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Car dealerships across the country are being forced to use paper forms as the auto industry looks to recover from a cyberattack that caused mass outages last week.

The attack hit CDK Global Systems, a cloud-based software that runs all back-end financials and information on car sales, financing, repairs, maintenance, and more. The company serves an estimated 15,000 car dealerships across the country.

Ford and Kia noted in statements to Reuters that some operations have been affected.

The interfaces were reportedly hit with back-to-back cyberattacks that caused dealerships to begin shutting down operations as early as Wednesday around 2 a.m. EST.

Related: Mark Cuban Issues Warning After His Google Account Is Hacked

Per Bloomberg, the group that claimed responsibility for the attack (which is believed to be based in Eastern Europe) demanded tens of millions of dollars in ransom to cease the system hack ahead of the weekend, which CDK was reportedly willing to pay.

“In the interim, we are continuing to actively engage with our customers and provide them with alternate ways to conduct business,” CDK told Reuters.

The software company is also planning to run an internal investigation and is cooperating with authorities as it works towards the full restoration of its services nationwide.

Related: GM Taps Costco to Sell Chevrolet, Cadillac Electric Vehicles

The restoration was underway by Monday afternoon, though CDK said that it estimated that full restoration would take “days” and not weeks to complete. Still, it did not give an exact estimated timeline as to when dealerships would be able to resume business as usual.

CDK did not clarify exactly how many customers were still affected by the attack as of Monday afternoon.

Working, watching videos, and browsing the internet should be safe and private experiences. Unfortunately, public networks are often hazardous places riddled with hackers and advertisers. That’s why an increasing number of people these days are turning to VPN subscriptions.

If you haven’t yet, it’s time to consider how much of your data and personal information you’re leaving vulnerable every time you hop on a public network.

To help you out, consider that a two-year subscription to NordVPN is on sale for only $89 (reg. $198) for a limited time only. NordVPN’s Threat Protection is one of its most relevant and helpful features. It’s designed to block advertisements and trackers that can disrupt and slow down your online activities.

NordVPN can scan URLs before you visit them and block you from visiting dangerous sites that could be threats. It looks out for things like spyware, malicious software, trackers, and more, blocking anything it deems a threat. It also keeps you secure when on Wi-Fi networks with top-of-the-line encryption.

For professionals and business leaders, NordVPN’s high-speed capabilities are also well worth paying attention to. Using NordLynx, which is the fastest VPN protocol there is, it helps you and your team members get ahead when working in the office, at home, and on the road.

NordVPN is a critical darling with a 9.3/10-star rating on VPNoverview, and a 9.5/10-star rating on vpnMentor.

Don’t spend any more time leaving you, your co-workers, or your family members browsing at risk. Get a two-year subscription to NordVPN on sale for only $89 (reg. $198) for a limited time only.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

What is Skill Success?

Skill Success is an online learning platform with more than 4,000 online course videos on a wide variety of topics. Entrepreneurs looking to grow their understanding of given industries or fields can come here for video courses on business, finance, technology, cooking, music, and so much more.

How does Skill Success approach learning differently?

Skill Success makes learning new topics immersive and fun with gamified learning. By giving users incentives like earning badges and showcasing achievements, Skill Success keeps making progress fun and motivating.

Are the courses easy to access?

Skill Success courses are accessible from any device, anywhere, and at any time. All that’s needed to log in and watch a video course on a given topic is a reliable internet connection. The one-time payment for a lifetime membership makes it easy to revisit when you need it without any extra worry or planning.

What if I get tired of the Skill Success course catalog?

With thousands of courses on a variety of topics, it would take a lot of time to review, let alone get tired of the content available. At the same time, Skill Success also continuously updates its catalog with new options so that you always have something fresh to learn.

Is Skill Success recommended?

It is. Skill Success has been recommended by PCMag, Entrepreneur, and CNN, among other notable names.

Invest in a lifetime of learning with this lifetime membership to Skill Success, which is on sale for only $99.99 (reg. $540), the best price for this subscription online.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

While many top business leaders continue to express concern over the unchecked development of AI, the CEO of SoftBank, a Japanese investment company, has a big prediction for its future.

In a rare public appearance to shareholders at the bank’s general meeting on Friday, CEO Masayoshi Son spoke about his desire to create a world powered by artificial superintelligence, or ASI.

Related: Most Employees Haven’t Used AI, Don’t Trust the Tech: Report

“SoftBank Group has done many things until now that have all been a warm-up for my great dream to realize artificial super intelligence,” Son told shareholders of the Japanese company, per Reuters.

He also said AGI, or artificial general intelligence, which refers to artificial intelligence that is smarter than the human brain, will be here within the next three to five years and that we could see ASI technology reach a level that’s 10,000 times smarter than the human brain within the next 10 years, according to CNBC.

Son’s futuristic comments did not include an actionable plan for how the company plans to step into the space of ASI, but he mentioned that SoftBank would be working to produce robots with AI capabilities that could be used across all sectors and require “immense capital” to complete.

Over the last year, dozens of billionaires and business leaders, including Elon Musk and Richard Branson, have signed letters calling for regulation of the technology despite the positive benefits the advancement in technology could signal.

Related: 3 Things to Look for to Determine If AI Is Being Used Ethically

“I’m more excited than worried about AI,” Branson recently told Entrepreneur. “I think it’s going to transform people’s healthcare, it’s going to transform operations, it’s going to transform many, many aspects of life.”

SoftBank was up nearly 27% year over year on Friday afternoon.

According to Steve Jobs, “Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.” It seems obvious that keeping things simple will help your business succeed. And yet, it’s surprisingly difficult to do it.

If simplicity is this challenging, you need to be intentional to make it happen. That’s why many successful companies actively prioritize it as a value. Ikea’s focus on simplicity comes across in its designs, catalog, store experience and more. One of Nike’s 11 management maxims is “simplify and go,” focusing teams on moving fast to adapt to new technologies and fashions.

I believe that simplicity is a driver for genius innovation. In fact, my journey as an entrepreneur began with an idea to simplify a complex and bureaucratic process. Today, the success of that idea has created new challenges. We serve millions of customers across over 100 countries, with many different needs — to meet them all, we’d need a ton of different features. So, we have to find the simplest ideas that will improve the experience for the largest number of users.

Related: Here’s Why You Should Embrace Simplicity as a Strategy (and 3 Ways to Do It)

Simplifying innovation is a recipe for success

Some people think that to be an entrepreneur, you have to bring groundbreaking technological innovation to the world. But actually, there’s a lot of room to innovate on top of new technologies, simplifying them and packaging them for specific use cases.

If you think of two of the technology giants of our times, Google and Apple, neither of them invented their core technologies. Apple wasn’t the first company to create a home computer or cellphone, Google wasn’t the first company to develop a search engine. They made existing innovations simpler and more user-friendly, and it was a recipe for success.

This is particularly relevant right now in the middle of a revolution fueled by generative AI. There are definitely huge opportunities in creating new AI-driven technologies, but there are even more opportunities in finding ways to package these technologies into user-friendly software for specific use cases.

To do this, first master the tech, and then put yourself in the shoes of your potential user. Try to understand what is really useful about the innovation and what barriers people might face when trying to use it.

The key is to find a way to simplify the technology, making it easier for your target users to understand and adopt it. Do this, and you’re onto a winner.

Work smarter by simplifying communication

Another part of any business where simplification is super important is communications and processes. As companies grow, it becomes harder to get people on the same page or ensure continuity between departments. Poor communication creates misunderstandings, which can lead to mistakes. The more people involved in a project, the more likely it is that workflows will become complicated. This all slows things down, wastes time and restricts your ability to make an impact on the business.

Let’s start with communication. Using a single, simple language across the company is crucial for people to be able to understand each other. For example, try to use less jargon and fewer three-letter acronyms, or make sure to explain them if you do. By creating organized archives of historical documents and plans, you help onboard new people and anyone can find important information fast when they need it.

Create a culture of transparency where different departments share their plans with each other. Create frameworks to facilitate this, like quarterly reviews or roadmap deployments. It’s not possible for employees to be actively involved in everything going on in the company, but by helping everyone take part passively, you’re making sure they’re on the same page and can facilitate ideas and collaborations across teams.

When you do have to communicate, encourage your teams to do it in the most straightforward way possible. By simplifying communication and making it easy to understand, discussions are more focused and decisions are made faster.

Related: The Key to Effectively Communicating Important Messages Is All About Simplicity

Put simplicity at the heart of your product

A simplification mindset can also be applied to product development. By making small incremental changes, sometimes with test groups of users, you can use the inspect and adapt methodology to understand their adoption, as well as any issues, and innovate further accordingly. Every so often, you can combine all these small changes into a large product update that you roll out for everyone.

For example: A company added a lot of extra value to its product with new features and releases. In theory, this was great for the users, but some found the UI overwhelming and new pricing options confusing. To use a metaphor, some people are happy to be given ingredients to make their own meal, but most would prefer the chef do the cooking so they can enjoy the final result.

Having understood this through their feedback, the company introduced a change to its UI that helped users get the end result they wanted, without having to work hard to achieve it themselves. By simplifying, the company maximized the impact of the value of all the new additions to the product.

Related: Keep It Simple: Why Simplicity Is Key To Making Your Brand Win

Richard Branson once said: “Any fool can make something complicated. It is hard to keep things simple.” Simplicity won’t come about by accident — you need to be intentional. You have to call it out and make it a focus for the whole company. You need to put it at the heart of everything. And when you succeed, the impact will be huge.

Summer is just around the corner, and with it comes an influx of vacationers ready to explore new destinations. As the summer travel season begins, businesses operating within travel and hospitality must adopt robust strategies to manage the anticipated increase in transaction volumes and fraud risks. These strategies must also effectively manage disputes and chargebacks during a peak travel period that’s expected to break records.

Americans are still choosing to prioritize their vacations despite challenges like international unrest and rising prices. Projections from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) suggest we’ll see a record-breaking summer travel season in 2024, with officials anticipating the busiest travel season ever.

52% of consumers say they plan to travel as much in 2024 as last year, with another 40% saying they expect to travel even more. These prospective travelers already have significant budgets set aside for these trips.

Millennials and Gen Z are the driving forces behind this trend. People in this cohort tend to prioritize experiences over material goods and seek a healthy work-life balance to explore new places and cultures. They’re also heavily influenced by social media, where many influencers showcase travel as part of an aspirational lifestyle.

This surge in travel drives global business at every level of the economy, but it also creates a heightened sense of risk. For businesses, effectively managing fraud and chargeback risk year-round is crucial to navigating the travel space.

Let’s explore the best strategies and tactics for managing these threats, whether in-house, hybrid or outsourced, and why asking for help might be the most effective course of action this year.

Related: How a Bad Billing Descriptor Can Cost You

The challenges ahead

While a travel boom is fantastic for businesses and local economies, it poses significant challenges that underscore the necessity of comprehensive fraud and chargeback management. An exceptionally busy travel season can aggravate existing chargeback triggers already intrinsic to the travel space. We may see:

1. Increased Transaction Volume. The sheer volume of transactions during peak travel seasons makes managing and monitoring every transaction closely difficult. This increased volume can overwhelm internal systems, leading to errors and delays in handling disputes, contributing to more chargebacks.
2. Fraudulent Activities. Fraudsters take advantage of the busy season, knowing that the high transaction volumes can mask their activities. From fake travel deals to phishing emails, the types of fraud targeting travelers are diverse and sophisticated, increasing the likelihood of chargebacks from unauthorized transactions.
3. Overbooked Flights and Hotel Shortages. High demand can lead to overbooked flights and sold-out hotels. When travelers are bumped from flights or denied rooms, dissatisfaction spikes. So, too, does the number of chargebacks as customers dispute charges for services they didn’t receive.
4. Poor Customer Service. Understaffing is common during peak periods, resulting in longer wait times, unresolved complaints and poor service. Frustrated customers often turn to chargebacks to resolve their grievances when they feel neglected or mistreated.
5. Operational Strain. Handling a surge in transactions requires a well-prepared operational setup. Without it, companies might fail to process payments and refunds promptly, further aggravating customers and leading to more disputes and chargebacks.
6. Financial and Reputational Impact. Chargebacks result in financial losses due to refunds and fees. However, they also damage a company’s reputation with customers and hurt their relationships with financial institutions. High chargeback rates can result in higher processing fees and, in severe cases, the loss of merchant processing privileges.

Considering what’s at stake, you can see why it’s incredibly urgent to prioritize effective chargeback management. Aside from saving time and money, it can also help boost customer trust during the peak travel season.

Managing chargebacks: In-house, hybrid or outsourced?

Travel operators can adopt one of three chargeback management strategies to handle the increased demand and the potential challenges outlined above.

First, they can manage everything in-house. This involves maintaining a dedicated team to manage disputes, enhance customer support and refine fraud detection systems. While this approach offers direct control, it can be resource-intensive and requires constant updates and training to stay updated on new fraud tactics and regulatory changes.

A second option is to outsource everything. This allows travel companies to benefit from specialized expertise and advanced technologies without the burden of maintaining an in-house team. Third-party providers can offer scalable solutions, real-time fraud detection and comprehensive chargeback prevention strategies. However, it can also mean that merchants lack insight.

As a third option, merchants can try taking a more hybrid approach. Combining internal efforts with external support lets businesses leverage advanced technologies and knowledge from third-party providers while retaining some control over the process. This approach provides a balance between direct oversight and external expertise.

Related: How to Fight Fraud and Chargebacks Should Regulation Fail

Industry collaboration

As we gear up for a record-setting summer, it’s clear that improved industry collaboration could be the key to addressing fraud and chargebacks.

We could consider the transformative potential of open data and artificial intelligence (AI) within the tourism industry. Combining an open data strategy with AI can enhance decision-making processes, helping to personalize customer experiences and optimize operations.

By harnessing open data, businesses can gain valuable insights into traveler preferences and behaviors. This insight can be refined using AI to forecast trends and tailor services.

Related: Think You Can’t Win Against Chargebacks? Think Again.

Open data and AI will have a much more symbiotic relationship in the future. The kind of collective effort that open data demands will create a more secure environment for our customers and protect our businesses from the financial strain of chargebacks. These technologies promise to boost efficiency and innovation in tourism, help manage threats and enhance the overall travel experience.

Ultimately, travel operators need to be proactive. By adopting the right strategies and fostering collaboration across the industry, operators can thrive during this busy travel season and create a better experience for all travelers.

There are many important things to consider when launching your own business or side hustle, and location is at the top of the list. Local and state laws can mean different taxes, zoning regulations and licensing requirements, so it pays to be strategic about your choice of state, city and even neighborhood, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Related: 5 Things Not to Do When You’re Running a Small Business

After all, some 20% of new businesses fail within the first two years of being open, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The BLS also found that 45% of businesses fail within the first five years. That number jumps to 65% after 10 years.

Capital on Tap, a company that offers a credit card and spending management platform for small business owners, analyzed BLS data to determine the percentage of startups that are still active after three years — and broke down the U.S. states with the highest and lowest chance of survival in three- and five-year time frames.

“There are over 30 million small businesses in the U.S., making up an enormous percentage of the economy, and as this number continues to grow, so will innovation and commercial drive,” says Damian Brychcy, chief executive officer at Capital on Tap. “This research should serve as a positive sign to entrepreneurs in the top ten states who are thinking about starting a business.”

^{Image Credit: John Coletti | Getty Images. Boston, Massachusetts.}

Qualities of business-friendly states

Before diving into the data, it’s important to consider what factors make a state attractive for new business owners. And it’s about more than just starting a business. The following factors can help keep small companies afloat and lead to ongoing success:

Taxes

Perhaps the most important factor of all, a business-friendly tax environment can keep costs down and put more money in your pockets. There are payroll, employment, income and corporate taxes to worry about, all of which can affect decisions around hiring and expansion. Some states also offer tax incentives for small businesses, which can remove expensive hurdles. Reviewing a self-employed tax schedule in your area can help.

Workforce

If you want to run a healthy, growing business, you’ll almost certainly be hiring employees. The best states for small businesses will have a plethora of available talent and a workforce with high levels of college education. Starting a business near a college or university can also attract interest from recent graduates. This is especially prominent in the technology industry.

Regulations

State policies regarding small businesses involve more than just taxes and deductions. Government programs can offer business owners grants and loans and incentivize investment from larger funders. Compliance is another factor. States can lower the costs of business by removing regulatory red tape, such as required government approvals or clearances.

Growth potential

You want to start your business somewhere it can thrive in both the short- and long-term. A number of factors can support this — for example, funding, investment in infrastructure and livability. A close proximity to sources of financing can help your company grow, as long as the area can support your workers and their families. States and cities with a low cost of living, good schools and solid infrastructure will not only attract talent but keep it.

If you bought a Disney Dream Key pass from August 25 to October 25, 2021, you could receive part of a $9.5 million settlement.

Disney has settled a class action lawsuit filed in November 2021 in California district court over how it marketed its $1,400 Dream Key pass, a program that allows customers to pay a flat rate to go to Disneyland and California Adventures theme parks whenever they want throughout the year.

The settlement website shows that payments to qualified class members were sent either by check or through a digital payment on June 14.

Related: Parents With Young Children Are Taking on ‘Disney-Related’ Debt for Trips to Theme Parks, According to a New Report

Unless a class member excludes themselves from the settlement payout, they give up any right to sue Disney over the same claims in the lawsuit.

^{Disneyland. Photo by Barry King/WireImage}

According to the plaintiff, Jenale Nielsen, Disney advertised the Dream Key Pass as a way to enter Disneyland without any restrictions. When she bought the pass and tried to make a reservation, however, she found that Disney had blocked out many days, including all weekends in November 2021.

“Given that Disney had advertised and promised that there would be no ‘blockouts’ for Dream Key holders, Ms. Nielsen was surprised,” the filing stated.

Nielsen looked at Disney’s website and found that it still had passes available for sale on the days it had barred Dream Pass holders, so the blocks weren’t caused by tickets being sold out.

Related: A Fifth Walt Disney World Theme Park Could Be Coming Soon — Here’s What We Know

The filing called the Dream Key a “second class ticket” to Disney’s parks and said that Nielsen “was deceived by and relied upon” Disney’s “false and deceptive advertising.”

^{Locked Disneyland during the pandemic. Photo by Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images}

Disney denied all of Nielsen’s claims as well as any wrongdoing or liability.

Nielsen received $5,000 as part of the settlement and 100,000 others affected will receive around $67.41 from Disney.

Related: Disney World Concession Prices Have Gone Up 60% Over the Past Decade — Including Two Fan Favorite Sweet Treats That Have Skyrocketed in Price

For reference, a standard Disneyland theme park ticket starts at $96 to $194 per day.

Disney has now made changes to its Magic Key Pass advertising. The Dream Key is no longer available to purchase. In its place, the highest tier is now the Inspire Key, priced at $1,649 and labeled as subject to “applicable pass blockout dates.”

The Magic Key calendar at the time of writing had availability open for almost all days in July, August, and September for Inspire Key holders.

With so many calls and meetings taking place remotely these days, serious entrepreneurs and business leaders need reliable headphone options for blocking out distractions and zoning in on work. For those who are on the hunt for a highly capable piece of tech that’s also affordable, this deal is worth checking out.

For a limited time only, these new, open-box JBL Tune 510BT Wireless On-Ear Headphones are on sale for only $24.99 (reg. $49). An open-box deal typically means the product was excess inventory from store shelves, and it also means that these headphones have been inspected and verified to work like new.

So, with impressive savings on a fully capable pair of 2021 headphones, you can count on powerful and deep bass when listening to music. It also features quick switches to make switching from listening to a tune while you get through busy work to taking an unexpected and important call from a prospective client seamless.

These on-ear headphones also support Siri and Hey Google. With these tools, you can activate hands-free calling with a simple request and control sound settings and other functions with voice commands. They also offer a quick five-minute recharge feature that gives you two additional hours of music, which is great when you’re in a bind.

Busy entrepreneurs need the freedom to take calls while keeping their hands on their keyboards. Make your access to calls and meetings a lot better with these JBL Tune on-ear headphones.

During a special limited-time sale, these open-box JBL Tune 510BT Wireless On-Ear Headphones are on sale for only $24.99 (reg. $49).

StackSocial prices subject to change.

Whether it’s important PDFs, presentations that you made for ongoing clients, or important contracts that would be detrimental to ongoing relationships if ever lost — there’s a lot of data your business needs to protect. That’s why it’s simply common practice for modern companies to have a number of verified and reliable cloud storage solutions.

If your team is in need of some space, here’s a great deal worth checking out. For a limited time only, you can get a lifetime subscription to 1TB of Koofr Cloud Storage for $119.97 (reg. $810) with code KOOFR. This single-payment deal features helpful access to a lot of space. A terabyte can hold roughly a quarter-million photos, 500 hours of HD video, and more than 6 million smaller file types like PDFs.

You can count on top-notch security when using Koofr because of advanced file encryption practices, the company says. They also have a zero-tracking policy, so you can rest assured that sensitive documents saved on Koofr will still remain private to your team or whoever you want to provide access to.

Koofr’s also great for companies because it’s compatible with other popular cloud accounts like Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive, so adding it to the mix should be easy.

For those who want a little more reassurance, just take a look at Koofr’s scores among the most reputable tech review sites out there, including a 4.6/5-star average on G2, Capterra, and GetApp.

Make sure to do your business a favor and secure this lifetime subscription to 1TB of Koofr Cloud Storage for $119.97 (reg. $810) with code KOOFR.

StackSocial prices subject to change.