It’s a rainy Friday afternoon, which does me no good. We were supposed to catch the Tribe/Sox game tonight, but with 90% chance of rain for the rest of the night, I’m not confident that will be happening. I guess there’s always the NFL draft and the prospect of the Browns continuing to trade down for more picks that they’ll inevitably screw up! But at least we’ll stay dry.
I’m already close to an hour late in getting this week’s edition out, so I’ll cut to the chase; scroll on down for wild turkeys, good manners, a little Shakespeare, and more. Enjoy!
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Good Manners
I’m not really a user of generative AI, so I couldn’t tell you whether I’d say “please” and “thank you” when asking questions of the tool. Evidently, however, using proper manners costs more money for the developers because saying ‘please” leads to better results in a shorter time- meaning more energy used to get the answers. Who knew?
Shakespeare
In case you missed it, Wednesday was National Shakespeare Day. If you missed the celebration, go find a nice bowl of pottage and wash it down with your favorite sherry while you read his little-known soliloquy on the topic of cyber crime.
Deleting Yourself
It’s pretty amazing to see what personal information is easily accessible online, and that’s with just a simple search by name or address. Start connecting the dots using social media, and there might as well be somebody living in Turkmenistan using every piece of data to pretend they’re you. More and more people are working to get their own info deleted. If you’re curious, here are some tips for starting the process.
Anatomy
This section was originally going to be titled “Data breaches”, but then I came across another piece that needed that title. If you’re interested in learning about how data breaches happen and what to do if you get hit with one, Dark Reading is hosting an ‘all-day’ (11A-5P) virtual event called Anatomy of a Data Breach to educate you. And as with any good conference, there are networking breaks built into the agenda… I’m just not sure how this work when it’s all virtual. If you don’t have six hours to give, or would rather just make sure it doesn’t happen to you, I know some people who can help you.
Charcuterie Nachos
I’ve never heard of charcuterie nachos, but evidently they’re trending on social media (maybe not my social media?). But, what’s not to like about charcuterie? Or nachos? If you run to the grocery store tomorrow morning so you can make a platter of these tomorrow night, let me know how they turn out.
Data Breaches
For the past 18 years, Verizon has been putting out a study called the Data Breach Investigations Report. You can get to it through the link, but interesting findings include the fact that ransomware attacks are up while ransom payments are down. Speculation is that with fewer organizations are actually paying the ransom (that’s a good thing), the values are declining. More importantly as it relates to my readers (many of whom are classified as small/midsize businesses) is the fact that while 39% of data breaches against enterprises included ransomware, 88% of those faced by SMBs included ransomware. My guess would be that hackers figure SMBs don’t have the proper security precautions in place and are better bets to have to pay up.
Cyber Syndicates
Interesting article about the “industrial scale” cybercrime syndicates running out of Southeast Asia and using human trafficking victims to do their dirty work. This is where a lot of scams and attacks begin, and there are even satellite images showing the change in size and scope of the attackers’ physical compounds over the past three years.
Nancy's Nuggets
Last week, it was an in depth analysis of horse manure in central park (if you missed it, you can always check out the archives). This week, it’s a wild turkey in Central Park.
That’s all for this week. I mentioned last week that our friends from Hattie Larlham visited us to help with our Earth Day recycling efforts. Today is Hattie’s $5 Friday, and Ashton Solutions is matching up to $2,500 in your donations. If you’d like to help a great cause and get a cup of coffee while you’re at it, click through to donate. Here’s hoping you have a great weekend!
Abbey