Eastern Alliance Insurance Group Review - Benefits of Ecovery
You may be wondering how ecovery and using work as a therapeutic tool benefits you. Click on the links below to discover why ecovery helps you "Return to Wellness."
Financial
As part of your workers’ compensation claim, you may be entitled to indemnity (wage) benefits. The amount of these benefits is based on regulations made by your state. Some of the things that people don’t consider when they are out of work are that they are not paying income taxes on their wage benefits, as they are not considered income. Not paying taxes sounds like a great thing at first, but consider this, you may end up owing income tax at the end of the year because you are not paying in, you may not be approved for certain loans because your income is decreased significantly. Some loans look at the prior two years of income tax returns to make decisions on credit. You are also not paying in to Social Security which reduces the amount that you will be entitled to when you are at retirement age.
Vocational/Work
While out on total disability, you are missing opportunities for training, education, and skill sharpening that your coworkers are receiving. Your checks from the insurance carrier will never increase. If you’re at work, you have the opportunity for salary or wage increases as well as possible company bonuses. Imagine what you earned 5 years ago. Now, try to cover today’s bills with that amount. That is what life would be like if you remain on workers’ compensation disability benefits. Imagine receiving 2/3 of what you earned in 2006, but in the year 2014.
Emotional
We live in a world where we identify ourselves with what we do, what our job title is, who our employer is and how much we earn per year. We understand that when you become injured at work and you become totally disabled because of it, it has an impact on your self-esteem, self-worth and your security. Returning to work in a modified duty capacity allows you to get out of the house, help you avoid becoming depressed, and keeps you in physical and mental shape. Although you may sometimes gripe about your co-workers, interacting with others that share the same work as you is important. They are the only people who can truly understand what your job requires and why it is important. An employer who is willing to work with you is giving you more than a job or a paycheck; they are restoring that confidence, sense of worth and security. These elements cannot be valued in the form of dollars, just ask anyone who has recovered from a work injury.
Physical
The physical benefits of returning to work are many. When you are out of work for an extended period of time, you begin to become de-conditioned. You know when you have not lifted weights for a while and you return to the gym after a few months off, that you are not where you were three months ago. The same goes for work. A recent study of 632 workers with back or arm muscle strain/sprain injuries experienced a better health status and fewer work limitations than workers who did not return to work.
Eastern Alliance Insurance Group Review - Value to Employers
How can ecovery add value to your workplace?
- Reduce Future Premium Increases
The insurance carrier initially pays for the claim, but the employer may end up paying for it with increased premiums in the future. Offering modified duty reduces claims costs.
- Reduce Claims Costs More Than 50%
Return to work (RTW) programs immediately reduce indemnity payments. Not only are lost-time days reduced by 50%[1], but studies show medical costs are also reduced.
- Return Injured Workers to their Regular Jobs Faster
In a 2008 study of 184 manufacturing industry workers who sustained rotator cuff injuries, 84% of workers returned to regular duties within 120 days.[2] The authors of the study attribute the return to work rates to the existence of a successful RTW program.
- Speed-up Injured Worker Recovery
Using work as therapy helps injured employees recover up to 3 times faster. The sooner a worker is placed on modified duty, the sooner he or she returns to work.[1]
- Reduce Fraud
Establishing an ecovery program demonstrates that getting injured does not mean being out of work.
- Reduce Litigation
When injured workers feel secure about their employment, they’re less likely to seek out an attorney.
- Limit Personnel Costs
With ecovery, employers can limit the expense of hiring and training temp and replacement workers. Studies have demonstrated that employees who are offered modified duty work return to work twice as often as those who are not offered modified work.[1]
- Maintain Productivity
Using ecovery means, even with modified duty, the employer is gaining productivity from a worker who would otherwise be out of work.
- Increase Employee Morale
Establishing an ecovery program demonstrates that employees are valuable company assets, not disposable resources. It also communicates an employer’s commitment to the wellbeing of its employees.
Online Security - Keep your Online Identity Safe
No one is safe online. Everyone is vulnerable and it is your responsibility to establish precautionary measures to protect yourself against cyberattacks. Make yourself well informed and updated on different schemes which cybercriminals used to deceive online users.
The simple tips below should help ensure your security online without ruining the convenience online access offers:
- Your passwords should be strong enough that it cannot be easily guessed by hackers. Do not use obvious passwords using your personal information or do not use the most common passwords that are ridiculously easy to guess. Moreover, make sure that you use different passwords for your online accounts because having similar passwords on all accounts makes it easier for hackers to steal your identity.
- Updating your software is very important. There are many good reasons why you need to update your software, thus make sure to take time updating and installing new versions of it.
- Phishers do have the capability to copy the exact interface of a certain website and lure you into one. They will do everything to obtain personal information from you using those fake sites. Closely examine the site you are accessing before logging in your account and before giving out any personal and financial information.
- A recovery contact is very important at times where you can’t login to your account. Make sure to set an account recovery contact in case you can’t access your own account.
- Take advantage of setting up a two-step authentication as it serves as an added security to your accounts and will prevent hackers from accessing your account easily.
Dangers and threats are lurking on the Internet and hackers are always on the hunt looking for someone to victimize. Make yourself invincible and hard to hack, follow the basic ways above and be updated on latest schemes cybercriminals used.
Tyre&Auto Southbourne Group Review - How to Choose the Best Tyres for your Vehicle
There is a multitude of tyres available on the market today and it might seem difficult to choose the right tyre for your vehicle. Tyre&Auto Southbourne Group, as a company committed to taking care of your car, can help you choose the best tyre for your car with their knowledge and skills in car servicing.
But first, just a short introduction to Tyre&Auto Southbourne Group - it is a family run company that offers services such as helping you look for good tyres without getting scammed, car servicing, MOTs, brake checks and free seasonal checks. For more than a decade, it has also been trading on the South Coast of Hampshire.
If you’re planning to renew the tyres of your vehicle and you need help in choosing the right one, Tyre&Auto can assist you. There are certain elements that should be taken into consideration regarding this matter, and it includes the size, climate and how you drive your vehicle.
You’ll not have a hard time knowing the size of the tyre because it is already indicated in its wall. There are also different types of important information that the sidewall of a tyre holds wherein you can determine the following:
- Date and place of production
- Speed
- Load capacity
- Size
Other significant details that you can find on the wall of the tyre include its section width, aspect ratio or profile, as well as its radius.
There are particular factors that could affect the life of your tyre and it involves when your mileage per annum is high or low, or when you drive in inner city conditions instead of motorways. Based on the criteria you gave, Tyre&Auto Southbourne Group can help you with your choice even if you drive in a sportier manner that could also affect the life of your tyre.
For further inquiries, give them a call today or visit their local depots, and their team will be happy to help you.
About Eastern Alliance Insurance Group
We're specialists.
We focus on doing one thing and doing that one thing well: providing superior workers' compensation products and services to businesses and organizations. Since 1997, we have built a strong reputation for being a "best in class" provider of workers' compensation products and services. We've achieved this position by creating supportive relationships and providing our employees and clients with the tools and resources they need to win with integrity.
Service is what sets us apart from the competition.
From the start, clients are assigned a dedicated service team with specialists from underwriting, risk management, claims and marketing. Each team member takes personal responsibility for meeting the needs of our clients. Our collective goal is to increase the insured organization's productivity and reduce their workers' compensation costs.
We're not your typical insurance company.
We've broken the dated mold of other insurance companies by looking beyond the standard response to our clients' insurance needs and providing a fresh perspective to all that we do. Everyone at Eastern pledges to offer you: Fresh outlooks. Better outcomes.
What makes us different:
Strategic partnerships
Superior service
Proactive approach to claims and risk management
Focus on Return-to-Work
Online Fraud Detection - Planning for Tomorrow’s Cyberattacks
As organisations think through their cybersecurity strategy for the coming year the challenge they face is how to plan for success, writes Peter Bauer, CEO and co-founder of Mimecast.
This past year we’ve seen how cybercriminals continue to become more sophisticated and insidious by constantly revising, updating and re-inventing their tactics and technologies to launch attacks. We’ve seen our share of DDoS attacks, key political figures emails hacked, and ransomware attacks. Recently, we saw cybercriminals target the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Authority with a ransomware attack. Free rides for all! And, that wasn’t San Francisco offering an early holiday gift to locals.
Knowing 100% protection against today’s cyber threats is not realistic – cyber resilience becomes the name of the game. Building a cyber resilience strategy that layers state-of-the-art preventative systems, point-in-time recovery measures, and a means to maintain continuity during an attack can make a significant difference in fending off the myriad of sophisticated threats. We can’t predict all the attacks coming but we can build in cyber resilience and learn from what we have already seen.
Although we may not know all the answers of what’s to come, based on what we’ve seen over the year here are a few attacks that we, at Mimecast, think will rise up 2017:
* The Rise of Cyber Gangs – The past year has been rampant with attacks, and it’s only going to get worse. Not just in the number of attacks, but the sophistication. Attackers have been getting smarter, their data gathering techniques more sophisticated, and they’re becoming more organized. In 2017, we’ll likely see growing groups of attackers, as well as a network of shared information they’ve stolen. These groups will also likely clash, and we’ll see attackers going after each other as well as these virtual gangs grow, gain resources, and fight over territories in the digital landscape. As we all know everyone needs to protect against these threats, by taking a layered approach and ensure they have a proper cyber resilience strategy in place to combat these threats. But that can sometimes be out of reach for many organizations as they are always strapped for resources, budget and then management of said layers. Thus the massive shift of organizations moving to a cloud security strategy where you can get advanced security capabilities that would be out of reach to try and build on premise.
* Ransomware Continues to Evolve yet don’t take your eye off other threats – Ransomware will explode to become one of the biggest threats, fuelled by smaller ‘opportunist’ attackers using off-the-shelf kits to deploy malware. This is an easy and cheap attack method that produces fruitful results. Few organizations have effective defences against this type of malware and now with bitcoins enabling the perpetrators to increase distance from their victims further, it has never been so easy to get away with it. In the coming year, we should also expect more crypto-lockers and evolving forms of ransomware that deny access to desktops, network drives and cloud services. And just as you focus your attention on ransomware issues you can’t be caught off guard by adversaries impersonating the CEO to transfer thousands of dollars to an offshore account or by basic phishing attacks that will cause employees to launch attacks on your organisation.
* Focus on Data Mining – One theme that is still overlooked is that it’s not just about wire transfers. Attackers aren’t just focused on money, they’re focusing on data mining and will use the data they gather in more advanced attacks to gather important data to be either sold on the Dark Web, or used in future attacks. (Remember the W-2 fraud uptick earlier this year? We’re heading into tax season, and can expect to see this again.) While Wire Transfer fraud is, and will be an issue in the future, organizations need to also think about where else they’re susceptible and ensure they have the appropriate protective measures in place. Backups are essential, but the evolution of ransomware is staggering and organizations need to ensure their gateway, firewall, endpoint and other security solutions are consistently up-to-date.
* Cyber Espionage to Cause More Political Disruption – Nation states and their sponsored operatives will use cyber espionage more and more to cause political shifts, disruption, and to gain economic advantage. This will involve, but will not be limited to, email hacking and disclosure of other forms of intercepted private communications, disruption of and interference with critical national infrastructures (Stuxnet 2).
Cyber crime: How companies are hit by email scams by Online Security
Fraudsters are using clever impersonation techniques to siphon millions from unprotected businesses
When Keith McMurtry, corporate controller of Scoular, a 124-year-old US grain-trading and storage company, was asked by his chief executive to wire $17.2m to an offshore bank account, he did not question it.
Chuck Elsea told Mr McMurtry in a top-secret email that Scoular was in talks to acquire a Chinese company. The chief executive instructed him to liaise with a lawyer at KPMG who would provide the wiring instructions to an account in China.
“We need the company to be funded properly and to show sufficient strength toward the Chinese. Keith, I will not forget your professionalism in this deal, and I will show you my appreciation very shortly,” Mr Elsea wrote in an email in June 2014. Over three transactions, Mr McMurtry transferred the $17.2m to an account in the name of Dadi Co at Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, according to an affidavit signed by an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and filed in a Nebraska court.
The email was a fraud. Criminals impersonated Mr Elsea by creating a phoney email account in his name. They also set up fake email and phone numbers in the name of a real KPMG partner, who later said he had never heard of Scoular. US authorities have traced the emails and phone number to Germany, France, Israel and Russia.
Scoular, which is ranked 66th on Forbes’ list of the US’s largest private companies with revenues of $5.9bn, is one of several thousand companies that have fallen victim to a new type of fraud known as business email compromise schemes which have netted $800m in the past six months.
In January 2015, Xoom, an international money transfer company bought for $890m last July by PayPal, a pioneer in digital payments, said an employee in its finance department was duped into transferring $30.8m in corporate cash to an overseas account.
Ubiquiti Networks, a US manufacturer of wireless networking products, disclosed that its finance department was targeted last June by an imposter and transferred $46.7m to overseas accounts. After discovering the fraud the company began legal proceedings and has recovered $8.1m.
More than 12,000 businesses worldwide have been targeted by the scams, also known as CEO email schemes, between October 2013 and this month. The transactions have netted criminals $2bn, according to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, an intelligence and investigative group within the FBI that tracks computer crimes. Companies large and small, across 108 countries, have been hit and the threat is growing, law enforcement officials say.
“It has gotten quite out of hand,” says Mitchell Thompson, a supervisory special agent and head of the financial cyber crimes task force in the FBI’s New York office.
The criminals are “becoming more brash”, he says, by introducing third parties, such as law firms and consultants, to carry out the fraud. They have also become more sophisticated about how they troll potential victims.
“They’re using social media a lot against us. They might send a spam email intentionally to see that the executive is out of the office, [making] it prime time to target. They might look on Facebook and see that [the chief executive is] travelling to Europe or Australia so they know you’re in the air for a certain amount of time” and have a window to strike, Mr Thompson says.
Tricking people using the internet to steal money is hardly new. There have been criminal groups taking advantage of users of dating websites and fundraisers for disasters or terrorist attacks. A decade ago authorities were flooded with complaints of bogus Nigerian email scams and false lottery winners.
Criminals use a variety of tactics. Sometimes they gain access to executives’ emails by hacking into the accounts using phishing emails. The accounts of chief executives can also be spoofed by changing a letter or replacing a company’s official email service with a Gmail account. The phoney account created to mimic the KPMG lawyer used the suffix @kpmg-office.com, a fake address convincing enough to trick someone who is not checking carefully.
The criminals usually impersonate the executive and order the transfer, often through a second account they secretly control, such as the one said to belong to the KPMG lawyer. The money is sent to accounts in Asia or Africa, where it is harder for authorities to recover. By the time the company realises it has been duped, authorities say, the money has long gone.
Mr McMurtry told the FBI that he was not suspicious of the transfers since Scoular was discussing an expansion in China and he had been working on an annual audit with KPMG, according to the FBI affidavit. Mr McMurtry, who is no longer with Scoular, did not respond to requests for comment. Scoular also declined to speak.
The scam began simply enough. Mr McMurtry received an email purporting to be from Mr Elsea. “I have assigned you to manage file FT-809,” the bogus email said. “This is a strictly confidential operation, which takes priority over other tasks. Have you already been contacted by Rodney Lawrence [the KPMG lawyer]?” It went on: “This is very sensitive, so please only communicate with me through this email, in order for us not to infringe SEC regulations.”
The following day “Mr Elsea” sent another email stating that the transfer was urgent and he should “proceed asap with the wire to the same beneficiary and bank account as yesterday”.
FBI agents traced the phoney email account in Mr Elsea’s name to Germany. The KPMG email name was linked to a server in Moscow. The phone number provided was traced to a Skype account registered in Israel.
Scoular’s lawyers told the FBI that Wells Fargo said Dadi — the name on the account in Shanghai where Mr McMurtry sent the money — manufactured army boots. Dadi claimed to the bank that the wire transfers were part of a sales contract for the manufacture of boots, according to the FBI affidavit. Scoular said it did not purchase boots.
Mr Lawrence, the KPMG lawyer whose identity was used in the email scheme, is the global leader of KPMG’s international tax services. When interviewed by the FBI he told them he was not familiar with Scoular and had not spoken with anyone at the company, according to the affidavit.
The FBI obtained a court order to seize the funds held at Shanghai Pudong Development Bank but was told that the account had been closed and the funds transferred.
Business email compromise crimes are “a huge” problem, says Austin Berglas, head of cyber investigations at K2 Intelligence and a former chief of the FBI’s cyber branch in New York. Executives are so reliant on email they do not pick up the phone to confirm the transaction and “there is no second check,” he adds.
Some of the email scams are similar, suggesting they come from the same criminal organisation.
The FBI and US Justice Department have several investigations under way. Over the past 12 months the FBI has put more intelligence analysts on the case and have liaised with law enforcement agencies worldwide. “We will open cases this year and we will make arrests this year,” says James Barnacle, chief of the FBI’s money laundering unit.
Glen Wurm, director of accounting at AFGlobal Corp, which makes products for the aerospace, oil and gas industries, received an email in May 2014 similar to that sent to Scoular.
Purportedly from Gean Stalcup, the company’s chief executive, it said: “Glen, I have assigned you to manage file T521. This is a strictly confidential financial operation which takes priority over other tasks. Have you already been contacted by Steven Shapiro [attorney KPMG]?”
Mr Wurm was told not to speak to anyone and was directed to wire $480,000 to an account at the “Agriculture Bank of China”, according to legal documents. The hacker mimicked the tone Mr Stalcup used with Mr Wurm, according to a lawsuit that AFGlobal filed against its insurer Federal Insurance.
Six days later, Mr Shapiro contacted Mr Wurm confirming he had received the transfer, adding that he needed another $18m, according to a lawsuit. At this point Mr Wurm became suspicious and said he could not send so much money without alerting senior executives.
It was too late: the bank account had been emptied. AFGlobal is suing Federal Insurance and Chubb, its parent company, seeking more than $1m for allegedly breaching its contract by not covering the claim. Chubb has declined to comment.
Mr Thompson has declined to discuss either scheme but says criminal groups copy successful tactics. While some schemes have been as large as $90m, the average loss is $120,000.
“The ones you don’t hear about are the smaller corporations that send $50,000. They’re saying, ‘I’m not going to make payroll, we’re going to close our doors’ as a result of the fraud,” Mr Thompson says.
There is little that companies can do to recover the funds. Banks are not required by law to reimburse a company that makes a transfer. Cyber insurance policies might not cover a fraud against a company if its network has not been hacked.
“The bank will look at the totality of what the company has done to protect itself and whether or not they’re adhering to the agreement that the company has signed associated with the initiation of any of these wires,” says Doug Johnson, senior vice-president of overseas payments and cyber security at the American Bankers Association. One good practice is requiring the approval of two people, he says.
That practice is not fail-safe, however.
Like AFGlobal, Medidata Solutions, a clinical technology company, fell victim to email fraud in September 2014.
An employee in accounts received an email from an executive requesting a money transfer, according to a lawsuit filed in a federal New York court against Federal Insurance. The email included an image of the executive’s face and his signature.
Like the other alleged scams, the email included the name of a lawyer, who would act as a liaison for the employee. The employee told the lawyer that he needed the approval of two others before a $4.7m transfer could be made.
The fraudsters had a solution, though. Later that day, two employees with authority to sign off on the transfer were emailed instructions, purporting to be from the chief executive of Medidata, telling them to approve the wire to a bank account in China.
The transfer went through. Two days later, an email from the lawyer told the same employees to initiate a second transfer of $4.8m. One of the employees had grown nervous and called the executive direct — stopping the fraud and saving millions for the company.
Yet law enforcement officials say companies need to be more vigilant to guard against a crime that has become simpler to commit. “It’s easy,” says Mr Barnacle. “All you need is a computer.”
