January 2025 – Fake Facebook Friends, Leading Stronger, The Green Status Effect
January 2025 Insights Email
Fake Facebook Friends, Leading Stronger, The Green Status Effect
Happy 2025, friends!
I hope that you had a restful holiday season filled with food, family, and celebration. Are you ready to head into 2025 with purpose and intention? Let’s make it a great year.
January is off to an eventful start, with Justin Trudeau announcing he will step down as party leader and PM; a polar vortex bringing frigid temperatures across North America; and devastating forest fires have caused widespread destruction in California.
My goal for ‘Insights’ this year remains the same – deliver curated, high-value content to Winnipeg business leaders. If you know someone who would benefit from receiving this, please pass it along.
With that, here are the articles and events that caught my attention this month.
Michael
Shortcut Links
Cybersecurity / Technology
Partner Spotlight – Capital Commercial Real Estate Services
Cybersecurity / Technology Articles
Oops! Executives at Meta (Facebook, Instagram) had some explaining to do after users discovered AI profiles / bots on their social media feeds. The AI users have profile pictures, can generate content, and interact with other users. After some particularly harsh backlash (from ‘this is weird’ to accusations of racism), Meta has begun pulling down their AI profiles calling it an ‘early experiment’ and ‘vision for the future’. Yikes.
‘This Is Weird’: Meta Is Killing Off Its AI-Generated Fake Facebook Friends That Nobody Wanted in the First Place
There are no shortage of articles this week discussing Cybersecurity predictions for 2025. Common themes includes AI-based attacks, the need for stronger encryption to protect against quantum computing capabilities, and Zero Trust frameworks. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the technology and jargon.
One thing that all the experts agree on? Phishing attacks continue to be the preferred method for attackers and are only going to increase. This article from InfoSecurity Magazine cites some pretty scary stats:
- A 202% rise in overall phishing messages in the second half of 2024
- Users encounter on average one advanced phishing attack email per mailbox, per week
- 80% of malicious links are ‘zero-day’, newly created URLs that evade traditional detection methods.
Phishing Attacks Double in 2024 – InfoSecurity Magazine
Leadership & Personal Growth
If you’re a gym regular, it’s the most dreaded time of year. The weeks following January 1st see hordes of ‘resolutionists’ pack facilities with a fresh commitment to their exercise for the New Year. Predictably, many will be gone by February and the wait time for your favourite machine should return to normal. But how do we strengthen our leadership muscles heading into 2025? This article from Ivey Business School has 4 ways you prepare yourself to lead stronger this year:
Four ways to lead stronger in 2025
Return to Office Mandates are showing no sign of slowing down. JP Morgan Chase is the latest massive company to give its employees notice of a full-time return to in-person work, while Elon Musk has indicated that federal workers can expect the same. Earlier this year, software company BambooHR conducted an extensive survey of employees and employers on the topic of remote vs in-person work. Some of the findings are particularly shocking:
- Half of workers (52%) prefer to work remotely, while 2 out of 5 (39%) prefer to be in the office.
- The majority of both remote (88%) and in-office (79%) workers take actions to prove they’re online and working.
- One in four (25%) VP and C-suite executives and one in five (18%) HR pros admit they hoped for some voluntary turnover during an RTO, proving, in some cases, why RTO mandates are layoffs in disguise.
- 64% of remote workers keep messaging apps open constantly to appear online – something called the ‘Green Status Effect’.
Bamboo HR – Visibility Beats Productivity for RTO & Remote
Partner Spotlight – Capital Commercial Real Estate ServicesWhether your business is in-office, remote, or hybrid – if you’re looking to make any changes with your commercial space, Capital Commercial is the team to call. Capital is a full-service brokerage, specializing in retail, office, vacant land, and industrial property sales and leasing, investment property sales, and property development consulting. With over 40 years in business, we are proud to call Capital a trusted partner and would highly recommend their team of experts.
Capital Commercial Real Estate Services
Upcoming Events
January 16 – Winnipeg Chamber ‘BizConnect’ Networking Event
January 21 – TechMB Mashup – Exploring AI’s Potential for Business Growth
January 22 & 23 – Edge Business Expo in Ritchot
January 23 – Winnipeg Chamber Luncheon – Welcoming the World to Winnipeg