By: Richard Ollis If you have a credit report, there’s a good chance that you’re one of 143 million Americans whose personal information was exposed in a data breach at Equifax.  Equifax is one of three major credit reporting agencies in the U.S. and suffered a data breach that allegedly lasted from May through July 2017. According to Equifax, people's names, Social Security … [Read more...] about Bears Business Brief: The Equifax breach: What you need to know now

By: Richard Ollis Missouri is the latest state to file a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies that sell and market opioid painkillers, alleging the companies created an addiction crisis by misrepresenting the risks and benefits of their drugs. Widespread opioid addiction has pushed U.S. overdose rates to an all-time high — quadrupling since 1999. And Missouri’s … [Read more...] about Bears Business Brief: How does opioid addiction affect area business?

By: Richard Ollis Employment-related litigation is prevalent in the United States. In fact, according to a 2015 Hiscox report, U.S. companies have at least an 11.7 percent chance of having an employment charge filed against them. Missouri is rated as a high-risk state, where businesses are 15 percent more likely to be involved in litigation, and one of several states … [Read more...] about Bears Business Brief: Aim for zero tolerance of sexual harassment

Most of us have read about large data breaches, like the recent Yahoo breach of 500 million accounts — reportedly the largest such incident in history. Businesses are ramping up security, training, response, and insurance tactics to respond to this ever-increasing threat. Although this continues to be a significant area of focus, many businesses fail to realize that many of … [Read more...] about Bears Business Brief: Businesses can help protect employees from data breaches

The landscape of business continues to evolve and become more complex. Regulations, litigation and duties corporations and their management owe the public are all increasing the risk of serving as a director or officer. This changing risk is especially troublesome since directors and officers put their personal assets at risk for decisions (or lack of) that they make on behalf … [Read more...] about bears Business Brief: What you should know before serving on a board of directors