Vendange Carmel Carmel-by-the-Sea’s Only Wine Themed Hotel Celebrates March Madness Special Offer Every Sunday – Thursday in March

Enter the MARCHMADNESS Promotional Code and Be Rewarded

Carmel, CA, February 20, 2016 -- Vendange Carmel Inn and Suites has partnered with 15 Monterey County wineries to create a unique guest experience, celebrating the bounty of Monterey County’s vineyards. Each winery sponsors one room or suite, providing its own creative touches. From the McIntyre Vineyards room with its impressive 100-year-old section of grapevine to J. Lohr’s wine barrel on the balcony, every winery’s room offers a signature luxury experience. The participating wineries are: Blair, Cima Collina, Dawn’s Dream, Galante, Holman Ranch, J. Lohr, Joullian, Manzoni, McIntyre, Otter Cove, Tudor, Twisted Roots and Ventana.

The rooms have sleek, modern bathrooms, with imported Spanish marble. Sleeping areas have memory foam-top beds, deluxe linens, and high-definition flat screen televisions. The separate Cottage Suite offers 650 sq. ft. of space, with a California King bed, 50” HF television, and kitchenette. It’s the perfect place for a honeymoon or romantic getaway. The Inn offers breakfast daily and wine tasting on weekends.

Vendange is celebrating March Madness with a special discount from March 1 – 31st. Book your stay directly on www.vendangecarmel.com between March 1 – March 31st for a Sunday – Thursday stay and receive 5% off your booking. Must put in promotional code MARCHMADNESS on the website. The 5% off is valid for all rooms except standard Queens.(Offer note valid on holidays and black out days. Promotional code must be entered at the www.vendangecarmel.com website for the discount to apply.)

Vendange is located at 24815 Carpenter Street in Carmel, a short drive away from the Monterey Peninsula Airport, just off of scenic Highway 1, with free parking for guests. It’s minutes from downtown Carmel’s shopping, fine dining, scenic 17-Mile Drive, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Telephone 831- 624-6400; email: reservations@vendangecarmel.com

Contact:
Marci Bracco Cain
Chatterbox PR
Salinas, CA 93901
(831) 747-7455
http://www.vendangecarmel.com

Democracy in the Fields Website launch and Panel discussion with Luis Valdez on April 3rd at the National Steinbeck Center

On April 3, from 2-5 P.M., the National Steinbeck Center will host a website launch and panel discussion, moderated by Teatro Campesino founder Luis Valdez, to formally unveil Democracy in the Fields.

Salinas, CA, February 20, 2016 - On April 3, from 2-5 P.M., the National Steinbeck Center will host a website launch and panel discussion, moderated by Teatro Campesino founder Luis Valdez, to formally unveil Democracy in the Fields. This multi-media project tells the stories of farmworkers who joined Cesar Chavez’s movement forty years ago in the Salinas Valley.

The website features a recently discovered trove of captivating images by award-winning photographer Mimi Plumb. Plumb documented events during the summer and fall of 1975, when a landmark law gave California farmworkers the right to petition for union elections. “Mimi was swept up in the excitement as she watched history unfold. She took hundreds of photos over many months. Then she put the negatives in a box and went on with her life,” notes Miriam Pawel, project coordinator. “Forty years later, she rediscovered the trove of photos, and her curiosity and passion were rekindled. She had taken almost no notes, written down only a handful of names.” The first stage of the website project, adds Pawel, was “to put names to the faces. But as soon as we began sharing the photos, it became clear they were a window into a much larger, important story. Partly because of the memories they evoked, partly because of the transformational nature of that era, and partly because we were showing people photos of loved ones they had not seen in decades.”

In words and pictures, Democracy in the Fields tells the story of Cesar Chavez’s march through the Salinas Valley to spread the word about the historic elections that began in the fields in September 1975, and the impact on farmworkers who discovered their own power. It features workers like Jose Renteria, recruited as a teenager to help in the campaigns of 1975, who grew up to run the UFW’s Salinas office and then to work as Human Relations director of Matsui Nursery; Sabino Lopez, who was an irrigator with a third grade education and became a labor organizer, then deputy director of the Center for Community Advocacy. He was the first farmworker on the board of the National Steinbeck Center. Mario Bustamante is also featured; he left his Mexico City home as a teenager to find his father, followed his father into the lettuce fields, and then into a union that became a social center, a classroom, and a path to power.

The program on April 3rd will feature an online gallery of photos as well as opportunities for participants to peruse the website, add comments, and tell their own stories. The panel discussion, led by Luis Valdez, will feature participants in the movement who are the subjects of the photographs. Timed to be close to Cesar Chavez Day, the event offers an opportunity to revisit the farmworker movement with fresh perspectives and help inform a new generation about the significance and legacy of the farmworker movement in the 1970s.

The project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Center for Community Advocacy.

Contact:
Marci Bracco Cain
Chatterbox PR
Salinas, CA 93901
(831) 747-7455
http://www.steinbeck.org/

Lessons learned from the Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital Cyber-Ransom attack: Top Security Experts Weigh In

A major metropolitan hospital was recently hit with a devastating cyberattack that crippled its operations and put patients lives at risk. The response by hospital administrators took almost a week, but was also wrong on many levels.

Salinas, CA, February 20, 2016 - The purpose of the attack on Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center was not to steal medical records or personal health information, but rather to seize control of and lock down the hospital's entire computer system and all of its networks.

Known as “ransomware,” the attackers are demanding $3.6 million (or 9,000 in virtually untraceable BitCoins), to release control of its systems back to the hospital.

The hospital's CEO, Allen Stefanek, has responded by saying that the attack appeared to be random and that no patient or employee information is at risk.

According to one of country's leading cyberattack experts, Steve King, chief security officer for Netswitch Technology Management, Stefanek's response was inadequate at best and possibly dangerous.

King said there are four things never to do in case of a breach of this magnitude.

* “Never wait to acknowledge a breach,” says King “The longer you delay, the more it looks like you have something to hide and the less your customers will trust you. A week is crazy-long.”

* “Never insult the public's intelligence by saying that ‘no patient or employee information is at risk’ when it is obvious that if the attackers were clever enough to lock down the hospital's systems, they are certainly capable of stealing the medical records as well.”

* “Never suggest that you were attacked ‘randomly’ as if by some quirk of fate this horrible thing came your way simply out of the blue. It is likely that these hackers targeted the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center specifically because they knew their cyber-security defenses were weak or non-existent.”

* “Never pay the ransom,” says King. “Take the hit. Pay whatever you have to in order to re-create it all and button it up so it won't happen again. Then, walk back everything you have said and come clean.”

Mary Siero, an experienced CIO in Healthcare and a prior recipient of the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) of the Year Award, concurs that companies need to be better prepared for ransomware, which is increasing at an alarming rate.

“Organizations should not assume that the breach is minor without an in-depth assessment and should also not assume that sensitive data has not been breached until they have their assessment,” says Siero. “Hopefully the organization has considered the seriousness of these and other breaches and developed an Incident Response Plan in advance of breaches.”

But Siero also acknowledges that the complexities of networks and organizational systems and the technology consumerization movement has made it difficult to protect from attack on all fronts.

“Security is not a perfect science, it is dependent upon people processes and technology,” Siero says. “It is a mistake for an organization to think they can prevent all types of breaches and as such, detective controls need to supplement preventive controls as part of a comprehensive security program.”

Kim Green, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for Zephyr Health Technology, agrees that preventative measures are the best defense against an attack, but that healthcare has always lagged behind other industries in implementing and assuring secure computing environments.

She says the reasons for this are well documented, i.e., inadequate security funding, ineffective security training, unpatched healthcare legacy systems, ability to provide secure systems that do not impact the continuum of care, and system integrations with suppliers and partners who have not undergone proper security assessments.

“First, all businesses should have a sound anti-ransomware policy in effect,” she says. “An anti-ransomware policy is a highly confidential document and differs from incident response and data breach communication policies.

Green says the policy should define: 1) How the business plans to communicate with the attacker. 2) Who the business plans to contact and communicate with during and after the attack, such as the FBI or a security consultancy firm specializing in ransomware cleanup. 3) Whether or not the business plans to pay. If so, how much? 4) Whether or not a data silo and/or offline backups must be maintained. 5) What type of cyber insurance coverage should be maintained.

Both Siero and Green agree that the attack on Hollywood Presbyterian is a wake-up call to the healthcare industry, and that nobody is immune.

“Hopefully they can learn that 1), it can happen to them, 2), an incident response plan is vital and 3) the value of a comprehensive cyber security program is worth every dollar,” says Siero.

Green says implementation of an anti-ransomware policy and defenses are vital, but also providing employees with hands-on, real-world security scenario training in tactics like phishing, baiting and tailgating, are also imperative.

“If you are in the healthcare space and are fortunate enough to have avoided a breach thus far, take a lesson from this event and start investing in your own cyber-defenses right now,” says King “I am sure you are on someone's list somewhere.”

ABOUT STEVE KING
Steve King, COO, Netswitch Technology Management, Inc. was selected for Nine Lives Media’s sixth annual MSPmentor 250. The global list identifies the world’s leading Managed Services Provider (MSP) executives, entrepreneurs, experts, coaches and community leaders. You can see the entire list at: http://www.mspmentor.net/top250

“I am honored to be selected,” said King, COO, Netswitch. “We are pleased that our innovative Managed Security Services platform MADROC, has received so much attention and acknowledgement. MADROC is the first integrated Advanced Threat Defense solution available as a SaaS and we have been overwhelmed by the market response. We will continue to innovate with new advanced threat protections in order to maintain our leadership position and stay ahead of the cyber-criminals and the continually evolving nature of malware.”

The sixth annual MSPmentor 250 list is richer and deeper with MSP executives from across the globe. An associated list, called Locked in the NOC (network operations center), honors MSP Hall of Famers who have made a lifetime impact in the market (http://www.mspmentor.net/top250/noc).

About Netswitch:
Netswitch is a global technology solutions provider, serving businesses of all sizes whose model for success relies upon secure, smoothly running, and fully integrated IT systems.

Netswitch provides next generation Managed Security Services and IT Infrastructure Support in the US and Asia with offices in San Francisco, Chicago, Thailand, Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

The MADROC® Integrated Security Platform is in use at over 3,000 client sites around the world providing intrusion detection and prevention, advanced behavioral analytics, preemptive breach detection, monitored and managed web firewalls and gateways, security information and event management, managed incident response and remediation and complete audit-ready regulatory compliance.
For more information, please visit us at http://www.netswitch.net/

Contact:
Marci Bracco Cain
Chatterbox PR
Salinas, CA 93901
(831) 747-7455
http://www.netswitch.net/