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Monthly Archives: April 2014

Joyce Charman Appointed Vice President of Underwriting at ABEX

Joyce Charman

Joyce Charman
VP Underwriting, ABEX

Jim McGregor, CEO and Chairman of The Precept Group Inc. and ABEX Affiliated Brokers Exchange Inc., is pleased to announce the appointment of Joyce Charman as Vice President, Underwriting at ABEX Affiliated Brokers Exchange Inc.

Ms. Charman joined ABEX in 2007 and until recently held the position of Manager. Ms. Charman brings to her new role a wealth of experience from her background as a marketing representative, underwriter and manager at several insurance companies and brokerages.

Her responsibilities include overseeing the management and development of the company’s insurance portfolio while strengthening relationships with existing and developing relationships with potential broker clients.

Ms. Charman holds her BA from University of Western Ontario, as well as Chartered Insurance Professional and Certified Risk Manager designations.

ABEX Affiliated Brokers Exchange is an insurance wholesaler (MGA) providing niche products and insurance solutions to brokers across Canada. ABEX provides brokers with capacity and specialty facilities to create out of the box solutions for standard and misunderstood risks.

ABEX leads the industry by offering ABEXAccess, a ground-breaking technology that provides secure Real-Time Rating and Paperless Policy issuance through ITS’ BindEasy policy administration system. ABEXAccess provides a combination of easy access and high efficiency, enabling brokers to submit risks electronically from their office or from the field, using a multitude of devices, including iPad, smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop.


Jad McGregor Appointed President of ABEX

Jad McGregor

Jad McGregor
President, ABEX

Jim McGregor, CEO and Chairman of ABEX Affiliated Brokers Exchange Inc., is pleased to announce the appointment of Jad McGregor as President.

Mr. Jad McGregor joined ABEX in 2006 where most recently he held the position of VP Business Development. Prior to joining the company, his experience includes several years with an insurance company and working in the London market at Lloyd’s.

Mr. McGregor holds his HBSc from University of Guelph, as well as Chartered Insurance Professional and Certified Risk Manager designations.

In his new role Mr. McGregor will provide strategic leadership and executive oversight for the company. Mr. McGregor’s extensive knowledge and wealth of experience from his previous leadership roles will allow him to shape new opportunities and drive success for the organization.

ABEX Affiliated Brokers Exchange is an insurance wholesaler (MGA) providing niche products and insurance solutions to brokers across Canada. ABEX provides brokers with capacity and specialty facilities to create out of the box solutions for standard and misunderstood risks.

ABEX leads the industry by offering ABEXAccess, a ground-breaking technology that provides secure Real-Time Rating and Paperless Policy issuance through ITS’ BindEasy policy administration system.  ABEXAccess provides a combination of easy access and high efficiency, enabling brokers to submit risks electronically from their office or from the field, using a multitude of devices, including iPad, smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop.


Heartbleed bug: What’s affected and what passwords you need to change

Source: globalnews.ca Published: 04/11/14

password screenAn encryption flaw now known as the Heartbleed bug has made a major impact on online security. The flaw has affected many online services and websites that Canadians access every day.

Security experts have gone as far to call it one of the biggest security threats the Internet has ever faced.

The flaw affects OpenSSL – a widely used open-source set of libraries for encrypting online services.

Heartbleed creates an opening in SSL/TLS, an encryption technology marked by the small, closed padlock and “https:” on Web browsers to show that traffic is secure. The flaw makes it possible to snoop on Internet traffic even if the padlock is closed, leaving users’ information vulnerable.

For now, the best  you can do to protect yourself is change the password to any accounts associated with websites affected by the bug once the website confirms it’s deployed a fix.

Global News has created a list of some of the most popular services to let you know what’s affected and what passwords you need to change:

ONLINE BANKING

Were Canadian banks affected? No. Do you need to change your password? No – but this is a good reminder that yourInternet banking password should be very secure.

“The online banking applications of Canadian banks have not been affected by the Heartbleed bug,” the Canadian Bankers Association said in statement issued Wednesday afternoon. “Canadians can continue to bank [online] with confidence.”

CANADA REVENUE AGENCY

Was it affected? Yes Do you need to change your password? Yes

As of Friday the CRA’s online services were still offline due to the security concern. But according to a statement issued Friday, the websites will be back online by the weekend. Those with accounts should update their passwords once the site comes back online to be safe.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook

Was it affected? Unclear Do you need to change your password? Yes

“We added protections for Facebook’s implementation of OpenSSL before this issue was publicly disclosed. We haven’t detected any signs of suspicious account activity, but we encourage people to […] set up a unique password,” Facebook said in a statement.

LinkedIn

Was it affected? No Do you need to change your password? No

Instagram

Was it affected? Yes Do you need to change your password? Yes

“Our security teams worked quickly on a fix and we have no evidence of any accounts being harmed,” the company said.

Twitter

Was it affected? No Do you need to change your password? No

“We were able to determine that twitter.com and api.twitter.com servers were not affected by this vulnerability. We are continuing to monitor the situation,” Twitter said on its website Wednesday.

Tumblr

Was it affected? Yes Do you need to change your password? Yes

“We have no evidence of any breach and, like most networks, our team took immediate action to fix the issue. This might be a good day to call in sick and take some time to change your passwords everywhere,” Tumblr said in a statement on Tuesday.

Pinterest

Was it affected? Yes Do you need to change your password? Yes

TECH COMPANIES

Google

Was it affected? Yes Do you need to change your password? Probably.

According to a statement from Google, the company proactively looks for vulnerabilities in order to fix them before they are exploited and therefore fixed this bug “early.” Google said users do not need to change their passwords because of this – but better safe than sorry in this case.

“We’ve assessed this vulnerability and applied patches to key Google services such as Search, Gmail, YouTube, Wallet, Play, Apps, and App Engine.  Google Chrome and Chrome OS are not affected,” a post on Google’s security blog published Wednesday said.

Microsoft

Was it affected? No Do you need to change your password? No

Apple

Was it affected? No Do you need to change your password? No

Yahoo

Was it affected? Yes Do you need to change your password? Yes

“Our team has fixed the Heartbleed vulnerability across our main properties & is implementing the fix across our entire platform now,” the company tweeted Tuesday.

Yahoo is also the email provider for Rogers customers.

According to a statement issued to Global News, “Rogers. com doesn’t use the impacted versions of the SSL software, so was not impacted by the bug.” But a spokesperson added that the company recommends customers update their passwords frequently as best practice.

ONLINE SHOPPING

Amazon

Was it affected? No* Do you need to change your password? No

*Amazon said with the exception of some services – Elastic Load Balancing, Amazon EC2, Amazon CloudFront, AWS OpsWorks and AWS Elastic Beanstalk – its services were unaffected. If you use these, you should probably change your password.

eBay

Was it affected? No Do you need to change your password? No

Etsy

Was it affected? Yes Do you need to change your password? Yes

“As of right now, we have no indication that an attack has been conducted against Etsy beyond testing the vulnerability, but this type of issue makes it very difficult to detect, so we’re proceeding with a high degree of caution,” read a security update on Etsy’s website Tuesday.

Paypal

Was it affected? No Do you need to change your password? No

OTHER ONLINE SERVICES

Dropbox

Was it affected? Yes Do you need to change your password? Yes

“We’ve patched all of our user-facing services & will continue to work to make sure your stuff is always safe,” the company tweeted Tuesday.

OKCupid

Was it affected? Yes Do you need to change your password? Yes

Evernote

Was it affected? No Do you need to change your password? No

“Evernote does not use, and has not used, OpenSSL, so we were not vulnerable to this bug. As an Evernote user, you don’t need to take any action,” read the company’s blog.


CCIRC Handles 58 Cyber Incidents in 2 Weeks

Network security crashDuring a two week reporting period (Feb 16 – Mar 1, 2014) Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre (CCIRC) handled 58 incidents including malware targeting Canadian financial institutions, spread of ransomware, malware attacks and more.

Three Canadian energy and utilities sector organizations were attacked using watering hole techniques.  Users were being redirected to a compromised website that was serving the Lightsout Exploit kit and Havex remote access Trojan (RAT).

Canadian Internet protocol addresses were used in distributed denial of service attacks.

Please click on the link below to access the full report of incidents reported and sectors affected.  Also, read about latest news reports and some best practices for protection:

CCIRC Operational Summary – Feb 16 – Mar 1, 2014


ABEX Helps Build a House for a Nicaraguan Family

Nicaragua 3

Sponsored Family

ABEX is proud that we were able to help a family in Nicaragua achieve their dream of having a safe and solid home. The house ABEX sponsored was a part of Bridges to Community Canada’s initiative to build houses for impoverished families in Nicaragua.

Nicaragua 1

House Before

Nicaragua 2

House After

Bridges to Community Canada is a nonprofit organization that has built 115 homes over the past five years in the rural farming community of El Sasle (population 1,175).  El Salse is located in the northern coffee-growing region of Jinotega. Nearly 60% of Jinotega’s residents live in extreme poverty and their homes are usually cobbled together with scrap materials. They are often overcrowded, and lack running water and appropriate sanitation facilities. For most people a safe and solid home is only a dream.

Bridges to Community’s Housing Program seeks to make this dream come true. What a difference a safe and solid house can make! Bridges builds sturdy cinderblock homes that are earthquake resistant and are designed to withstand years of heavy winds and rain. Bridges works to secure land titles for the owners so that families have a place to call their own for generations. The new homes become a place of pride where the owners can host their friends, families, and neighbors.

To build a house that is safe, dry, and secures costs just $4,000! ABEX is excited that it was able to sponsor a house for a family and make their everyday struggle a little easier.

Bridges plans to construct 20 new houses in El Sasle, helping to make a dream come true for close to 100 children and adults.

For more information or to learn how you can help, please visit:

http://www.bridgestocommunitycanada.ca

To see more pictures from Nicaragua, please click here.


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