Well, we’re two plus weeks into the new year, and if you like warm temperatures, I believe this is the first day above freezing. It’s been a great couple of weeks of snow and cold, and it sounds like we’ll be getting back to that in the next couple of days. My ice tub is frozen solid and useless at this point, but the skis are in the back of the truck and ready for day number two on the local “slopes”.
The NFL playoffs are in full swing (without the Browns, as usual), and there’s one more college football game this season. I’m sure those down south (and in Michigan) are hating the fact that the final two are from the Midwest, but Monday night should be a good one between Ohio State and Notre Dame. Before that, however, I have Brad Pitt, toll collectors, woolly mammoths, and lots more. Scroll on down!
Oh, and you might note that this week’s edition is coming from a different email address. We’ll try this one for awhile, as it seems that Microsoft thinks I’m a “bad bulk” emailer, so even my single emails to individuals are now ending up in spam. Please add me to your list of good senders if you want to keep reading this, and if you don’t, just click “unsubscribe”.
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Toll Collections
Earlier this week I had a text message telling me that I owed money to FastLane, which is an electronic highway toll collector. I glanced at in passing, since we use EZPass, considered whether I’d driven anywhere with tolls lately, and then started to delete the message, figuring it was a scam (haven’t driven anywhere with tolls since last summer, and FastLane isn’t in Ohio) . Before I did, I checked out the phone number from which it had been sent, just to confirm; the country code was 63, so I knew it was a scam. Turns out, however, that the Chinese are now smishing (SMS phishing) us using toll collections as their in.
Security Updates
Microsoft released their largest security update, ever (more details here on specific products effected), Adobe has updates for PhotoShop and others, and Fortinet has a wide range of updates, as well, thanks in part to a zero-day bug. While all of these updates should be an automated process for either your internal IT team or outsourced provider, we still see plenty of instances where these things are updated manually. That’s more room for error and terribly inefficient.
Amazon Attack
Hackers are now targeting users of Amazon Web Services for data storage, specifically the S3 variety. In this new attack, there seems to be no way to get encryption keys and restore data without paying the ransom.
Brad Pitt
The next time Brad Pitt messages you and says he’s dying of kidney cancer and in need of funds, you should probably question the legitimacy of the outreach. A French woman recently admitted to sending $850K to Mr. Pitt, never once (it seems) bothering to do some simple research to determine whether he was really in the hospital. I’m pretty sure that when Jennifer Anniston comes to me asking for money, I won’t believe that it’s really her.
Illegal Software
If you’re online seeking pirated/unlicensed software, you should be careful about what you click. Hackers are now targeting those seeking “free” versions of certain software, and including links to info stealing malware on sites such as YouTube and Google. I guess if you’re taking the time to avoid paying for something, you’re probably already aware of the risks you face
Job Seekers
As if last summer’s Crowdstrike fiasco didn’t give them enough bad publicity, hackers are now scamming people who think they are applying for jobs with the cybersecurity company. When in doubt, go directly to the website of the company you’re dealing with, whether it’s to find a job, fix your bank account, or check on the status of the package you’re waiting for.
Tennis Balls
The talk of “dead” or “juiced” baseballs has been around for years, with speculation that Rawlings (the manufacturer of MLB balls) takes direction from MLB as to making deader or more lively balls, based on what direction the game has taken. Footballs are generally footballs, unless the NFL is randomly accusing the Patriots of deflating them, and hockey pucks are always the same 6oz. of vulcanized rubber (frozen to prevent bouncing). Millions of dollars goes into developing golf balls, but how about tennis balls? Even those are questioned for being slow, fast, dead, or lively.
I’ll leave you with new branding efforts from Dell (trying to copy Apple; you won’t notice the difference, but it’ll be a pain in the neck as we’re selling laptops and PCs) and Wal-Mart (see if you can spot the difference or explain why they bothered), as well as the fact that scientists are almost to the point of bringing back the woolly mammoth. I wonder if they’ve ever seen Jurassic Park…
Have a great weekend, and Go Bucks!
Abbey