A MULTIFACETED CIVIL ENGINEERING FIRM

Land Development Consulting (LDC) is a consulting, engineering, surveying, and planning firm based in Woodinville. The company was founded in 2003 and currently employs 43 people.

LDC works in three different market sectors:

1. The first is civil engineering related to residential land development in the Puget Sound area, which includes surveying, permitting, and road and utility work for builders.
2. The second sector is helping cellular companies, such as Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, with tower siting and installations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska, and Texas. “It’s interesting and challenging work,” says Mark. “We’re often designing small cell systems in localized environments, like the Gorge Amphitheater and Seattle Center.”
3. LDC’s third area of work is in public works, specifically design and construction for large municipal projects.

Mark has several roles at LDC. As the director of engineering, he manages the day-to-day operations of the firm from a technical and financial aspect. He is also the de facto CFO and manages the company’s benefit and health insurance packages.

LDC HAS ENJOYED 13 YEARS OF MBA HEALTH TRUST BENEFITS

“We’ve been using the MBA Health Trust since the inception of our company. And over the past five or six years, as we’ve really been growing, we’ve shopped MBA’s pricing several times. Every single time, the competitor packages were not nearly as strong. They may have been cheaper, but the MBA always provided the best overall value.” Last year, Mark says, the MBA plan was “almost 9 percent less expensive and provided 20 percent lower deductible costs for individuals and 40 percent lower for a family.”

AFFORDABLE PLAN FOR THE COMPANY, ITS EMPLOYEES, AND THEIR FAMILIES

Mark says that the MBA has evolved with market conditions. LDC was able to transition from a PPO plan to an HSA plan four years ago to ensure more affordable health insurance for the company, employees, and dependents. Mark says, “95 percent of our employees are now on an HSA plan. It was a seamless transition. The MBA team walked us through the entire process and taught us to communicate it to our employees. The plan is working really well. There are no complaints from our employees and all the doctors who were previously available still are.”

REDUCING FINANCIAL STRESS

Mark adds that the HSA plan has saved his company enough money to increase its coverage for dependents. “Our goal,” he says, “was to reduce the financial stress on our staff’s families and the MBA Health Trust helped us do that. Overall, we get much better coverage for a much better cost. And we are now able to provide 50% of dependent coverage.”

Mark’s firm works closely with EPK, the administrator of the Health Trust plans. “They’re great to work with,” he says. “Every year they give a lunchtime presentation about what to expect for the coming year. They have continuously stepped up to the plate and provided the service we’ve needed for the plans we adopt.”

MBA MEMBER BENEFITS ALSO INCLUDE THE GRIP PROGRAM

LDC takes advantage of additional benefits provided by the MBA, including the GRIP program, which helps improve safety and reduces the overall cost of workers’ compensation for MBA members. “That service has been a huge asset in getting our safety procedures up to speed to make sure we are compliant,” Mark says.

Cybersecurity can be a scary subject. We get it. It’s daunting and something you just want to ignore in hopes that nothing bad will happen to you.

Sorry friend, this subject is all TOO real to ignore. But we’re here. We got you.

We want to give you the knowledge to protect yourself from phishing attacks, ransomware, and other online scams. So here we go! But to start, a chilling reminder of our recent past:

• June 2018, MyHeritage—more than 92 million email addresses and HyHeritage account passwords were compromised.
• April 2018, The Facebook data breach—this was one of the largest misuses of personal data in history! In fact, just last month, Facebook revealed that 15 MILLION people had their personal info accessed by hackers.
• March 2018, Under Armour’s MyFitnessPal App—an “unauthorized party” gained access to 150 million user names, emails, and encrypted passwords from users of the fitness tracking app.
• July 2017, Equifax data breach—a quick calculation tells us that the 143 million potentially affected makes up a full 44 percent of the country’s total adult population.
• May 2017, WannaCry ransomware attack—this attack will go down in the books as one of the most successful malware campaigns in history.

So yeah, now more than ever you need to be educating yourself about how preventive cybersecurity strategies can keep you safe in a digital world of malicious criminals and hackers.

Cybersecurity awareness tips

1. Enable two-factor authentication
   1. This will make it harder for someone to access any of your accounts.
   2. This added layer of security can make a big impact.
2. Check a website’s SSL Certificate before using
   1. This will ensure the website is safe to use.
   2. Beware—hackers can copy a safe site if you click on a malware link. For example, links found in phishing emails.
3. Never save credit card information online
   1. This is a great basic tip to keep your bank account information secure.
   2. If that site is ever compromised, your card information will be, too.
4. Up your password game
   1. Think of a long password (10+ characters). Using a sentence instead of random letters is much more efficient. For example: eattacosonthe9th!!
   2. Never use the same password on different accounts.
   3. Never write down your passwords and store in a Word file; use password vault software instead.
5. Think twice before clicking an email link
   1. Not all links are created equal. Some seemingly safe links can wreak havoc.
   2. Phishing emails are becoming harder to detect. Look into social engineering training.

These basic tips can help you, your employees, and your business stay more protected when using your computer.

Emerald City Solutions is an information security company offering high-grade, professional IT business solutions using cutting-edge technology to help our customers modernize their business, protect valuable assets, and improve business connectivity. For more tips and tricks, check out Emerald City Solutions’ weekly blog or give them a call at 206.340.1616 to learn more about IT and cybersecurity services for your business.

Santa steps in for Shannon this week to wish all of our members happy holidays and remind everyone the MBA Housing Center will be closed from noon on December 23 until 8 a.m. January 3.

Please be advised that staff will also be off during this time.