Happy Sunday, everyone! 😊 How is your weekend going so far? Mine has been nice and quiet for the most part, and the weather has been absolutely BEAUTIFUL this weekend.
On the down side, one of the keys on my MacBook’s keyboard has mostly come off, and I spent a good portion of Saturday at the Apple store trying to get it fixed. Sadly, they did not have that particular key in stock, so they had to order it, which means that I will be making a return trip to the Apple store one the part arrives. I wish it weren’t a 45-minute drive away, but I guess it could be worse. I’m also thankful for AppleCare, so it won’t cost me anything for the repair.
At work, things have been a little bit on the chaotic side. There are a couple of incidents that have recently taken place that I will be attending meetings about this coming week. I’m glad to say that they aren’t anything related to malware/ransomware, but are human-centric. I’ll just leave it by saying that I am constantly astounded by human behavior. It shouldn’t be surprising, but — yeah. 🤣
I’m also just about finished with our yearly performance evaluations. Even though I do well each year, the over-thinker and over-analyzer in me manages to suck all of the joy out of it, and convinces me that I am to be fired at any moment. I have not yet had my one-on-one meeting with the director, so I’m not out of the woods yet. 🙃😅 I’ve also come up with a few lofty goals for myself, especially as I continue on my journey towards the CISSP certification:
- Author/co-author two policies related to strengthening research data security — my most daunting goal
- Review and revise our research lab onboarding procedures to incorporate data storage and security practices
- Creating monthly security awareness and education articles for our customer SharePoint wiki
Good luck to me! 🤞🏼
The Exposed Waters
I can’t remember if I’ve visited this topic before on my blog in the past or not. This past week, listening to all of the cybersecurity podcasts I subscribe to, and reading through the news stories, this quote from Jurassic Park keeps running through my mind. I’m willing to bet you can guess which quote it is…
“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”
-Ian Malcom, AKA Jeff Goldblum
In these days of internet-connected EVERYTHING, this quote has been echoing louder and louder in my mind.
Breach after breach where private customer data has been exfiltrated by criminals. Data left completely unsecured, and publicly exposed to the internet. Companies rushing to make the next latest-greatest-shiny widget connected to the internet, without giving any thought to security and protecting customer information.
Do we really need internet-connected toasters, washing machines, refrigerators, ovens, etc.? Do these things even save time, or perform some function that couldn’t have been performed prior to the internetification (yep, I made that word) of said device? From my perspective, absolutely not. I feel like they only provide some kind of monitoring function at best. Do I really need to be able to control my oven from work? No way, and nor does anyone else need to control my oven from the internet. That’s a disaster waiting to happen. I’m perfectly fine with keeping my appliances dumb, and within my physical control. 😊
Finally, here’s a look back at what I wore to work this past week. It was a shorter week with the Memorial Day holiday on Monday, and my usual remote day on Wednesday. I hope you enjoy them. Have a great week ahead!
-Terry
May 26
May 28
May 29
Leave a Reply