Kitsap Business and Economy

Readers, Got this news release today from the state Attorney General’s Office. — Rachel

SEATTLE – If you use Facebook, the world’s top social networking site, you may have “liked” an Internet scheme without even knowing it – and unwittingly helped spread the scam to your Facebook friends. But today, Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna and Facebook announced the latest step in an ongoing fight against spammers and scammers: a lawsuit against the co-owners of Adscend Media, LLC, an ad network that is alleged to develop and encourage others to spread spam through misleading and deceptive tactics, including the one known as “clickjacking.”

“We don’t ‘like’ schemes that illegally trick Facebook users into giving up personal information or paying for unwanted subscription services through spam,” McKenna said during a news conference at Facebook’s Seattle Office. “We applaud Facebook for devoting significant technical and legal resources to finding and stopping scams as soon as possible – and often before they even start. We’re proud to join forces in order to protect Washington consumers.”

Facebook, which filed its own lawsuit against Adscend and its owners today, welcomed the Attorney General’s action. “Security is an arms race, and that’s why Facebook is committed to constantly improving our consumer safeguards while pursuing and supporting civil and criminal consequences for bad actors,” Facebook General Counsel Ted Ullyot said.

Attorney General McKenna and Ullyot emphasized that bold partnerships like the one announced today send a strong message that spammers and scammers are not welcome on Facebook and there are serious consequences for attempting to harm and deceive the social media giant’s users.

Here’s how scams, such as the ones described in the lawsuits, work:

Scammers design Facebook Pages to look like they will offer visitors an opportunity to view salacious or provocative content. They condition viewing this content on completing a series of steps that are designed to lure Facebook users into eventually visiting websites that often deceive them into surrendering their personal information or signing up for expensive mobile subscription services.

First, Facebook users are encouraged to click the “Like” button on the scammers’ Facebook Pages, which then alerts their friends to the existence of the page. Then they are told that they cannot access the content unless they complete an online survey or advertising offer. In one example noted in the complaint, the scammers overlay the Facebook “Like” button with a link that promises to reveal the results of: “This man took a picture of his face every day for 8 years!!” Of course, the promised content often does not exist and the tricked user is then directed through a series of prompts taking them off of Facebook and through a host of unrelated advertising and subscription service offers, where the scammers receive money for each misdirected user.

In some cases, Facebook users don’t even need to click the “like” button to spread the spam on their Facebook pages. In the process called “clickjacking,” a hidden code in enticing-looking links activates Facebook’s “like” function and puts it on the users’ friends’ news feeds.

“The natural reaction is to wonder why anyone would click on these links,” said Assistant Attorney General Paula Selis, who heads the office’s Consumer Protection High-Tech Unit. “But, unfortunately they do, and at one point Adscend spam lined the defendants’ pockets with up to $1.2 million a month.”

Facebook’s chief litigator says the company is a leader in protecting its users from scammers and spammers and enforces its rights against the same regularly. “Facebook’s security professionals have made tremendous strides against this particular form of attack and we are intent on eradicating it completely,” said Craig Clark, Lead Litigation Counsel at Facebook. “We will continue to use all tools at our disposal to ensure that scammers do not profit from misusing Facebook’s services.”

The Attorney General’s lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle against Delaware-based Adscend and co-owners Jeremy Bash of Huntington, West Virginia and Fehzan Ali, of Austin, Texas. It alleges violations of:

· The CAN-SPAM Act, which makes it unlawful to procure or initiate the transmission of misleading commercial electronic communications;

· Washington state’s Commercial Electronic Mail Act, which prohibits misrepresenting or obscuring any information in identifying the point of origin or the transmission path of a commercial electronic message;

· Washington State’s Consumer Protection Act, which prohibits unfair and deceptive business practices.

The Attorney General’s Office asks the court to enjoin the defendants from future violations, award damages and impose civil penalties, costs and fees.

Facebook’s similar, separate lawsuit against Adscend and its owners was filed in federal court in the Northern District of California.

Facebook urges its users to always remain vigilant, trust their instincts and immediately report scams and spam. People can educate themselves and receive updates on how to protect their information on Facebook by visiting and liking Facebook’s Security Page at https://www.facebook.com/security . For detailed information on clickjacking and how to avoid it, both the Attorney General’s Office and Facebook recommend “Keeping You Safe from Scams and Spam”: http://on.fb.me/fbsafetytools.

Safeboats has its manufacturing facility at the Port of Bremerton industrial park. — Rachel Pritchett

http://www.maritime-executive.com/pressrelease/safe-boats-international-delivers-fleet-for-new-joint-task-force-in-louisiana

This from the Washington Department of Employment Security today. Contact them for more, www.esd.wa.gov. Rachel Pritchett

OLYMPIA – Washington employers will collect a record $56 million in 2011 federal tax credits because they hired certain hard-to-place job seekers.

The Work Opportunity Tax Credit provides up to $2,400 in tax savings per worker to businesses that hire military veterans, the disabled, ex-inmates, food-stamp recipients and individuals who receive Supplemental Security Income. Additionally, businesses that hire long-term welfare recipients can save as much as $9,000 per person over two years.

In 2012, businesses can enjoy even greater tax savings for hiring veterans, including up to $5,600 for long-term unemployed veterans and as much as $9,600 for those who have a service-connected disability.

To receive the tax credit, each new employee must work a minimum of 400 hours during the first year of employment and earn at least $6,000.

Readers — National technology forecaster and business strategist Daniel Burrus predicts the top 20 technology-driven trends for 2012 below:

* Rapid Growth of Big Data. Big Data is a term used to describe the technologies and techniques used to capture and utilize the exponentially increasing streams of data with the goal of bringing enterprise-wide visibility and insights to make rapid critical decisions. High Speed Analytics using advanced cloud services will increasingly be used as a complement to existing information management systems and programs to tame the massive data explosion. This new level of data integration and analytics will require many new skills and cross-functional buy-in in order to break down the many data and organizational silos that still exist. The rapid increase in data makes this a fast growing hard trend that cannot be ignored.

* Cloud Computing and Advanced Cloud Services will be increasingly embraced by business of all sizes, as this represents a major shift in how organizations obtain and maintain software, hardware, and computing capacity. As consumers, we first experienced public clouds (think about when you use Google or Apple’s MobileMe and now iCloud). Then we saw more private clouds and hybrid clouds from businesses such as Flextronics, Siemens, Accenture, and many others, all using the cloud to cut costs in human resources and sales management functions. This was only the beginning, as cloud services enable the rapid transformation all business processes.

* On Demand Services will increasingly be offered to companies needing to rapidly deploy new services. Hardware as a Service (HaaS) joins Software as a Service (SaaS), creating what some have called “IT as a service.” All will grow rapidly for small as well as large companies, with many new players in a multitude of business process categories. These services will help companies cut costs as they provide access to powerful software programs and the latest technology without having the expense of a large IT staff and time-consuming, expensive upgrades.

* Virtualization of Storage, Desktops, Applications, and Networking will see continued acceptance and growth by both large and small businesses as virtualization security improves. We will continue to see the virtualization of processing power, allowing mobile devices to access supercomputer capabilities and apply it to processes such as purchasing and logistics, to name a few.

* Consumerization of IT Increases as the source for innovation and technology continues to be driven by the consumer thanks to rapid advances in processing power, storage, and bandwidth. Smart companies have recognized that this is a hard tend that will continue and have stopped fighting consumerization. Instead, they are turning it into a competitive advantage by consumerizing their applications, such as recommending safe and secure third party hardware and apps. Encouraging employees to share productivity enhancing consumer technology will become a wise strategy.

* Gamification of Training and Education will fuel a fast moving hard trend using advanced simulations and skill-based learning systems that are self-diagnostic, interactive, game-like, and competitive, all focused on giving the user an immersive experience thanks to a photo-realistic 3D interface. Some will develop software using these gaming techniques to work on existing hardware systems such as the Xbox and PlayStation. A social component that includes sharing will drive success.

* Social Business takes on a new level of urgency as organizations shift from an Information Age “informing” model to a Communication Age “communicating and engaging” model. Social Software for business will reach a new level of adoption with applications to enhance relationships, collaboration, networking, social validation, and more. Social Search will increasingly be used by marketers and researchers, not to mention Wall Street, to tap into millions of daily tweets and Facebook conversations, providing real-time analysis of many key consumer metrics.

* Smart Phones & Tablets Become Our Primary Personal Computers, and the Mobile Web becomes a must-have capability. An Enterprise Mobility Strategy Becomes Mandatory for all size organizations as we see mobile data, mobile media, mobile sales, mobile marketing, mobile commerce, mobile finance, mobile payments, mobile health, and many more explode. The vast majority of mobile phones sold globally will have a browser, making the smart phone our primary computer that is with us 24/7 and signaling a profound shift in global computing. This new level of mobility will allow any size business to transform how they market, sell, communicate, collaborate, educate, train, and innovate using mobility.

* Tablet Computers with Enterprise Level Web Apps will be used to transform sales and service support and then move to purchasing, logistics, just-in-time training, and much more.

* Intelligent Electronic Agents using natural language voice commands takes off with Apple’s Siri, rapidly followed by Android, Microsoft, and others all offering what will become a mobile electronic concierge on your smart devices including your phone, tablet, and television. Soon retailers will have a Siri-like sales assistant, and maintenance workers will have a Siri-like assistant. The possibilities are endless.

* Digital Identity Management will become increasingly important to both organizations and individuals as new software allows users to better manage their multiple identities across business and personal networks. Next Generation Biometrics will play a key role in both identity management and security.

* Visual Communications takes video conferencing to a new level with programs like SKYPE, FaceTime, and others giving us video communication on phones, tablets, and home televisions. Visual Communications will become a main relationship-building tool for businesses of all sizes.

* Enhanced Location Awareness will accelerate the number of business-to-consumer apps for smart phones and tablets that will take geo-social marketing and sales to a new level of creative application, driving rapid growth.

* Geo-Spatial Visualization combines geographic information systems (GIS) with location-aware data, RFID (radio frequency identification), and other location-aware sensors (including the current location of users from the use of their mobile devices) to create new insights and competitive advantage. Early applications include logistics and supply chain to name a few.

* Smart TV Using Apps will get a major boost in the marketplace, fueling a major shift in home viewing. Ever wonder how you could have over 500 cable or satellite channels and nothing to watch? You didn’t have apps on your TV allowing you to personalize the experience. This is the beginning of a major shift that will take place in living rooms globally. Look for Apple to introduce the iTV (living room size iPad).

* Multiple App Stores for all smart phone, tablet, and television operating systems (Android, Blackberry, Windows, and others) will take off, creating an abundant distribution and sales ecosystem for all. This will cement the revolution versus evolution that apps software represents.

* 3D Displays for Smart Phones and Tablets will be the breakthrough that will drive wide-scale consumer acceptance of 3D computing. 3D Computing for the enterprise will grow rapidly for military, medicine, fashion, architecture, and entertainment applications.

* eBooks, eNewspapers, and eMagazines Pass the Tipping Point due to the abundance of smartphones with readable displays, tablets that provide a full color experience, and publishers providing apps that give a better than paper experience by including cut, copy, paste, print, and multimedia capabilities. In addition, eBook readers will have high quality with a low enough price to bring in the masses.

* Interactive Multimedia eTextbooks will finally take off thanks to Apple’s iBook Author and other competing tools, freeing new publishers to create compelling and engaging content, and freeing students from a static, expensive, and literally heavy experience.

* Wireless Machine-to-Machine applications such as two-way meter reading, surveillance, vending machine, and point-of-sale solutions take off thanks to faster wireless data networks.

Dimension 4 employees, please call me asap. Thank you, Rachel Pritchett, business reporter, 475-3783

By Rachel Pritchett

After 35 years in public service, how much will retiring Port of Bremerton CEO Cary Bozeman earn in pension?

Somewhere close $2,954.52 a month, according to the Washington Department of Retirement Systems, or about $35,454.24 a year.

Bozeman is a member of the Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) Plan 2.

He was the top staffer at the Port of Bremerton for two and a half years, his visions sometimes frustrated by a recession-frozen budget. But he brought Kitsap leaders together to go after the Boeing 737 MAX supplier business, perhaps his biggest parting accomplishment.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Bozeman continue in some sort of economic development work locally. He hasn’t said what he’ll do yet, though.

Bozeman grew up in Seattle as a foster child. He graduated from the University of Washington and served on the Bellevue City County from 1976 to 1993. He became mayor of Bellevue for six years.

Bozeman came to Bremerton in 1996 and served as mayor of Bremerton for eight years before moving on to the port.

By Rachel Pritchett

BREMERTON NATIONAL AIRPORT — Kitsap County very much was included in Washington Aerospace Partnership’s study that landed the Boeing 737 MAX in Renton and formed the basis for Gov. Christine Gregoire’s recommendations to boost engineering in education.

That came to light Thursday when WAP Co-chair Tayloe Washburn made his third visit to Kitsap County, where he revealed further detail of the study not yet made public to 20 top local leaders.

Now that the 737 MAX is secured in Washington, there’s a great tendency to “crawl back to our silos,” he said. “For you guys, that would be a mistake.”

Kitsap’s best bet in going after the 737 MAX supplier business would be to advertise the local workforce and land availability, he and one of the study’s authors, Craig Gottlieb said.

Target suppliers that are going to have to expand and let them know that Kitsap County’s workforce has a parallel industry in shipbuilding that is transferrable to aerospace, Gottlieb said.

Washington has about 650 aerospace companies, and 550 of them are Boeing suppliers. Of those, 100 are Boeing 737 suppliers.

The Port of Bremerton should let Boeing know it’s willing to lease space to subcontractors in the South Kitsap Industrial Area. Leasing would be cheaper than building new space, Gottlieb said.

Kitsap County competitors Moses Lake, with its dirt-cheap energy, and Spokane with its tight aerospace cluster also were in the study. And also prominently discussed was Texas, probably Renton’s toughest competitor. Texas might have been less costly for Boeing, but also might not have had the workforce productivity that Renton had. Because of the high anticipated demand for the MAX, Boeing has to deliver on time.

Washburn urged the group to pressure Gov. Christine Gregoire not to cut education further. The system needs to churn out a lot more engineers very quickly if Washington is to stay competitive, he said.

The mood among the local leaders that have met for half a year now was much more serious than in the past. Nearly all local cities mayors, economic-development chiefs, county Commissioner Josh Brown and representatives of Safe Boats International and U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, seemed eager to do everything they could to grab a piece of the 737 MAX action for Kitsap. The re-engined 737 MAX project is the biggest manufacturing opportunity to come to Washington in perhaps decades.

The group, calling itself the KitsapAerospace and Defense Alliance, on Thursday had in hand a consultant’s analysis about local attributes on which new promotional materials will be based next year.

Port Orchard Mayor Lary Coppolacq said, “I think we really need to brand ourselves.” The Kitsap Peninsula Visitor and Convention Bureau’s brand of “the natural side of Puget Sound” doesn’t work for business, Coppola said.

Leaders agreed they’d try to have as big a presence as possible at the Aerospace & Defense Supplier Summit coming to Seattle in mid-March. It is the first time ever the global convention has been held in the United States.

Port CEO Cary Bozeman predicted “hard work” and “boots on the street” is next in the MAX chase.

The public version of the WAP study can be read on its website at washington-aerospace.com.

Kitsap County governments and businesses pledged $45,000 to help fund the study and be a part of it, but has not yet paid that amount.

… Readers, helpful hints on how to make a statement at holiday parties in this piece below written by etiquette entrepreneur Josephine Nicholas. Just in time. Rachel Pritchett

Troy, MI – With the holidays around the corner, we could all use a brush up on our etiquette skills; implement these four simple things and get through the holidays without embarrassing yourself or others,” says Josephine Nicholas, only one of a handful of certified Protocol and Etiquette experts in the state of MI, and Executive Liaison with LJPR, LLC.

* Make an Entrance and Work the Room

“Who are the ones in a room we are most drawn to speak with? Qualities others want to be around are humility, confidence and authority; be that person during this holiday season,” says Josephine. “When you make your entrance, it is best to find and go directly to the host and thank them for hosting. Make eye contact, and smile, as you walk through the room, so you do not look lost; and, remember, starting with gratitude is always effective.”

* Introduce Yourself and Others with Ease

“Doing a little research prior to any event you attend is a great way to make sure you are well-informed on the crowd. This knowledge equips you with the ability to introduce yourself to the right people in the room with ease, and have a little something about them to discuss. Everyone likes to talk about their latest accomplishment, award, or effort,” says Josephine. “Never fail to introduce one person who may need an introduction to another in the room – even if this introduction provides zero value to you. You will then be known as the classy person who is looking out for others, making them feel at ease.”

* Implement Effective Meal Tactics and Improve Your Mingling Proficiency

“One of the largest holiday faux paux we see is to have both your hands full when at a party – make sure you always have one hand free to give a proper greeting,” says Josephine. “Additionally, brief yourself on current events and make sure you are skilled with small talk. Be an interesting person to speak with and others – especially your host – will be grateful. Small talk breaks the ice, establishing an immediate connection that you can’t otherwise gain.”

* Effective Meal Tactics

“Have you ever faced confusion over which piece of silverware to use during different parts of the meal? Make sure you learn the best way to dine with style and grace so that others walk away feeling as if they were dining with royalty,” says Josephine. “Another hint: always place your napkin on your lap, folded in the middle, with the open side facing the table. Wipe your mouth with the inside of that napkin, not the outside – which only creates a messy napkin. Follow your host with regard to the speed of eating and completing the meal.”

“Etiquette is a lost art and there isn’t much that can make up for a lack of tact and consideration. Balance needs to be implemented in a world that is so caught up in itself; committing to bringing proper protocol back into your world will not only attribute to your personal standing, but to the landscape of the world as a whole,” says Josephine. “Keep in mind that when you have proper etiquette and protocol intelligence – the ability to think, learn, and apply etiquette and protocol skills, especially when this ability is highly developed – you will not just make a better impression, but you will feel better about yourself.”

About Josephine Nicholas: Josephine is the Executive Liaison at LJPR, LLC. She has been certified by the Protocol School of Washington as a Protocol and Etiquette Instructor and speaks to a wide range of audiences on this and other topics. Josephine supports the LJPR Executive Staff through a variety of ways in client relations and in presentations. Josephine has extensive experience with business and office administration, having founded and grown some of her own companies. Josephine is a professional speaker, writer, and entrepreneur; her contagious laughter, dynamic personality and energetic presentation style make for an interactive, relevant, and enjoyable experience. You can contact Josephine at Josephine.Nicholas@LJPR.com.

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Private-sector job growth has pushed Washington’s unemployment rate to the lowest point since February 2009, officials said Wednesday.
The November jobless rate of 8.7 percent was down from 9.1 percent in October, according to the Employment Security Department. The state added some 12,100 jobs — more than any month since the official start of the recession at the end of 2007.
“We are upbeat. This is good news, but we are being cautious at the same time,” said Greg Morgan, a labor market economist at the Employment Security Department. “Just one month isn’t enough to feel comfortable saying we’re out of the woods just yet.”
The state has been adding jobs regularly over the past year, but it has usually come in smaller chunks.
Morgan said it was too early to say whether the growth was the start of a trend, and noted that the November numbers are preliminary and may be revised. The October jobless number was revised upward from 9 percent to 9.1 percent.
Wednesday’s report showed growth across much of the private sector. The professional and business services sector added 4,200 jobs. Leisure and hospitality grew by 3,800. Construction was up 2,000 jobs.
Government posted a slight decline in jobs.
Washington’s numbers followed the national trend for November. The U.S. unemployment rate dropped from 9 percent to 8.6 percent.

for Sally’s Place, the remodel and new addition to the Bremerton Salvation Army headequarters. They’re not saying who gave it. Read my story soon. Rachel