After two weeks away, working remotely for five days and being on vacation for the rest, I’m now back in the office and having to get used to wearing pants to work again. I came back yesterday to the sounds of construction as the build out of our new space is finally underway, after numerous delays.
If you’ve ever been to our office, you might be able to follow me. We moved into this building back in 2009, in the space we’re in now. At some point after 2009 (that was before my time), the landlord asked us to move to a different space, which was fine by us, as we didn’t need as much as we had. By 2017, we’d outgrown the ‘new’ space and redid the old space, which is where we are now. In 2020 we added space upstairs. Now in 2024, we’re getting rid of the space upstairs and are taking over the old new space where we were before we moved to this space in 2017. We’d love to have you stop by to see the new old space or even the work their doing in our current space to add more offices for our continued growth.
And to that end, I think I might go back out of town as we landed two new clients while I was gone. If you don’t hear from me next week, you’ll know why. And if you’re still with me, scroll down for the recent AT&T data breach, snakes in pants, cheaper cyber insurance, and more.
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AT&T Data Breach
Earlier this morning (and for the second time this year), AT&T acknowledged a data breach. This one leaked data from “nearly all” of AT&T’s cellular customers between 5.1.22 and 10.31.22. While it doesn’t sound like personally identifiable information was in the mix, this does serve as a reminder that hackers are good at piecing together bits of information from multiple sources to then create a single person’s profile.
Security Updates
Microsoft has 139 updates for this month, including Windows, Outlook, SQL server, and plenty more. Some are pretty urgent, so make sure your team is keeping all of your patching up to date. And it sounds as though hackers are already taking advantage of some of those vulnerabilities.
And for you creative sorts, Adobe has updates to Bridge, Premier Pro, and InDesign.
CISOs in Prison
If you’re a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), you might read this article on how to avoid going to prison if your company suffers a data breach. If that happens, chances are that you’ll be blamed because the government feels that punishing people will lead to better cybersecurity. As I read this article, however, it seems that cybersecurity is going to suffer because nobody wants to do the job due to the consequences they face for an outcome that many feel is a given rather than a possibility (data breaches).
Physical Phishing
This is interesting… hackers in Spain who target people through Vishing (voice phishing) are now appearing on victims’ doosteps to physically intimidate them into providing personal data and money.
Cheaper Cyber Coverage
Even though loss frequency and severity both increased from 2022 to 2023, cyber liability insurance premiums are decreasing. Having been in the insurance business for 10 years, that doesn’t make sense. Even though it’s stated that this could be based on the fact the insurers are getting better at underwriting policies, when severity (claim value) and frequency both increase, carriers need to raise rates to keep from losing money.
It’s also suggested that more carriers getting into the cyber market may be leading to cheaper prices. That would be a big red flag to me… nothing like going with a carrier new to the market and having no idea what they’re doing when writing your policy or reviewing your claim.
Regardless as to why prices are going down, there are a lot more hurdles to clear when applying for coverage. “Gone, for the most part, are simple questionnaires. Insurers want to a much deeper, and dynamic, view of risk. Also, many have begun expecting insured organizations to have proactive security technologies in place.”
Here's Johnny
I already had my header image in place (a picture of the construction build out, mentioned above), but then I heard that Shelley Duvall had passed away. The only thing I ever knew her for was The Shining. And that was from my own Shining moment.
Back in 1995, my best man asked me to return the favor for him. When I’d first met his soon to be fiancee, I said (after the evening was over) to Nancy ‘wow- she looks exactly like Shelley Duvall in The Shining‘. Anyhow, when he asked me to be his best man, he made mention that they were getting married at Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood- where they filmed the outdoor scenes in The Shining. On Oct. 12, 1995, we drove up Mt. Hood for the weekend festivities, and that night at dinner, the waitstaff informed us that due to heavy snow, we were now stranded on the top of the mountain. Nobody down, nobody up. We were spending the night so it didn’t bother us, but you can see where I’m going with this, if you’ve ever seen the movie; my friend is marrying Wendy Torrance where they filmed The Shining and we’re stranded in a snow storm.
It wasn’t ’til they got divorced 10 years later that I pointed out the strong resemblance between his wife and the actress, and that we were stranded in the lodge. He’d never even thought about it…
Nancy's Nuggets
I don’t like snakes. I probably got that from my mom, who can’t stand snakes. Safe to say that neither of us would ever try smuggling snakes in our pants (it actually just sent a shiver down my spine when I typed that).
At least Nancy offset the snakes with ice cream. Well, the trucks that drive through neighborhoods playing catchy music and selling ice cream.
Even though I worked most of the typical ‘work’ days while I was gone, and kept up on everything going on around here, I still feel like I’m digging out of a hole. Now that the week is almost over, I need to head home and dig out of that hole as well, starting with mowing the lawn.
Have a great weekend.
Abbey