Thoughts From My Inbox

January 14th, 2022

Gritters, Google Drive, and Snoop Dog

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been buried this week (not in snow, unfortunately). Today is the day with absolutely nothing on my calendar, so I’m finally cleaning up the inbox from the week and getting caught up on some other items. If you can believe the forecasters (you can’t), it’s supposed to stay cold and we might have a day or two of snow over the next week. I love the cold, but it’s pretty pointless if there’s no snow on the ground.  Hoping for decent fake stuff tomorrow, wherever we end up skiing!

 

Something About…

 

Executive Training
The list of reasons that executives are often targeted by hackers is long; they hold the keys to the castle, they’re high value, they’re often very busy and not paying as much attention as they should be, they think they’re not a target, and they think security training doesn’t apply to them.  We’ve seen all of those, and at least one bad result from each of them.  When you’re putting your team through security awareness training, everybody needs to attend, and that includes the execs!

 

Beware Google Drive
New research shows that cloud-based apps like Google Drive, Google Workspaces, and Box are the primary source of malware downloads. The research shows that Google Drive hosted most of the cloud-based malware found in 2021.  This is because it’s so easy to create new accounts and to use.  This provides another reminder about the importance of multifactor authentication, and “trust, but verify”.  Your organization might use all of these cloud-based tools, but your users still need to verify the validity of anybody asking for a username or login credentials.  And on the topic of “trust but verify”, when you get a random USB drive in the mail, it’s probably not a good thing.

  

 

Real Estate
If you’re interested in moving to Indy (whenever I think of Indianapolis, I think of this ad), there’s a typical looking colonial with a nice ‘dance bar’ in the basement.  If you really want to laugh, check out the ZillowGoneWIld posting and all of the comments.  Priceless.

 

 

Internet ‘Freedom’

The Chinese government is making a big deal about the fact that they’re opening the internet for the Olympics. (And they’re pretending that they’re not going to track every move and censor anything they deem unacceptable. Or steal all of your data if given the opportunity. )
Cyber Insurance

You’ve heard it hear many times before, but cyber insurers are increasing premiums, reducing coverage limits, and adding more exclusions to policies.  As cyber crime continues to increase  (ransomware up 150% year over year), more attorneys are getting involved, along with the insurers.  We’ve seen this first hand with more and more clients coming to us at the request of either their attorney or insurance carrier, asking us to review checklists and making sure all of the proper precautions have been addressed.  Maybe instead of deciding whether to call your insurance agent or attorney first, you should call your IT provider and make sure they’re doing everything they can to protect your business.  
Tom Brady

I’m not a movie buff, but I’m familiar with the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.  How ’bout Six Degrees of Tom Brady?  This is a pretty cool visualization of all the receivers who’ve caught his 700+ touchdown passes over 22 years, and the connections he has to other quarterbacks including Joe Namath, Johnny Unitas, and Otto Graham.  
Security Updates

Lots of security updates through the inbox this week including  various Adobe products, Apple iOS, and a joint cybersecurity advisory from CISA, FBI and NSA regarding Russian cyberthreats on critical infrastructure.
Gritters

The piece last year at this time about Scottish gritters (aka snowplows) and their crazy names was a big hit, so I decided to see what was on the roster for this year.  Spready Mercury and Grittany Spears are at the top of the list.  What’s your favorite?
Snoop Dog’s Neighbor

Ever wanted to live next door to Snoop Dog?  Somebody (not Martha Stewart) just paid $450K to be Snoop’s neighbor. In a virtual world.  I’m betting that same person just forked over the cash when told the Brooklyn Bridge was for sale, too.  Somebody do me a favor and promise me that if I EVER talk about buying virtual real estate, you’ll come and slap some sense into me.  (Thanks to the reader who continues to put NFT items in my mailbox because he knows how ridiculous I think this whole fad is.)
Deleting Yourself

Want to delete yourself from the internet?  Here a few ways that you can start the process.  
Honda Flashbacks

It seems that Hondas of between 10 and 16 years of age are experiencing issues with their clocks showing the year 2002, rather than 2022.  In full disclosure, this article is way too long and detailed for me to have read the entire thing, but Honda engineers claim that the problem will fix itself in August.  If you want to know how and why, you can read all about it.   And yes, that song from the beginning of the article is still going through my head.
Swiss Cheese and French Dressing

The sparkling wine that many drink on New Year’s Eve has to be produced in the Champagne region of France to carry that designation (‘champagne’). Same goes for tequila, which needs to be produced in a certain fashion and in a specific region of Mexico.  US  courts have recently decided that Gruyere cheese no longer has to be produced in Switzerland, and that French dressing no longer needs to contain at least 35% vegetable oil.  Personally, if you want to produce a new cheese or dressing, why don’t you use your creativity (you’re bright enough to come up with a new recipe) and come up with a new name?  And yes, both these articles did appear in my inbox this week.
Maximizing Security

SAVE THE DATE! On Wednesday January 19th, two of our engineers will be joined by a Sophos security executive for a panel discussion moderated by David Myers, head of the Data Privacy and Cybersecurity practice at Buckingham, Doolittle, and Burroughs. 

 

Creating a reasonable plan for the data privacy and cybersecurity of your business doesn’t have to be painful. The approach should prioritize high impact activities that are affordable and are non-disruptive to workflow.

 

You can register here.

 

 

Here’s hoping you have a great weekend!

 

Best,

Jim