Village of Oak Lawn, Illinois Awards Newspaper Contract to Fanning Communications, Inc.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Date:  March 23, 2016 Contact:  John Fanning Telephone Number:  708-293-1430 Email:  [email protected] Oak Lawn, IL — The Village of Oak Lawn has awarded a contract to South Suburban-based Fanning Communications for production of a monthly newspaper that will be delivered to residents and businesses throughout the village.  In a five to one vote, Trustees awarded a one-year, extendable contract to the strategic communications firm after hearing from a trustee of South Suburban Crestwood, who spoke in praise of the services Fanning provides to that village from a monthly newspaper it has produced for the past several years. Continue reading “Village of Oak Lawn, Illinois Awards Newspaper Contract to Fanning Communications, Inc.”

Fanning Launches IMA Magazine

Fanning Communications, Inc. is pleased to announce the launch of its newest custom publication, IMA Magazine (www.IMAMagazine.com).  Published on behalf of our client, InfraGard Chicago Members Alliance (www.chicagoinfragard.org), IMA Magazine targets first-responders, security professionals and critical infrastructure owners, developers and managers with the latest news and information they need to protect assets and safeguard the public and homeland. Using our own in-house staff of professional, award winning journalists, Fanning Communications brings fresh content to each issue of the magazine providing unique perspectives on security issues impact the 16 critical infrastructure sectors defined by the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Available in both print and digital format, we are very proud of the inaugural issue of this very important periodical and look forward to bringing news and information that will assist in protecting American citizens both at home and abroad.

How We Work Behind the Scenes to Protect Our Clients Websites

by Joseph Neathawk Security Programming & Development Specialist Fanning Communications, Inc. Brute force attacks aimed at hacking into a website simply cannot be prevented.  If your website has a login page, it is only a matter of time before a programmed bit of malware or some human hacker finds your page and attempts to break in. Given enough time, most brute force attacks will succeed, although, in the case of highly secured sites, it may take years. From a security perspective, that is the goal; to force hackers to spend so much time making failed attempts that by the time they would have succeeded, your website has already been updated and now they have to either quit or start their attack again from the very beginning. login_securityWhile strong passwords will help delay breakins, clients often ask if that is all that can be done to protect their websites?  In fact, if your website is being hosted by Fanning Communications, other things can and are being done, often behind the scenes, that assist in keeping bad guys out of your website.  Fanning Communications is one of the few website development and hosting firms that maintains an active and on-going security program dedicated to protecting the websites we host.  As part of this security effort, we often instantly black-list the IP address of a computer we find attempting to hack one of our clients’ sites. This works well if a hacker is using a single IP or a small number of static (specifically assigned) IPs. Unfortunately however, the vast majority of brute force hacks employ a wide array of dynamic (shared) IP addresses. Typically these type of attacks make a single attempt before swapping to a new IP.  In the case of dynamic IP addresses, which are shared by many users of the Internet, blacklisting the IP means that innocent users assigned a dynamic IP address that has been blacklisted, may not be able to connect to websites they wish to visit. Continue reading “How We Work Behind the Scenes to Protect Our Clients Websites”

FBI 2014 Recruitment Program

The FBI’s Personnel Recruitment Unit (PRU) is excited to announce the launch of the 2014 Hiring Program! The goal of this program is to collect resumes from college students, recent college graduates, veterans, and professionals who are interested in an entry-level position with the FBI. All candidates must meet the qualifications outlined on www.fbijobs.gov/FY14Hiring. Those who meet the qualifications will be surveyed to determine location preference, and will have their resumes uploaded to the new SharePoint site in order to be reviewed by hiring managers. Detailed information and application instructions regarding the 2014 Recruitment Program can be found on the PRU intranet homepage and www.fbijobs.gov/FY14Hiring. Continue reading “FBI 2014 Recruitment Program”

A Word About Social Media Marketing

By, John J. Fanning Everywhere I go it seems, people want to talk about Social Media.  These days every entrepreneur and corporate manager is interested in having a presence on social media but many just don’t know where to begin.  Sometimes, I encounter clients who appear frantic, thinking that every moment they delay in having a page on Facebook or LinkedIn, they are losing business. Social media is a relatively new and exciting way to market your business and I believe every business should consider investing the time and energy required to create and maintain a social media site.  But I also think that a business should only venture into social media if they have the resources to follow through once their page is created. While having a vibrant social media presence is definitely a plus for any business, not having one is not necessarily a negative.  Most businesses don’t engage in social media and chances are slim that a client or customer will care if they don’t find you on Facebook or LinkedIn – so long as you do have a website.   What is a negative is creating social media pages and then not maintaining them.  Like dormant websites, a neglected social media site conveys the message that you are no longer around, don’t care about your public appearance or can’t afford the upkeep of your site. Continue reading “A Word About Social Media Marketing”

A Few Words About Words

by, John J. Fanning According to the Global Language Monitor, an Austin, Texas company that monitors language trends, a new word enters the English language every ninety-eight minutes. Each year, between eight hundred and a thousand neologisms (new words, meanings, usage or a phrase) are added to the English language. In Elizabethan times, the common English vocabulary contained less than five hundred words. Then William Shakespeare came along and added about seventeen hundred words to the language, mostly by borrowing from foreign languages and wordsmithing. Continue reading “A Few Words About Words”

Communication, Scratching an Itch and Other Marketing Tidbits.

by John J. Fanning I came across this cartoon today on Reddit and immediately felt it parodied some of the many communications failures I have witnessed as a professional in the communications business. irCRlDm All business is about deal making and the art of deal making centers around understanding fully what is being communicated between both parties.  The World is filled with lawyers who make their living through litigating contracts that one or both parties failed to fully understand.  But when the lawyers are called in, the deal has already failed and from that point on, more money and time is being thrown into a failure that should never have happened in the first place. Most of the failures I have witnessed came about because one or both parties sought an applied approach to their dealmaking.  By this I mean that when people get an itch,  they have a tendency to focus solely on scratching that itch. Continue reading “Communication, Scratching an Itch and Other Marketing Tidbits.”

Battle in the Burbs

Come on out for a great night of family fun with many of our local mayors, firefighters and policemen! 1276538_726372967388839_1369789710_o

Harold Koal Benefit

How can you refuse that face… Please come out September 20th and help support this dog who has helped so many of our fantastic veterans. 1044506_715454541814015_1928711286_n