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Thoughts From Abbott’s Inbox February 18th, 2022

Thoughts From My Inbox

February 18th, 2022

Avocados, Igloos, and Moon River

I was supposed to be skiing today but instead, I’m looking out my window at the snow that’s been falling for the past 12 hours.  We figured that two days of 50 degrees and rain, followed by freezing temps and snow, would make for miserable ski conditions.  I figured I’d save the drive and the vacation day.  Then I got the video from the slopes (from the one friend who went) and the accompanying text message telling me what a perfect day it is to ski. Of course.

 

Something About…

 

Avocados

I didn’t have any problems making guacamole for the Super Bowl, but I keep reading about the fact that avocados from Mexico have recently been banned due to threats of violence.  The details are pretty slim, but I remembered reading a year or two back about how violent the market for avocados has become.  Who would’ve thunk it?

 

Russian Hackers
A day after Ukranian banking and government websites were taken down through a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, CISA released an alert regarding their observations of Russian state-sponsored hacking activities that have taken place over the last two years.

  

 

Igloos

I can remember building snow forts in the front yard as a kid, but we never had any success in putting a roof on them.  This guy in South Euclid  knows what he’s doing!

 

 

Old Movies, New Brands

The history teacher I had for numerous classes in high school used to make us analyze movies; from ‘Apocalypse Now’ to ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington’, and ‘Rear Window’ to ‘Back to The Future’, Doc Thomas always spotted things that a bunch of teenaged boys never would’ve caught. That included brand placement, which was never more obvious than in Back to the Future.  I thought about Doc the other day when this article appeared, highlighting old movies that are being updated to include new brands.

 

 
LinkedIn Phishing
I considered titling this one “The Great Resignation”, but figured that since everybody uses LinkedIn, more people might read something with the name in the title.  Regardless, email phishing attacks impersonating LinkedIn have gone through the roof, what with everybody quitting their jobs and looking for something else to do.  I’ve had at least four emails this week from LinkedIn (all legit) telling me who’s looking at my profile and what other jobs are out there.  If I didn’t work for a technology company, I probably wouldn’t even stop to consider if these emails were legitimate.  Make sure when you get that next email that somebody looked at your profile, you confirm its validity before providing any user creds.
49ers

Not even football teams are safe!  The San Francisco 49ers were hit with ransomware last week.  No customer data was breached (or so they claim), but we’ll see if there’s any long term effect.  Safe to say that all the hackers realize that the Browns don’t have any data worth a ransom…

 
Moon River

I had to laugh at 5:30 on Wednesday afternoon as I was trying to clean out my inbox.  There was another theft of crypto currency this week (it’s no longer news, especially considering it was only $4.4M), but one of the affected networks was Moonriver. And whenever I hear that name, I think of Fletch. Cue the inappropriate video clip.

 
Shamrock Shakes
Who doesn’t like a McDonald’s Shamrock Shake, at least once a year (but not with guacamole)?  We do a lot of work with non-profits, and one of those is Ronald McDonald House of Northeast Ohio. When I got this post about the green treat developed in 1970, I figured I had to share it.  From Feb 21 through March 21, $.25 from every Shamrock Shake sold in NE Ohio will support RMHC NEO.  They hit the market on Monday, so go have a green shake for a good cause!
Carbon Footprints
I always laugh at the Hollywood stars and politicians who fly to climate change conferences on private jets and hop in their fullsized SUVs to get from airport to resort. My problem isn’t with full sized SUVs or private jets- it’s with the irony or hypocrisy (you choose) that these people are too ignorant to see staring back at themselves in the mirror.  Anyhow, Salesforce is investigating an NFT platform, because that’s where the money is, right?  According to this piece, Salesforce also wanted to nurture 100 million trees to help save the planet.   The report linked in that article talks about the ridiculous amount of energy required for a 10 second NFT sale.  I guess the Salesforce folks are right there on those private jets to the climate conferences.

End Users

On a podcast I appeared on yesterday, I was asked what one thing I felt was necessary for all business, in terms of protecting themselves.  My answer was “security awareness training for ALL employees.”  This morning I came across an article that states that 85% of all data breaches (per Verizon’s Data Breach Investigations Report) involved end users. Your users are your first line of defense, and while you might have every possible security measure on your network, they can never account for human beings and their actions.

 

 

Well, I’ve made it this far without  the technical difficulties that hit me last week.  So I have that going for me.   Looking forward to seeing friends for dinner both tonight and tomorrow night, and to catching my first Bluejackets hockey game of the year on Sunday afternoon. Too bad they’re so far out of the playoff race!

 

Thinking I might give you all next week off.  Taking a few days off to ski, and thinking that I might not find the time to collect all my thoughts.  So if not next week, I’ll see you in March.

 

Best,

Jim

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