It’s September 20th, the Indians have clinched a playoff spot (there’s no better announcer than Tom Hamilton), and their magic number for the division crown is three! Who would’ve thought that at the beginning of the year? Even more amazing is that the Browns figured out how to win a game last weekend. I still think that if either of them can ever find a way to win a championship, the million people who showed up for the Cavs parade in 2016 will look like a neighborhood block party .
Something about ...
Third Party Vendors
The FCC fined AT&T $13M for a 2023 data breach that affected 8.9M customers, and which stemmed from a third party vendor. For those of you keeping score at home (or even if you’re by yourself), that’s less than $2 per affected customer. And one one hundredth of a percent of AT&T’s 2023 revenues ($122B). I wonder if AT&T will really get the picture about confirming the data security of their vendors…
Meanwhile, cybersecurity company Fortinet (firewalls, email security, etc., none of which Ashton uses) was also hit with a third party data breach that they say affected only ~2,500 of their customers. Curious as to that stat- are those 2,500 customers like Ashton, which each have another couple of hundred customers? Because then that number of affected customers starts to grow pretty quickly.
Travel
As you probably know, I get a wide variety of random things coming through my inbox in any given week. This video of the Dolomites in Italy came with perfect timing, as my son and his girlfriend are currently there on vacation (see rainbow pic above, taken yesterday at their hotel in the mountains). I told him that he should’ve planned better and gone during ski season, but it looks like it might be amazing at any time of year.
Cyber Insurance
Recent research states that 62% of companies have filed a cyber liability claim in the past 12 months, and that 27% of those have filed multiple claims. Is it the fact that there are more threats, or more companies with the right insurance? Probably some of each. Regardless, this is a good reminder that insurance carriers continue to require more security measures be in place when applying for or renewing cyberliability coverage.
Air Transportation
Delta Airlines has reminded prospective flight attendants to wear “proper underwear” during job interviews. Maybe they’d be better off using a simple rule of thumb- if a person doesn’t know how to wear their underwear for a job interview, we probably shouldn’t be hiring them.
And while Delta is working on proper underwear, United Airlines announced that they’ll be providing free wifi access to passengers via Starlink. That’ll be a nice upgrade.
Ground Transportation
If you live here in Cleveland, you’ve probably seen the Rocket Car running around town. I’ve had the opportunity to ride in it once or twice, and it’s actually kinda fun. And now it’s made its way to the Wall Street Journal.
My engineer brother-in-law Jeff retired a few years ago, and when he’s not keeping busy on their farm in North Carolina, he likes to find random YouTube videos. He sent us this tractor video earlier this week, and I have to admit, that’s a pretty cool tractor!
Security Updates
Apple released a bunch of security updates, spanning OS, iOS, Safari, TV, and more. And for the IT professionals in the room, VMWare also released various updates. Those are all way over my head, so you can just view them yourself.
Random Things
I had a bunch of random things to share, none of which could be grouped into one heading. So, Shohei Otani had a day yesterday, an eight year old from Bedford made a Target run, 2024 nominees for the Toy Hall of Fame have been announced (ballons? really?), and if you ever want to name a place, you’ll have to jump through a lot of hoops (apostrophes not permitted).
Finally, if you’re looking for new music to listen to, check out The Interrupters. Saw them at Blossom on Sunday night (there aren’t many bands who I care enough to deal with that traffic for), and I enjoy them more every time I see them (I think this was the fourth or fifth time, usually opening for somebody else).
Don’t forget to share this with your friends. A client this week told me that they often talk about various items from this newsletter during their company-wide team meetings- some for the humor, and some due to their pertinence to business.
If you’re looking for something to do this weekend, I saw something about PickleFest 2024, which takes place tomorrow. And if you’re looking for something to do next weekend, our friends at Arborwear are having their annual Bratfest warehouse sale. Brats on Friday until they’re gone, and great deals on Arborwear clothing. It’s what we outfit our team in, and we’re big fans!
Have a great weekend, and Go Bucks (and Indians and Browns)!
Abbey