Day: October 21, 2016

Importance Of Cybersecurity Stressed At PHSC

cybersecurity-1 — Keynote speaker Sri Sridharan, the managing director of USF FCC, told the audience that cybertheft of consumers’ financial information and money has become so common that it is usually unreported by the media and not investigated by law enforcement.

As people spend more of their time working, shopping and socializing online, they’re risking real-life consequences to their financial, professional and even personal well being. That’s the message that a group of experts delivered on Oct. 11 during a recent cybersecurity symposium at the Pasco Hernando State College (PHSC) Porter Campus at Wiregrass Ranch in Wesley Chapel.

Speakers presented information about protecting yourself from identity theft and social media risks, as well as about internet-based crimes such as human trafficking. The event was co-hosted with the Florida Center for Cybersecurity (FCC) at the University of South Florida (USF) and is part of PHSC’s Community Awareness Series.

Keynote speaker Sri Sridharan, the managing director of USF FCC, told the audience that cybertheft of consumers’ financial information and money has become so common that it is usually unreported by the media and not investigated by law enforcement.

“Just because you don’t hear about it doesn’t mean the problem isn’t there,” Sridharan said, adding that identity thieves target public Wi-Fi networks such as those made available by coffee shops, restaurants and stores to intercept personal information from people using those networks.

Another trend, called ransomware, allows hackers to encrypt information on a computer or data network, preventing users from accessing their files. Users regain access by paying money to the hackers. Sridharan said one way people can avoid identity theft is taking personal responsibility for online behavior.

“Cybersecurity is a serious problem and people have to practice good cybersecurity ‘hygiene’ to protect their personal information,” he said.

Using complex passwords that are unique to each login, shopping at well-known commercial websites, not using unknown USB drives or memory cards you’ve found laying around and becoming savvy about malicious links in emails and websites are some of Sridharan’s suggestions for maintaining your online security.

Dumpster diving (going through people’s garbage looking for discarded documents with personal information on them), shoulder surfing (peering over someone’s shoulder to steal a password or PIN) and skimming (a small device that scans your credit card when it’s inserted at the gas station, ATM or other automatic money machine) may sound like extreme sporting activities but they’re actually some of the common techniques used by identity thieves according to Jeff House, associate director of PHSC network services, who also spoke during the symposium.

“The main thing is being aware that the technologies we take for granted can easily cause us to lose our identities,” House said.

He recommends shredding sensitive documents before discarding them, positioning yourself away from the prying eyes of people around you when working online or using bank cards in public and taking a good look at point of sale terminals at registers and gas pumps to see if they appear to have been altered with information-stealing skimmers.

Social Security Protection

Staking out your Social Security account online long before claiming your benefits was the advice from Daryl Rosenthal, a public affairs specialist from the Social Security Administration. He says going online to SocialSecurity.gov and creating your account (called “my Social Security account”) allows you to review your earnings history for accuracy, learn about benefits and keep someone else from accessing your account and stealing your benefits. Rosenthal said it’s not easy for someone else to access your account, but it can happen if they acquire enough personal information about you. “To get an account, you have to enter information you know about yourself beyond your Social Security number,” he said.

Rosenthal also advises that people shouldn’t routinely carry their Social Security cards with them, and that they should resist providing their Social Security number to businesses that request it.

The internet has become a virtual playground and shopping center and Corporal Alan Wilkett of the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) says there’s a dark side to that activity, with human trafficking taking place online. He says the practice of human trafficking involves economic slavery, body organ harvesting and the sex trade.

“The auctions of people are taking place online and it’s one of the most diabolical things around,” Cpl. Wilkett said. “Most of the adults I talk to have no idea this is going on.” According to Cpl. Wilkett, the best way to combat human trafficking is increasing public awareness of the problem and a willingness to get involved.

Bullying is the topic for PHSC’s next Community Awareness Series event, which will take place Wednesday, November 16, 2 p.m.-3 p.m. It will be held in the Building B conference room of the Porter Campus, located at 2727 Mansfield Blvd. For more information, you can visit PHSC.edu or call 527-6629.

Unsightly Donation Bins On The Way Out

blightbin2 — Bins like this one will face stricter regulation when a new ordinance proposed by District 2 Pasco County commissioner Mike Moore receives final approval on October 25.

District 2 commissioner Mike Moore is hoping the sight of mattresses and couches stacked against overflowing donation bins will soon fade from the view of residents throughout Pasco County, now that his fellow county commissioners have voted to introduce an ordinance to more closely regulate these sometimes-eyesores.

A public hearing was held on the proposed ordinance Oct. 11 in Dade City and received no opposition, with another scheduled for Oct. 25 in New Port Richey. Moore said he did not expect any public opposition to his proposal, which has been endorsed by the other commissioners.

“I’ve talked to many constituents about it, and they say, ‘It’s great to hear you talk about it, now let’s do something about it,’’’ Moore said. “And we are.”

Moore, whose district represents much of Wesley Chapel, including the Wiregrass Ranch area, said he has had enough of driving past unsightly stacks of garbage masquerading as donations to the needy. Among the offending bins he cites most are one on a private service road off S.R. 54 by the Super Wal-Mart that was visible to passers-by and attracted dumpings, and another on Ancient Oaks Blvd. by the Sam’s Club on S.R. 56.

Those are just two of the sites Comm. Moore has noticed in Wesley Chapel. “There are multiple ones across the county too,’’ he says, adding that if he had to put a number on the donation bins in the county — and he admits that not all of them have become dumping spots — he would estimate there are more than 200, although an exact number is hard to tell.

The owners of those bins, however, will now have to obtain county permits and be held responsible for ensuring that the areas where they place their bins remain junk- and vandalism-free — if and when the ordinance is enacted into law.

According to the proposed ordinance, in some cases, the bins are placed on private and public property without approval from the landowners.

The county currently has no standards or permitting procedures for site location, number of bins, signage, maintenance, or security of donation bins, but Moore says the ordinance would change that.

Some Provisions…

Anyone placing a bin within the county first has to prove it is authorized to conduct business in the state and county. They also must produce a site plan showing the location of the proposed donation bin and have written consent from the property owner to set up the bin.

Moore says the bin he cited near the Sam’s Club, which has now been removed, had no markings on it indicating who owned it or what it was even for. It attracted people looking to get rid of tattered mattresses, kitchen appliances, rugs and other items just dropped off in its vicinity.

The owners of the property, Moore says, had to pay to the have area cleaned up. “He told me it was about the seventh time he had to do that,” Moore says.

The removal and regulation of donation bins isn’t a new problem. Some cities in California and Michigan have banned the bins or have begun stricter regulation of them in recent years.

While many bins are marked as non-profit, not every bin is for charity and many have no markings of any kind on them. Moore says it is hard to tell them apart, as many for-profit businesses have collection bins, and sell the contents to recycling companies, which then ship them overseas. The clothes and other items are then re-purposed as rags or furniture padding and sold.

Without regulations, however, Moore says for- and not-for-profit businesses can put bins wherever they like, and not even bother to keep the area clean. In many cases, Moore says, it appears they bins aren’t even emptied in any sort of timely manner.

On S.R. 54 just east of Advance Auto Parts and across the road from Parks Ford of Wesley Chapel, Moore drove by an unmarked bin collecting junk almost every day until something had to be done.

“We actually went out there and did it ourselves, it got so bad,’’ Moore says. “We used county staff, though, and that’s paid for by taxpayer money.”

Moore said the problem was finally solved with the county removed the bin and placed a sign banning the dumping of anything in that area.

RADDSports Begins Negotiations With Pasco For Indoor Facility In Wiregrass

raddrender — A computer rendering shows RADDSPORTS’ plans for an indoor sports facility surrounded by a park with fields for outdoor sports like soccer and baseball.

Pasco County has been here before. Can county leaders close the deal this time?

After past failures at luring an athletic complex to the Wesley Chapel area, the county is set to begin negotiations with RADDSPORTS after the Sarasota company was chosen to lead the way to a new indoor sports complex in the Wiregrass Ranch Development of Regional Impact (DRI).

RADDSPORTS was one of four companies to submit bids to build and operate the proposed complex, and was one of two finalists, along with Sports Facilities Management of Clearwater, to appear and give a presentation before a special selection committee on Sept. 30.

RADDSPORTS beat out Sports Facilities Management, and its Request for Proposal (RFP) was on the consent agenda at the Board of County Commissioners (BCC) meeting on Oct. 11, where it was accepted.

Pasco County staffers have begun the negotiating process with RADDSPORTS and the Porter family, which has donated 120 acres of the land for the Wiregrass Ranch indoor sports complex project.

“It’s exciting to see this move forward,’’ said Pasco commissioner Mike Moore of District 2, which includes the Wiregrass Ranch area. “I think this will be a great project.”

If a deal cannot be finalized with RADDSPORTS, the county could turn back to Sports Facilities Management.

RADDSPORTS is led by Richard Blalock, who was formerly a popular parks and recreation director credited for turning Newberry, FL into a sports tourism hotbed.

RADDSPORTS is partnering with Mainsail Development Group, Inc., which develops resorts and hotels. RADDSPORTS is proposing a $14-million, approximately 100,000-sq.-ft. indoor sports facility with eight basketball courts, plus a 100+ room hotel, an open-air amphitheater with event lawn, sports turf fields for soccer and other sports, trails and playgrounds.

The cost of the hotel would be $15 million, but the deal Pasco County has with the Porter family prohibits a hotel on the site and will need to be negotiated. A 92-room Fairfield Inn & Suites is being built on land sold by the Porters just south of the proposed facility off S.R. 56.

The outdoor amphitheater shell will accommodate 500 to 1,500 attendees for a variety of events such as concerts, festivals and theater performances. RADDSPORTS’ plan projects 36 events per each year’s nine-month season.

A second phase of the project will include baseball, soccer and other outdoor sports fields.

The company also proposed 700kw solar panels for the roof of the facility, which it says will produce 1,075 MwH of power annually, enough to offset current energy prices by $140,000 each year.

Sadly, the county has been here before. There have been three failed attempts since 2001 to build some sort of athletic complex, with proposed tennis, baseball and outdoor complexes somewhere in Wesley Chapel all falling short when none of the deals could be completed.

“I’m optimistic this time,’’ says tourism director Ed Caum, the program manager of Visit Pasco. “I was here for the last two and watched them go by the wayside, but I think there are more players at the table this time. And, we have great support from the (Wesley Chapel) Chamber of Commerce, which is really, really, really helpful.”

The last project to fail was a proposed baseball complex in the same area of Wiregrass Ranch in 2014, when a group led by former Major League Baseball star Gary Sheffield failed to secure financing for the project.

Since then, the county hired Johnson Consulting, which steered the conversation to an indoor facility that could serve not only Wesley Chapel, but would be a draw throughout the entire state, particularly central Florida.

“Here’s the beauty of an indoor facility,” Caum says. “The bottom line is hoteliers in the area have asked the sports commission and tourism folks to find a way to get people into rooms in July, August and September when it’s too hot to do outdoor sports. Indoors, there’s no rain, no lightning, no heat stroke. The stars have aligned. I think it’s the perfect fit for central Florida. All of central Florida is going to benefit from a facility like that.”

‘Making Strides Pasco’ At Wiregrass Tomorrow!

making-stride As the number one cancer killer among women, most adults in Wesley Chapel — and around the nation — have had a close friend or family member who has had and/or succumbed to breast cancer.

But, whether you’ve been touched by this scourge personally or you just want to go for a 5-km (3.1-mile) walk for a good cause, we hope you’ll wake up tomorrow morning — Saturday, October 22 — throw on something pink and head to the American Cancer Society (ACS)’s “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer of Pasco” walk at the Shops at Wiregrass mall in time for the 8:30 a.m. start.

ACS of the South Nature Coast of Florida (serving Pasco, Hernando & Citrus counties) senior market manager Robyn Liska says the 2015 walk between the Shops and Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel attracted an estimated 5,000 people, including more than 1,250 registered participants on 176 teams and raised more than $175,000.

A week before this year’s event, Liska said there were 116 teams and 724 participants registered that had already raised nearly $60,000, and that figure doesn’t include sponsorship money.

According to the ACS website (Cancer.org), “Making Strides walks are the largest network of breast cancer awareness events in the nation, uniting nearly 300 communities with a shared determination to finish the fight.”

For more info about tomorrow’s walk, visit MakingStridesWalk.org/PascoFL or MakingStridesWalk.org/RealMeanPascoFL. — GN

Pasco Seeking Sponsors To Help Keep DICK’s Lacrosse Tourney Here

lacrosse13 — The Pasco Lions of the WCAA were among the 73 teams to compete in the DICK’s Lacrosse Tournament of Champions last year.

Pasco County will end up writing a $90,000 check to support this year’s 11th Annual DICK’s Sporting Goods Lacrosse Tournament of Champions but, for the first time, county officials are reaching out to the community to help offset those costs and ensure that the popular tournament stays in Wesley Chapel.

Pasco has enlisted the help of the Greater Wesley Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) to find supporters of the event, which provides an estimated $3-million economic impact to the area’s restaurants, hotels and retailers, according to Ed Caum, the program director of Visit Pasco.

“We have (Florida Hospital Center Ice) opening (see page 42) and we will have an indoor sports complex coming, but we only have a finite amount of dollars,’’ says Caum. “We’ve kept the lacrosse tournament here on our own dime. We’re hoping to share that burden (going forward); it just makes more sense because (of how many local businesses benefit).”

The longest-running national tournament of its kind, put on by Colorado-based National Development Program (NDP) Lacrosse, the DICK’s tournament — scheduled every year for Thursday-Saturday, December 29-31— is going on its ninth year of being played at the Wesley Chapel District Park and nearby Wesley Chapel High. It previously was held at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, PA.

Last year’s event attracted 73 teams from 16 different states, including teams from New Tampa and the Wesley Chapel Athletic Association (WCAA) programs, although, in past years, the number of teams has been as high as 115.

The numbers were down 23 teams from 2014, due in part to a nearby lacrosse tournament at Bradenton’s renowned IMG Academy. “We need to win those teams back,’’ Caum says.

Pasco spent $100,000 on the tournament last year, and received $13,000 from the Florida Sports Foundation to help offset costs. Caum says the county is again asking the foundation for assistance.

“If we didn’t spend the tourism money the last 10 years, we would have lost the tournament,’’ he adds.

Last year was the last of a five-year NDP Lacrosse contract with Pasco County, but in May a new two-year deal, with an option for a third year, was announced. According to Hope Allen, the CEO of the WCCC, Pasco had to stave off challenges from other sites hoping to host the event.

“They approached us last year when the contract negotiations came up,” says Allen. “We were approached to step in and not let this amazing tournament leave the area, as there were other locations courting the event to host it. We realize the significant economic impact to a lot of our members, and wanted to see if we were able to help.”

Caum says NDP Lacrosse is adding a number of activities and events to the tournament, and the Holiday Inn Express on S.R. 56 is opening on Nov. 1, which will provide a new option for players and their families to stay closer to the event.

Although there are hotels on S.R. 54 itself that have been utilized in years past, Caum has said that as many as 60 percent of the rooms booked for the event have been in Hillsborough County (many in New Tampa). Wesley Chapel, however, is in the midst of a hotel boom, with plans for a Hyatt Place Wesley Chapel, Fairfield Inn & Suites and Hilton Garden Inn to be completed within the next three years.

“It’s going to make the drive time better for the families, so in that sense, it is very good for us,’’ Caum says. “According to industry (analysts), 15-30 minutes is all people want to drive. So, having hotels closer is excellent for us, not only for the bed tax but also the driving.”

Because so many of the DICK’s tournament participants turn the event into a Florida vacation, the growth in Wesley Chapel makes it imperative that those vacationers stay nearby and spend their money in our area.

“Within two years, that will make a major difference,’’ Caum says.

The success, and staying power, of the DICK’s tournament also plays a significant role in the success of another large, local lacrosse tournament — the Derek Pieper Memorial Cup, which was established in 2006, the year former WCAA player Derek Pieper was murdered.

The tournament is a qualifier for the DICK’s National Championship and drew 55 teams last year. This year’s Derek Pieper tourney is scheduled for the weekend of November 19-20 and will be played at the Wesley Chapel District Park.

For more information about the DICK’S Sporting Goods Tournament of Champions, visit NDPLacrosse.com. To learn more about the Derek Pieper Memorial Cup, visit WCAASPorts.org/derekpieper. For additional information about Pasco County Tourism, visit VisitPasco.com.