Blake Dowling
There are certainly lots of hot topics of bad behavior lately.
Maxine Waters certainly got the nation’s attention with a recent statement: “If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out, and you create a crowd and you push back on them and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”
I think columnist Joe Henderson summarized that statement very accurately: “That’s ignorant on so many levels that it’s hard to know where to start.”
Our Attorney General Pam Bondi was also harassed at a movie; Joe weighed in on that too. He is doing the fair and balanced thing too, as he is not a fan of the president or Pam but calls out bad behavior where he sees it.
You can check out his column here.
Everyone really needs to grow up, behave like adults and drop the bullying tactics.
I just wrote about this for the Tallahassee Democrat, and there are some stories there on Anthony Bourdain (and Ratt too), so check it out as well.
It may be the president, governor, CIA director, a Sony plant employee, or the lead singer of Ratt, but someone is going to do something you disagree with, and we as a nation need to handle the bad and good together when we can.
It’s embarrassing how we behave online and in person.
I have met Bondi, and (in my opinion) she was and is first class. I was shocked by that crazy video of her at the movies.
Anyway, speaking of bad behavior, there was another massive data breach this week. In fact, it was beyond massive, and it was right here in our state.
According to Wired Magazine, Exactis, a Palm Coast-based marketing and data-aggregation firm, had potentially exposed a database containing nearly 340 million individual records, on some type of public server.
According to security expert Vinny Toja: “It seems like this is a database with pretty much every U.S. citizen in it.”
Toja, who discovered the breach earlier this month, told Wired: “I don’t know where the data is coming from, but it’s one of the most comprehensive collections I’ve ever seen.”
It does not appear we are talking about Social Security numbers or credit card info, but it still looks to be sensitive information. Possibly including birthday, gender, likes, number of children, etc.
If you want to check to see if your info is on the dark web, you can check this site out for free.
Remember the breach by Equifax last year? This is bigger than that.
What makes that story worse, an employee of that company, Sudhaker Bonthu, immediately bet against the firm with some shady investing; he was charged with insider trading this week.
“Bonthu, who was entrusted with confidential information by his employer, misused that information to conclude that his company had suffered a massive data breach and then sought to illegally profit,” said Richard Best, director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Atlanta regional office.
“Corporate insiders simply cannot abuse their access to sensitive information and illegally enrich themselves,” according to The Hill.
So am I sounding like Joel Osteen, preaching free advice to behave?
That is not my intention and (for the record) there is about 1,000 miles of desert between me and sainthood. But, come on, let’s work on upping our game: citizens, corporate America and elected officials.
The idea of children separated from their parents at the border is horrible; I get it. People get upset about health care; I really get that.
(I just found out mine went up again, double digits, that’s like four years in a row of increases.)
But I am not looking for someone to spit over it, or refusing them service at my company.
Like Bob Barker on the Price is Right, I say “come on down” to Republicans, Democrats, Independents — all are welcome at my office with respect.
Hopefully, protesters won’t show up in my parking lot cursing my stance on reminding people to have manners and respect one another even when in disagreement. Pretty radical view isn’t it? Thanks to Joe, Andy and Nancy Pelosi, as well as everyone else who calls out bad behavior.
Have a good one and … is it just me or was Al Gore right or what? It’s third-level-of-Hades hot in our state’s Capital.
BD signing off. #globalHOT
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Blake Dowling is CEO of Aegis Business Technologies and enjoys Gator sports and IPA’s. He can be reached at [email protected].
