Rumors travel faster than the speed of sound. I thought I would devote one full blog to share my full story with everyone with a hope of dispelling many rumors that are incorrect about what is going on with me. I am a third-generation recycler that grew up in a family business. I have an older sister, Tammy, and a younger brother, James that also grew up in the same family business. My parents, Ed & Pat, allowed each of us to work in the business as much as we wanted. My actual work for the family business started in 1993 when my dad bought the largest competing salvage yard to our existing yard (that was founded in 1966). The ‘new’ yard was about 6 miles from our original site and I began working there in the summer and after classes got out - I was attending the University of Mobile to get a degree in Business Management and Accounting. I worked part time for three years while in school and became the full-time manager of the site in 1996, when I graduated from college. In 2...

It Won’t Happen to Me “Fire! Fire! Run!” That was the cry of an employee in the dismantling area of one of my sites on a cool March morning of 2009. The improper handling of gasoline coupled with a fellow dismantler working to cut a core support off of a vehicle resulted in a fire that ultimately forced us to completely rebuild the entire building. I never thought we would have a fire of this magnitude and had done nothing to proactively safeguard us from the possibility. “Your Files have been Encrypted” It’s Monday morning and this message appears on the screens of every workstation and the YMS Server. Your heart races and you are thinking, “Do we have a backup?” You are the victim of a ransomware attack that results in five days of lost sales, a draw on your Line of Credit at the bank in order to make payroll, and two salespeople are threatening to quit because their commission pay was low. Are you prepared for an attack like this? Proactive versus Reactive After mult...