Our planet deserves a better future, and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) or “Global Goals” are carefully designed to give all people opportunities to start building that future today.

With hundreds of indicators geared towards 2030, the international community established this new roadmap at the end of September 2015. The United Nations member countries designed these goals to cover social, environmental, and economic aspects with a business mindset.

These goals provide a path for any business to direct its efforts toward specific global objectives.

Businesses’ Role

Companies can contribute to the SDGs from three different perspectives, with different returns.

First, there is the development of philanthropic actions not related to the company’s activities. It seeks to improve the social and environmental conditions of the company’s environments, and it primarily has a reputational benefit.

On the other hand, it is possible to implement initiatives related to the organization’s operations to reduce and eliminate negative impacts and enhance positive ones for stakeholders. In this case, the returns for the company are diverse as they include operational efficiency, cost reduction, customer loyalty, among others.

The third approach is to develop innovative products and services within the company’s activity sector. This contributes to the goals established for the SDGs while generating new business opportunities.

The second and third approaches were proposed around operational impacts and are the subjects of the SDG Compass protocol. What does that mean exactly?

SDG Compass: A Guide for Businesses

To help companies contribute to the SDGs, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), The United Nations Global Compact (Global Compact), and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)  created the SDG Compass. It is an action protocol structured in five stages that seek to facilitate companies’ understanding of how they can contribute to the SDGs, encourage their public commitments, and communicate their progress.

The SDG Compass starts from a first stage that suggests promoting knowledge about the SDGs and the benefits that the company gets by supporting these goals.

Once the possibility of contributing to the SDGs is on the table, the next step is to design an strategy. To this end, the second stage begins with identifying the impacts that the company could generate with these iniciatives.

The third stage focuses on the action by establishing objectives, work programs, and activities that allow the company to put the goals into practice within the established time frame.

The fourth stage is how to implement the action plan. It suggests assigning responsibilities throughout the company so that all employees participate. Likewise, it recommends associating the indicators established for the SDGs with the performance metrics of the operations. In addition, to evaluate the progress of the action plan, it proposes to create a monitoring body.

Once the action plan is already for execution, it is possible to approach the fifth stage. At this moment, the company publicly reports its performance and the progress achieved, using a language that the authorities and civil society can understand:

1. Why SDGs are relevant and the associated impacts generated by the company.
2. The objectives and actions designed to contribute to their achievement.
3. The management and monitoring systems established to evaluate the progress that the company has achieved.

Advantages of contributing to the SDGs.

Making sure that our society achieves these 17 Sustainable Development Goals has many benefits, such as:

• Identify business opportunities and attract capital.
• Enhance the value of corporate sustainability, including attracting talent and customer preference.
• Strengthen relationships with stakeholders, be aligned with legislative advances, and strengthen risk prevention.
• Stabilize societies and markets by contributing to their development and access to products and services.

Ideas for businesses to support SDG

Here are 4 ways businesses can support SDG through empowering and inspiring activities. This could be a part of the businesses’ practices or projects.

1. PROVIDE AND MAINTAIN A HEALTHY WORKPLACE

It is essential to ensure that people collaborate in a secure and healthy workplace. If you think about it, most people spend about one-third of their adult lives in a workplace environment.

Consequently, businesses are key drivers for SDG 3 and SDG 8 – “Good Health and Well-being” and “Decent Work and Economic Growth.” Emphasize safe habits at work through frequent training and refreshers, and implement health and fitness programs for your team.

2. REWARD AND INCENTIVIZE RESPONSIBLE BEHAVIORS

Such as “Employee of the Month,” usually reserved for employees with the best productivity, businesses can also reward workers for incentivizing better environmental practices.

In this case, you’d be supporting SDG 12 – “Responsible Consumption and Production.” Consider offering bonuses or awards for the most environmentally conscious team members – especially those who put your business closer to those responsible practices.

3. PROMOTE DIVERSITY IN THE WORKPLACE

Diversity strengthens human relationships and encourages creativity in the workplace.

Organizations are ecosystems that thrive on variety. Diversity at work includes people from different cultures, genders, races, and opinions that add different perspectives to the work dynamics.

With these actions, businesses would support SDGs 5 and 10 – “Gender equality” and “Reduced inequalities.” In this sense, workspaces are not alien to the changes that are taking place in society. Diversity at work is a way of integrating those sectors of society that do not usually have many job opportunities.

A happier future

The international community is facing an exceptional moment, with a challenging roadmap and objectives established through the collaboration of governments, companies, and civil society. From your company, you can contribute to their achievement and develop new business opportunities that combine social and environmental impact with an economic return.

Businesses, regardless of their size, have the power to forge change and harness innovation, involving their employees, clients, partners, and communities – ensuring that no one is left behind in a safer, happier future.

We live in a world surrounded by technology. Just look around, how many devices do you see? Have you ever stopped to think about that?

Every year new things are invented, or those we already know are tweaked to make them more efficient and accessible to everyone. Fortunately, technology has always been in our lives, but unfortunately, we have also heard about climate change, global warming, pollution, global food and water shortages, endangered animals! AND the end of the world!

How is it possible that if we are so creative in developing technology that makes our lives easier, we have not been able to remedy these situations? Could we change and improve the world? Fortunately, there is already a plan that can only be successful if we all work together: the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

What are the Sustainable Development Goals?

In 2015, the UN, representing the population of 193 countries, announced the 17 global goals of sustainable development that focused on people, the planet, peace, and prosperity to eradicate extreme poverty, fight against inequality and injustice, and mitigate the effects of climate change.

The 17 SDGs are a collection of independent but interconnected goals carefully designed to give all of us a better future, with hundreds of targets and indicators geared towards 2030.

We must achieve these goals by 2030 to protect the planet and make this world a safer and more equitable place.

What can I do as an Individual?

Although it may not seem like it, reading about the SDGs, knowing their lines of action at a general level, and raising awareness among your family, friends, and colleagues is extremely important and the first step you must take.

That being said, here are 3 actions to help you contribute to the achievement of the SDGs. These activities can be part of your lifestyle or projects. Feel free to share them!

1. ENCOURAGE THE 3 R’S – ‘REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE.’

Recycling is more important than ever. The use of single-use containers, such as plastic bags or bottles puts tremendous pressure on our Earth. To reduce waste in our waters and landfills, people must follow the three Rs. You would be supporting SDGs 13 and 14 – “Life on Land” and “Life below Water” by doing your part to reduce the waste produced by your daily activities.

2. SUPPORT THE EDUCATION OF FUTURE GENERATIONS – WHEREVER THEY ARE.

Education is the basis of a better future and a pathway out of poverty. There is no dispute on that.

Donate to causes that supply books, build schools, and train teachers everywhere in the world – especially in remote areas. By helping to remove barriers to education, you’re enriching many people’s individual lives and adding talent to the workforce, thus creating the opportunity to have a better life.

3. CHOOSE TO GIVE OR ENGAGE IN CAUSES THAT YOU CARE ABOUT THE MOST

Expand the reach of your impact by engaging in projects that support the SDGs. You can choose multiple projects or just one – that’s up to you. Even some projects may support several SDGs at the same time.

When it comes to giving, engage with causes that are close to your heart. It could be related to education, environment, health, or human rights. In any case, start with the SDG that you feel most strongly about and donate towards causes that support it.

Commiting to Change

It is not long until 2030 comes around. We need to support each other, use our imagination and creativity, but above all, commit to change. If we make these goals known massively, other people might take an interest and cooperate. This is linked to CyberWarrior’s purpose, as it is core to our mission to help people grow personally and professionally – and make sure our planet keeps on turning.

For the past few years, we have seen an uptick in cyber-attacks around the world. The pandemic made things even worse, and now we see its consequences. Government agencies, schools, cities, gas pipelines, and major organizations have fallen victim during the first quarter of 2021. Understanding what has happened will allow us to prepare for the coming months.  

In this article, we want to guide you through the worst cyber-attacks we’ve seen this year. What happened, how did the organization reacted and responded, and how they recovered from it.  

1- Florida Water System 

The date was February 5th. A plant operator noticed how the cursor of his computer started moving across the screen and opened software functions that controlled the water treatment for the Florida west coast. The hacker was able to boost the level of sodium hydroxide in the water by 100.  

It is important to note here that poisoning from sodium hydroxide can cause burns, vomiting, severe pain, and bleeding. Fortunately, the operator quickly responded, reverted the levels to normal, and reported the situation to his superiors. Although the sheriff explained that the system has safeguards that prevented the contaminated water from being released to the public, this episode shows the lack of controls and training in the water systems around the country. Cyber-attacks could have put public health at risk. 

2- CNA Financial 

One of the largest insurance companies in the country fell victim to a ransomware attack earlier this year. It all happened when employees got locked out of the company’s systems due to a network disruption caused by a sophisticated cyber-attack on certain CNA systems.  

People familiar with the attack explained that CNA first attempted to resolve the matter without engaging with the hackers’ organization. One week later, they started negotiating and then agreed to pay $40 million to restore access to its systems. This amount is 10 million higher than the biggest ransom reported last year.  

According to a spokesperson, the insurance firm followed all the laws, regulations, published guidance, and worked closely with the FBI and the Office of Foreign Assets Control.  

3- Acer 

In March, the Taiwanese computer and electronics brand reported “abnormal situations” in their IT security controls. It was revealed that they were hit by a REvil ransomware attack that demanded the largest ransom to date, $50 million, and they stipulated that if they did not pay by a certain date, the price would double.  

While Acer tried to keep the situation off from the press, the threat actors revealed documents such as bank balances and spreadsheets that made clear that they had gained access to the company’s financial information, clients’ lists and that a ransom attack was going on. 

Allegedly, this all happened because of a vulnerability in a Microsoft Exchange server that was exploited, giving the hackers access to Acer’s files and sensitive information.  

4- Colonial Pipeline 

One of the cyber-attacks with the most news coverage this year, as it directly impacted the gas supply for the East Coast of the United States while causing panic and chaos.  

The DarkSide, a criminal hacker group, based in Eastern Europe, was responsible for shutting down the pipeline for several days in what appears to be the largest attack on an American energy system. Operations were restored after Colonial paid a ransom of 4,4 million dollars worth of bitcoin.  

All the chaos, gas shortages, and price spikes were a consequence of a leaked password to an old account with access to the VPN used to access the company’s server. This puts in evidence the urge to implement cybersecurity training for all employees, reviewing the organization’s identity, access management policies, and security controls.  

5- NBA 

Earlier in April, the USA National Basketball Association was hit with a cyber-attack that mainly affected the Houston Rockets. The team claims that they could quickly detect the intrusion and respond, reducing the damage to its operation. But, according to Bloomberg, the hacker group Babuk was able to get ahold of at least 500 gigabytes of information, including financial data, non-disclosure agreements, and contracts. 

The criminals posted a message on the dark web claiming for a ransom to return the stolen data, or they would post all the information online. As we write this, there is no proof that a ransom has been paid.  

6- Microsoft Exchange 

A Chinese cyberespionage group uncovered and exploited four newly discovered vulnerabilities in the email software, putting at risk over 30,000 organizations and government agencies in our country.  

Microsoft explained that the hackers were taking advantage of these flaws to conduct targeted cyber-attacks on email systems used by different industries, especially on organizations related to infectious disease researchers, law firms, and higher education institutes. And they stated that the criminals were putting at risk any unpatched Exchange server worldwide.  

Basically, in each unpatched server, the attackers left a “web shell,” a hacking tool that grants them administrative access to the computer and servers. Along with the US Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and security companies, Microsoft worked quickly to revert the damages caused by releasing an update to the system and providing mitigation guidance.  

7- Accellion 

Accellion, an IT security firm owner of a secure file sharing and collaboration software, was the victim of a cyber-attack related to a security flaw in their software that put at risk over 30,000 organizations, including companies, government agencies, hospitals, and universities.  

A report stated that it all happened in December when a vulnerability in the file transfer software was first exploited and then again in January. Six months have gone by since then, and the attack continues to leave a mess behind. Morgan Stanley, NSW Health, University of Colorado, Grocery Giant Kroger, and many others have released information about stolen or missing data.