its implications for museums in this issue’s timely articles. Learn how DEAI programs are reshaping museums’ internal systems so that their policies and programs more authentically reflect the communities they serve, fostering a positive impact.

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Reposted from AMM

How are you navigating "Crosscurrents"?

In the same way that the turbulence caused by crosscurrents in a river have an impact on navigation, the changes taking place in our broader culture and society have ripple effects in the everyday work of museums.

During AMM 2025, let's engage in discussion and debate around the intersecting and sometimes conflicting viewpoints that are shaping our landscape, informing our practices, and influencing our policies (whether we like it or not). We will draw inspiration from the amazing cultural organizations in the Quad Cities, whose efforts to build bridges across a geographical and political divide have been a success, and unpack what it means for museums to be trusted spaces now and moving forward.

Bring your perspective and experience to the conversation as a presenter!

We welcome proposals for sessions, workshops, posters, and conversation stations that focus on navigating the “crosscurrents” that are shaping the landscape for every aspect of museum operations, programs, and community initiatives. (Proposals with connections to the theme are ideal but not required. All ideas are welcomed!)

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