Blake Dowling, Author at Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Blake DowlingMay 31, 2017

I was looking at some pictures of my great uncle on Memorial Day (Captain Alex Hood Dowling), thinking about his sacrifice for our country, as well as those of so many others. Our family watched the PBS Memorial Day special and heard some wonderful and heartbreaking stories of those that made the ultimate sacrifice. It […]

Blake DowlingMay 27, 2017

Attending a Florida Public Relations Association professional development session, seeing many of the state’s best PR pros in the room was thrilling. Nanette Schimpf from Moore Communications Group; my man Rick Oppenheim (from RB Oppenheim Associates) and the main sponsor of the event, the rock-solid team at Sachs Media Group represented by Ryan Cohn and […]

Blake DowlingMay 20, 2017

Have you checked out the latest version of the digital personal assistant, Alexa, that is specially designed for Senior Citizens? It’s called Alexa Silver. It’s super loud and you can only order it by check. It also has an “uh huh” function that it says when you are telling rambling stories. Fake news alert, it’s […]

Blake DowlingMay 15, 2017

Ransomware has become the fastest growing cyber threat; last week it was a variation called Fatboy, this week is WannaCry. The criminals are targeting everyone from home users to health care systems to big business. Data show that there has been an average of more than 4,000 ransomware attacks every day of this year. That […]

Blake DowlingMay 13, 2017

For better or worse, we live in a politically correct world. On one hand, efforts in that area have created increased awareness of sexism and other social injustices. On the other, some PC speak is patently ridiculous. I read somewhere that is politically incorrect to the word “fat.” I’m told we should say EWI — […]

Blake DowlingMay 6, 2017

Legislative Session is winding down – gaming, dope, infrastructure, assistive tech. It has been an exciting journey, with losers and winners, fights, name calling at the Capitol and at the Governors Club. Hopefully, when the dust settles, those in the trenches can regain some commonality and remember we are all on the same team as […]

Blake DowlingApril 29, 2017

A fella named Pyotr Levashov was arrested in Spain this month. Allegedly, the man’s real name is Peter Severa, one of the most wanted cyber criminals on the planet. At least six Russians have been arrested around the world on international warrants over the past several months, according to McClatchy Newspapers. There are allegations of involvement with […]

Blake DowlingApril 22, 2017

What now? More breaches. More leaks. Internet carriers selling your data? Hackers coming at us like United Airlines security? (For an interesting read, see Nader v. Airlines 1972) So you are worried about hackers, and — of course — the National Security Agency is watching (and logging) you surf on PredictIT.com or Lolcats.com. Or are […]

Blake DowlingApril 15, 2017

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@Last weekend, I was on the road in Gainesville for some spring football. As I sat in my mobile command station (aka the Wyndham) the following day — watching an epic Masters, NBA and college baseball weekend — I couldn’t get the old PSA from Saturday Morning Cartoons out of my head, and I started […]

Blake DowlingApril 8, 2017

Twitter is an interesting beast, created in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass and others. Within six years, 100 million users were on the platform — cranking out 300 plus million tweets a day. I joined the Twitter Army in May 2009 and 3,881 tweets later, I am still at it. It is a great […]

Blake Dowling
Image via TCEC.

Blake Dowling: This Memorial Day had me looking for unity

Blake Dowling: Ransomware, the Mob catching up with the times

Blake Dowling: Who knows what innovation will bring next?

Blake Dowling: WannaCry? No.

Blake Dowling: A new (politically incorrect) cyberthreat, linked to Big Macs

Blake Dowling: Looking back …

Blake Dowling: Maybe we are getting a handle on hacking. Maybe.

Blake Dowling: Look out for hackers (and the government)

Blake Dowling: Legislative Session 2017 – I’m just a bill

Blake Dowling: Making a good first (or millionth) impression on Twitter