North American Properties (NAP) and Nuveen Real Estate announced three new businesses coming to The Forum Peachtree Corners (The Forum). The new brands include Kendra Scott, Sucré, and The NOW Massage.

“We’re excited to keep expanding our merchandising mix with more experiential concepts that motivate guests to extend their time on property. In addition to these new leases, several tenants are on track to open over the next few months, and we can’t wait to see the impact,” said Brooke Massey, director of leasing at NAP.

Here are the latest deals to be signed at The Forum:

Kendra Scott ­­– Known for its plethora of accessories and customizable Color Bar experience, jewelry brand Kendra Scott blends classic designs with modern sophistication. Kendra Scott jewelry celebrates individuality and self-expression.

The growing brand has also donated over $50 million to local, national and international causes since its launch in 2010. The 2,284-square-foot space, situated next to Lovesac, opens later this spring, marking the retailer’s fourth location in the NAP portfolio.

Sucré – Founded in New Orleans, Sucré is a gourmet patisserie known for its macarons, gelato and other handmade, French-inspired desserts.

The sweet boutique will occupy a 1,718-square-foot space on the north end of the property and is slated to open later this year. Georgia is the brand’s first out-of-state venture, with The Forum being its third metro Atlanta location and eighth overall.

The NOW Massage – This brand is helping people discover the healing benefits of massage therapy.

The customizable menu offers guests three signature massage styles and a variety of exclusive enhancements like Deep Tissue, Herbal Heat Therapy, Hemp Calm Balm, Gua Sha, Gliding Cupping and more. Located near Mojito’s, the 2,414-square-foot massage boutique debuts late summer. 

These businesses join:

 Alloy Personal Training (opening this month),
Cookie Fix (open),
Gallery Anderson Smith (opening this month),
Giulia (opening this spring),
Lovesac (open),
Nando’s Peri-Peri (coming winter 2024), and
Stretchlab (open).

Since acquiring the property in March 2022, NAP has executed 39 deals with new, existing and temporary tenants alike.

To stay up to date on the latest happenings at The Forum, follow on Facebook,  Instagram, and X or visit theforumpeachtree.com.

When Stanton Gatewood began working in cybersecurity nearly four decades ago, it wasn’t even called cybersecurity.

“It was just Security and Information, Security InfoSec and things like that,” he said. “I’ve been very blessed to have worked in cybersecurity for 37 years or so. I worked in the United States Military and the United States Air Force.”

There wasn’t even a Department of Homeland Security back then. It wasn’t created until 2002.

Gatewood was the featured speaker at Southwest Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce’s First Friday breakfast on March 1 at the Hilton Atlanta Northeast. He shared information with the audience of small business owners, nonprofits and community leaders about the realities of cybersecurity and how to safeguard against threats.

Stanton Gatewood’s background in cybersecurity

Gatewood’s resume is quite extensive. He is the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and CISA Region 4 Cyber Security Coordinator, an advisor for the State of Georgia. He was formerly the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for the state of Georgia, the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, and the University of Georgia.

He has over 35 years of cybersecurity and e-privacy experience in cybersecurity program management, strategic planning and executive leadership. He has worked in U.S. federal, state, local, territorial and tribal governments, as well as higher education and several top-10 global corporations.

Gatewood is also a USAF veteran and has served as the vice president for information technology and the chief information officer (CIO) for Albany State University. He has built two centers of excellence in cryptography and cyber awareness and training.

“You cannot stream news, watch TV or read a newspaper without the topic of cybersecurity [coming up],” he said. A lot of people will stand up and talk to you about cybersecurity, and they’re preaching fear and uncertainty that I don’t have.”

Understanding cybersecurity

Gatewood started his presentation with an overview of cybersecurity and went through some terminology.

First, he addressed awareness.

“Awareness can be broken into two categories, situational awareness and user awareness,” he said.

He encouraged the audience to learn as much as they could about cybersecurity and electronic piracy. Even though many people think they are aware of threats, they still click on suspicious links, leaving them vulnerable to attacks. 

“Situational awareness comes from the military. It means they’re letting us know exactly who’s in the area and what the environment is made up of. ‘What are our resources available? Who else is in the field that we communicate with and rely upon?’” he asked.

By staying aware, people should know where they’re going on the internet, who they’re communicating with, and that an attachment is safe to open. User awareness is a component of the security policy that should include educating and testing employees to help protect the business against cybercrimes, including phishing and other social-engineering attacks.

Preparedness is also key

“Do not fall asleep at the wheel of the internet,” said Gatewood. “Do not think that those 5 million people out there are all your friends.”

Social media accounts like Facebook can also be gateways for cybercrime.

“Over 65% of the breaches on the internet come from human error,” he said.

According to the government site ready.gov, cyberattacks can occur in many ways, including:

• Accessing your personal computers, mobile phones, gaming systems and other internet- and Bluetooth-connected devices.
• Damaging your financial security, including identity theft.
• Blocking your access or deleting your personal information and accounts.
• Complicating your employment or business services.
• Impacting transportation and the power grid.

How to be resilient

Gatewood said almost everyone will be the victim of some sort of cyberattack. How the individual or business survives depends on resiliency—the ability to anticipate, withstand, recover from and adapt to adverse conditions, stresses, attacks or compromises on systems.

“You must have resilience; you must be in shape,” said Gatewood. “You must have the mindset of ‘I will not allow this to keep me down. I will go get my incident response plan. I will execute my incident response plan. I will find out if it’s truly an incident. I will then morph myself into a disaster recovery plan. I will morph myself into a business continuity plan. And then I’ll have a resumption of business plan.’”

Gatewood said he’s been called to help many times, and when he asked about a response plan, everyone looked like a deer caught in headlights.

“Moving in resilience, the capacity to withstand or recover quickly from any difficult situation or toughness, [is crucial],” he said.

He shared a term, “left of boom/bang,” that he wanted the audience to remember. It encourages them to take a proactive approach to cybersecurity and avoid possible threats by making decisions based on observation and intuition to prevent the bad from happening.

By the numbers

• There are 5.3 billion internet users (66.2% of the world’s population).
• There are 17 billion devices on the internet.
• There are 1.6 billion records or files lost or stolen in the fiscal year 2023/2024 so far.
• $183 is the average cost of a data breach per record.
• 5.04 billion people used social media in 2023.

(Source cisa.gov)

Mayor Mike Mason and Peachtree Corners Business Association (PCBA) members recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the grand opening of the new All About Kids Therapy Services office in Peachtree Corners.

Established in 1999 in Lawrenceville, All About Kids Therapy Services has provided exceptional pediatric physical and occupational therapy.

The new clinic at 3240 Pointe Parkway, Suite 200, enhances the city’s healthcare offerings, especially for children. Situated strategically at the crossroads of Peachtree Industrial Blvd and Peachtree Pkwy, the new location is poised to serve a broader community, reaching Southwest Gwinnett County, North Dekalb and Northeast Fulton.

“The city council and I are delighted that you have chosen Peachtree Corners to expand your business. We are pleased to have quality therapy services for the children in our business-friendly city,” Mayor Mike Mason shared.

With over 24 years of experience, the organization specializes in a range of services, including SOS Feeding Therapy and Early Intervention Services, across three locations in Georgia.

Its partnership with KidSpeech allows a comprehensive treatment approach, affirming the city’s commitment to accessible, high-quality therapeutic care for children.

For more information, visit allaboutkidstherapyservices.com.