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Thoughts From Abbott’s Inbox October 6th, 2022

Thoughts From My Inbox

October 6th, 2022

Weighted Fish, Homeruns, and Michael Meyers

Lots of good stuff for you this week, headlined by cheating scandals, homeruns, and some interesting real estate. Listening to the Indians game as I write this with Jose Ramirez having just hit a two run bomb to put his team on top 2-1 in the 6th.  This would be a great start to the weekend.  Enjoy today’s Thoughts From My Inbox.

 

Something About…

 

Cheating Scandals
While pro bass fishing is a pretty big thing on tv (we used to sponsor the ESPN Bassmasters when I worked on Progressive’s boat insurance product), walleye fishing doesn’t get nearly the coverage. Unless there are cheating scandals like this one that occurred here in Cleveland last week. The tournament winners were found to have stuffed their fish with lead weights to have better weigh-in numbers, and the national media jumped all over it.  And it reminds me of the other big cheating scandal currently being investigated; this one in chess.

 

Defense Contractors
If you are a defense contractor, as a handful of our clients are, you might want to take a look at this recently released report on the theft of sensitive info from a Defense Industrial Base organization.

 

Serving Time
A couple of hackers have been sentenced to lengthy terms; a Canadian ransomware actor received a 20 year term in Florida (to be followed by seven in Quebec) while an Atlanta scammer who used business email compromise and romance scams got 25 years.  Check out the second link for some good tips on what to look for in a BEC scam and how to avoid being romanced.  And finally, the former Chief Security Officer at Uber was just found guilty (not yet sentenced) of covering up a huge data breach back in 2016.
Fast Company
Last week, I included a piece about skyscrapers and all the fun activities that they now include, beyond the typical viewing platform.  A sharp-eyed reader let me know that the website which posted the article (Fast Company) had been shut down due to a hack.
Election Security

The FBI and CISA have released a joint public service announcement regarding the security of elections.  While the piece states that cyber activity has never “compromised the integrity of any ballots cast”, it goes on to say that “any attempts… were blocked or successfully mitigated with minimal or no disruption to election processes.”  Not sure how they can use “never compromised” and “minimal disruption” at the same time…
Real Estate
By the time you read this, you’ll have missed yesterday’s broker’s open house at the Ritz on Central Park South in NYC.  For $37M this 6BR/7.5BA apartment can be yours.  Not bad!  If that’s out of your price range, however, you can buy this Lego-themed home in Kenosha, WI for just $250K.  Make sure to wear your sunglasses though.  Finally, while it’s not in Haddonfield, IL, this home in New Hampshire seems to be a favorite of Michael Meyers.
Homeruns

By the time you read this, the Indians will be well into game 1 of their wildcard series against the Rays, and hopefully they’ll have hit some homeruns.  If you’re a sports fan, you know that Aaron Judge just broke Roger Maris’ American League single season homerun record (62).  According to some crazy statistical analysis however, (item #1 in the newsletter linked here) if MLB was using the same baseballs that they did for the past five years, he would’ve hit 81.  The research uses launch angle, exit speed, ballpark, weather, and more to compare Judge’s batted balls that didn’t clear the fence to others over the past five years that did clear the fence.

 

I wrote my college senior thesis (as an econ major) on baseball salaries from a statistical perspective, using regression analysis to determine how much effect player stats had on their salaries.  This analysis of batted balls is a heckuva lot more in depth!  (And while we’re on the topic of baseball, scroll down to item #5 in the linked newsletter for mention of the guy who’s played in 112 MLB games in his career, yet has three World Series rings- all as a pinch runner.  Wow!)
Capital One
If you have any sort of relationship with Capital One, be on the look out for phishing emails discussing their new authentication app, Authentify.  Hackers are pretty good at following the news (we’ve seen it with our private equity clients who now avoid making deal announcements until proper cyber security measures are in place) and creating new opportunities for themselves.  In this case, Cap One announced they’d be using Authentify to add an extra layer of security, and hackers immediately started targeting bank clients to get their personal info.
If you’re looking for a fun way to spend an evening here in Cleveland (all the better if you’re a beer drinker), I’d highly recommend a City Beer Tour.  Over the course of almost five hours last night, we toured four different breweries and sampled 16 different beers.  Some of the beers and breweries I was familiar with, and others were brand new to me, and we also saw a few neighborhoods that I’d never seen before.  My wife the Bud Light aficionado even enjoyed it (for the most part).

 

Have a great weekend, and Go Bucks!

 

Abbey

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