Reposted from CISA/DHS

On August 13, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), in collaboration with other U.S. and international government partners, published a joint guide, Foundations for Operational Technology (OT) Cybersecurity: Asset Inventory Guidance for Owners and Operators. This guide presents the key elements and best practices for creating an asset inventory as well as industry-accepted approaches for developing an OT taxonomy.
An OT asset inventory and taxonomy are essential for identifying and securing critical assets, reducing the risk of cybersecurity incidents, and ensuring the continuity of the organization's mission and services. This guide helps OT owners and operations across all critical infrastructure sectors develop a systematic approach to creating and maintaining an OT asset inventory and taxonomy. By following the process in this guide, organizations can enhance their overall security posture, improve maintenance and reliability, and ensure the safety and resilience of their OT environments.
This guide was developed through the Joint Cyber Defense Collaboration and in collaboration with several organizations that include U.S. federal agencies, international agencies, and the private sector.
With our U.S. and international partners, CISA encourages owners and operators to review and implement the recommended steps to develop an OT asset inventory and taxonomy to enhance asset inventory process. We also encourage organizations to socialize this guidance within your organization and peers and provide feedback on this product. 

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Reposted from Tim Richardson

It’s back-to-school season across the globe—some dread the long classroom hours and tough homework, while others look forward to reconnecting face-to-face with classmates they haven’t seen in months.

Both learning and connecting matter—but it’s often connecting that yields the greatest long-term reward.

1. The Hidden Power of School Connections

Because of school friendships, we build powerful networks that help us in job searches, business challenges, personal situations, and lifelong learning.

My own connection list includes professionals in commercial real estate, HR and estate planning law, corporate leadership, private club management, medical fields (nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, family medicine), academia, finance, performing arts, ministry, tech, real estate, yacht sales, and more.

They’re just a call or text away when I need advice, a job referral, or a chance to pay it forward. These relationships have served me well—and I’ve also supported many of my connections in return.

2. Alumni Networks Fuel Career Growth

Research confirms what personal stories illustrate: alumni networks deliver.

They create instant trust through shared experience, offering insights on industry trends, jobs, and workplace culture. (Read this Boston Universityarticle “The Power of Alumni Networks in Today’s Changing Economic Landscape”.

These networks span industries and regions, connecting you to hidden opportunities and diverse perspectives. An AlmaShines Technologies article—Unlock Your Future: 10 Benefits of a Strong Alumni Network—further emphasizes the value of alumni networking events.

They’re not just social clubs—they’re long-term career accelerators.

3. Real-World Examples of School Pride Opening Doors

Supporting your school can open unexpected doors:
En route to the airport to attend the 2014 BCS National Championship National (Auburn University vs. Florida State University), my FSU T-shirt caught the attention of former UT coach Phillip Fulmer—leading to lunch and eventually a speaker mastermind group.

The next day in Pasadena, another Florida State University shirt sparked a conversation with bestselling author Harvey Mackay —who invited me to ride with him to the Rose Bowl Stadium and join him in a skybox with his friends.

Recently in Maryville, TN, wearing FSU apparel led to a fun evening with a former Broadway actor Christine Hamilton who, like my wife, her four siblings, and her mother and grandmother, graduated from FSU.

Wearing your school colors isn’t just nostalgia—it’s a conversation starter.

4. Practical Ways to Stay Connected with Your School
Here are actionable ways to leverage your alma mater:

Attend alumni events and reunions- they provide immediate networking opportunities. Brian Wallace wrote a great article for the Association for Talent Development (ATD) (ATD), Unlock Your Future: 10 Benefits of a Strong Alumni Network, that highlights the importance of participating in alumni events.

Mentor students—help the next generation while reinforcing your own experience.

Guest lecture or offer advice sessions—I’ll be guest lecturing this fall at my undergraduate alma mater, Florida Southern College.

Connect via platforms and alumni associations—fresh alumni can offer current context and insider insights, as Pacific University chronicles in How a Strong Alumni Network Can Benefit Students.

5. Final Thoughts & Call to Action
Stay connected.
Support your alma mater.
When you do, you enrich your life—and theirs—with opportunities, trust, and possibility.

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Reposted from Tim Richardson

“Finish strong.”
“Addison, you got this.”
“Great form, way to go, Conner!”
“Quicker feet, let’s go!”
I recognized that voice as my son’s cross-country coach. It carried across the early summer morning. I was a short distance away on a greenway trail, yet his encouragement echoed with clarity and purpose.
The Power of a Great Coach-He has transformed a team of athletes with varied talent into a district powerhouse. Anchored by strong juniors, these runners compete with focus and aim to win the November state championship. Last year they placed 16th. Their new mantra is 16 to 1.
As a former collegiate athlete, he brings technique expertise and an ambitious training plan. He also coaches the mental side by inviting speakers who help the athletes understand their capabilities. Their rise is a direct result of effective coaching.
Coaching in Sports and Life- A great coach sees strengths others miss. They guide skill, mindset, and belief. They help athletes exceed their own expectations and achieve goals they found unimaginable.
Lessons from a Music Teacher- I apply the same learnings in jazz piano. My teacher trained under one of the Southeast’s top jazz mentors and brings extensive performance experience. His guidance helped me grasp complex techniques and break through self-doubt. I have performed publicly a dozen times now because of his support.
Why Business Leaders Need Coaching- Business leaders benefit from coaching as much as athletes and musicians. Coaching refines decision-making, communication, and leadership. It accelerates development. Research supports its impact on leadership effectiveness and resilience (see Harvard Business Review). Coaching unlocks success.

Paying It Forward Through Coaching- If you have benefited from coaching, consider mentoring or coaching someone else. That multiplier effect nurtures learning, builds confidence, and strengthens communities.

Benefits of Coaching for Success
Across fields — sports, music, business — coaching turns potential into achievement.
It peels back self-imposed limits. It reveals new capacities.
Coaching for success unlocks results previously beyond reach.

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Reposted from LandSkyAI 

July has been another exciting chapter for us. Thank you all for riding this wave of growth and innovation alongside the team. As we push forward, our focus remains on delivering a true VirtualGuard experience, refining our remote operations, and building relevant technology upgrade so we can partner with the best in the business. There’s never been a better time to join us.

VirtualGuard in Action

Every feature we build, every alert we send, and every dashboard we refine is in service of our VirtualGuard promise: to give customers a genuine, 24/7 solution. This month we rolled out live-streaming integrations that cut down incident verification time, and we’re already gathering feedback on how to make our alarm triage even smarter.

New Authorizations Unlocked

Great news on the regulatory front: we’ve secured the green light to add BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) sites in an even simpler process. That means we can deploy at larger campuses, critical infrastructure sites, and sprawling properties without the paperwork delays; accelerating deployment on every new contract.

Scaling Remote Operations

Our remote piloting and monitoring crew has grown significantly this month, and we’ve layered in new software modules that streamline handoffs between operators and create more efficient alerting. The result? Faster response times, fewer manual checks, and more capacity to take on new clients without sacrificing quality.

Hardware-Agnostic Advantage

Our turnkey model keeps getting attention from top manufacturers. By remaining hardware-agnostic, we can integrate a range of cameras, sensors, and drones under one unified service umbrella. All while handling all sales, deployment, and ongoing support. These partnerships are opening doors to markets we hadn’t even planned at the start.

Looking Ahead & New Investors Welcome

We’re scaling fast and that momentum has us opening another investment round. If you know someone who believes in transforming security through robotics and AI, send them our way. We’d love to share our roadmap and how we plan to lead the VirtualGuard revolution.

A huge thank you to our team and partners for the tireless work. Your dedication is what turns our vision into reality. As always, I welcome your thoughts, suggestions, and connections. Let’s keep building something extraordinary together.

Scaling Remote Operations

Our remote piloting and monitoring crew has grown significantly this month, and we’ve layered in new software modules that streamline handoffs between operators and create more efficient alerting. The result? Faster response times, fewer manual checks, and more capacity to take on new clients without sacrificing quality.

Hardware-Agnostic Advantage

Our turnkey model keeps getting attention from top manufacturers. By remaining hardware-agnostic, we can integrate a range of cameras, sensors, and drones under one unified service umbrella. All while handling all sales, deployment, and ongoing support. These partnerships are opening doors to markets we hadn’t even planned at the start.

Looking Ahead & New Investors Welcome

We’re scaling fast and that momentum has us opening another investment round. If you know someone who believes in transforming security through robotics and AI, send them our way. We’d love to share our roadmap and how we plan to lead the VirtualGuard revolution.

A huge thank you to our team and partners for the tireless work. Your dedication is what turns our vision into reality. As always, I welcome your thoughts, suggestions, and connections. Let’s keep building something extraordinary together.

Reposted from NEH

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Acting Chairman has issued an open call for applications for Chair’s Disaster Recovery Grants for Humanities Collections, to organizations that steward humanities collections affected by the floods in Central Texas in July 2025. 

Please see the below notice of funding opportunity from the NEH and share with your colleagues and constituents in Central Texas:

NEH Chair’s Disaster Recovery Grants for Humanities Collections

Grants of up to $30,000 will support emergency response and recovery activities that may include salvaging humanities collections such as rare books, documents, photographs, artwork, sculptures, historical objects, audiovisual media, and digital collections.

Also eligible to apply are preservation field services networks and consortia that support collecting institutions’ efforts to respond to and recover from the floods. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until January 26, 2026.

Applications due: January 26, 2026
Maximum funding: $30,000

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Reposted from CISA

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released an Eviction Strategies Tool, a no-cost resource designed to support cyber defenders in their efforts to respond to cyber incidents.
This tool aids cyber responders with the development of customized playbooks aimed at containing and evicting adversaries from compromised systems and networks. It substantially accelerates the creation of tailored response plans and tailored adversary eviction strategies.

The tool includes COUN7ER, a database of atomic post-compromise countermeasures mapped to adversary tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), and Cyber Eviction Strategies Playbook NextGen, a web-based application that matches incident findings with countermeasures obtained from COUN7ER. Together, these resources help defenders build systematic eviction plans with distinct countermeasures to thwart and evict unique intrusions.

 Key features of the Eviction Strategies Tool include:

• Enables cyber defenders to build response plans based on either MITRE ATT&CK® or on free text that describes threat actor activities on compromised assets.
• Exports defensive measure options in numerous formats, such as JSON, Microsoft Word and Excel, and markdown.
• Builds on knowledge from other frameworks, including MITRE D3FEND™, a knowledge graph funded by the National Security Agency, as well as MITRE ATT&CK.
• Contains more than 100 fully developed, researched and curated atomic actions that incident responders can take to contain and evict adversary agency within their networks and assets.

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Reposted from CISA/DHS

We are pleased to share the new Explosives Sweeps Guide from CISA's Office for Bombing Prevention (OBP). Developed in partnership with the National Bomb Squad Commanders Advisory Board, this guide captures best practices for Bomb Squads and Explosives Detection Canine Teams supporting special events.

Created in coordination with the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the Joint Program Office for Countering Improvised Explosive Devices, the guide reflects direct input from leaders across the public safety bomb squad, explosive detection canine, and special event security communities. 

 It is designed to help:

 Develop enhanced plans for explosives security at special events,

 Improve explosives security planning for all events, and

 Understand operational requirements for explosives security.

 We encourage you to review and utilize these resources as appropriate in your planning and coordination efforts.

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Reposted from Tim Richardson

Want a raise, better skills, stronger connections, or a new opportunity? There’s one overlooked move that can fast-track it all.

I’m writing this at 30,000 feet—flying home from Influence 2025, the annual conference of the National Speakers Association, an organization I’ve proudly been part of for 37 years. I haven’t made every event—but I have attended 33 conventions, more than two dozen workshops, and at least a half dozen focused learning summits.

Here’s the simple truth: whatever success I’ve had as a professional speaker is a direct result of those events. The relationships I’ve built, the content I’ve consumed, the people who’ve challenged and inspired me, and the opportunities that were unlocked—all happened because I showed up.
And you can too.
Why You Should Attend Your Industry’s Conference
Ask yourself:
✔ Do I want a raise?
✔ Am I looking to grow my skills?
✔ Would I like to expand my network?
✔ Could I benefit from a career change?
✔ Do I want to help others succeed?

Then there’s one move that opens all five doors: attend your industry’s annual convention, expo, or leadership event.

Whether you’re in law, hospitality, technology, HR, healthcare, or transportation, the highest-achieving professionals I meet are the ones who stay connected to their tribe. They’re lifelong learners. They don’t wait to be invited into the room—they walk in and introduce themselves.

5 Ways to Get the Most from Your Conference Experience

Here’s how to make that investment count:

1. Plan with Intention
Think about who you need to meet before you ever arrive. Reach out ahead of time. A 15-minute coffee chat could lead to a game-changing relationship. After the event? Send a thank-you note, a small gift if appropriate—or better yet, donate to a cause they care about.

2. Pace Yourself
Early in my career, I treated conferences like a networking race. Today, I slow down and focus on deeper conversations. You don’t have to attend every session. In fact, one of my favorite moments this year was ordering takeout and sitting quietly by the pool. Make space to reflect and recharge. It’s okay to be alone even if you are an extraverted extravert like me.

3. Fuel Your Mind and Body
Sleep well. Move daily. Eat intentionally. Bring snacks that support your energy. A conference can feel like a marathon—and you want to be at your best when opportunity knocks.

4. Give Back and Get Better
Volunteer. Mentor. Host a dinner. I’ve chaired a winter meeting, served on and chaired committees, and host an annual tradition I call a Roving Mastermind—a hand-picked group of peers (this year’s participants, Scott Bloom, Christine Cashen, Courtney Clark, and Rachel Druckenmiller )who meet, brainstorm, and challenge each other at every conference. Several first-time conference attendees are invited to listen and learn from the conversation (this year’s “flys on the wall – Bill Schuhlein, Bryce Henson, David Lawhorn Leadership Speaker Elite Mindset Accelerator, Julian Pistone, and Rheid Schloss).
Remember, the more you give, the more you grow.

5. Stay Humble and Curious
Not every speaker will resonate with you. Instead of critiquing them, ask: “What would I do differently?” There’s always something to learn—even if it’s what not to do: but focus on the positive and help redirect others who tear others down. It takes a lot to prepare and speak at a big meeting like Influence. Celebrate and appreciate people even if it’s just the courage it took them to stand on a big stage.
Final Thought: Your Growth Is One RSVP Away
Every year, I leave Influence with new ideas, stronger connections, and more clarity. The same can be true for you.
Your next big opportunity won’t come from sitting behind your desk—it will come from being in the room where the magic happens.

So, here’s my challenge to you:

Find your industry’s next conference and commit to attending. Don’t wait for permission. Invest in yourself.
You never know what (or who) might change your life.

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Reposted from Tim Richardson

We all face tough choices in life:

• Changing jobs

• Moving to a new city

• Taking a sabbatical

• Starting a business

• Going back to school

These pivotal moments rarely come with guarantees. They can feel overwhelming — even paralyzing. But how we choose our path can shape the entire trajectory of our personal and professional lives.

Why Clarity Drives Action and Success

Clarity fuels confidence. And confidence drives action. When you’re standing at a fork in the road, sometimes the fog doesn’t lift until you start walking.

My Personal Turning Point

Tomorrow marks the anniversary of one of the biggest career changes I’ve ever made — leaving my first post-college job to pursue my graduate degree and launch a speaking business.

I was 25. Working at IBM. I had just bought a five-bedroom house, a Jeep CJ7, and a golden retriever. Life felt stable.

Secure.

But something inside was stirring — a desire for a different path.

My plan?

Take a two-year leave of absence to finish my master’s degree. Then launch a speaking business. I pitched IBM the idea: let me study full-time for two semesters, and if it didn’t work out, I’d return to IBM and become an instructor in the Atlanta education center.

I had mentors. I had a plan. I had peace about the decision.

But IBM said no.

I was devastated. I went for a walk. I played with my dog. I cried and I prayed.

That backup plan was everything to me — and now it was gone.

So I had a decision to make:

 Retreat to safety

 Or move forward with uncertainty

When I came home from my walk, there was a magazine in my mailbox – the cover story read “IBM Renegades Where Are They Now?” That was the confirmation I needed. I took the leap. That moment changed everything.

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Reposted from Securitas Security Services

Whether you partner with us today or in the future, we believe you should always have access to accurate and actionable insights to their world.

Thats why we created The Observer, a newsletter created to help you stay ahead of industry trends and emerging threats to your security.

When your ready, lets connect.
Securitas Security Services, USA, Inc
1-844-725-4131

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