• BUSINESS INSURANCE POLICIES ARE NOT GET-OUT-OF-JAIL-FREE CARDS. Companies relying on Business Interruption or Property coverage – versus cyber-specific policies – for ransomware attacks or other cyber damages are running a risk. The glitch is the “ubiquitous ‘Act of War’ clause, which protects insurers against ‘hostile act by a sovereign power’… Last week, their arguments against payout gained more weight when the U.S. indicted six members of Russian Military for cybercrimes, and nation-states are often behind such operations (North Korea, Iran, Russia in particular, plus the U.S. took part in Stuxnet attack which spread to other computers)…In addition to cyber-specific policies, “companies should focus on security controls around critical assets and on mitigating critical, low-probability events, the so-called long tails.” DCG can help. [DARK READING – 10/29/20]
  • NEARLY 2,000 CALIFORNIA PRISONERS HAVE BEEN RELEASED BACK TO SOCIETY as yet another impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Nationally, over 200K American prisoners & jail inmates have contracted the disease and some 1,300 died (.006%). After one prison (San Quentin) saw an outbreak affecting 75% of its inmates, state court judges ordered release of half, deciding that “officials had acted with deliberate indifference to prisoners’ health, and calling officials’ actions morally indefensible & constitutionally untenable.” Another Los Angeles judge also just released jail inmates to “limit the spread.” In neither case were risk to their citizens or communities considered more relevant than prisoners’ Rights.   [THE WEEK – 11/6/20]
  • WELL OVER 80% OF AMERICANS TRASH PACKAGED FOOD PREMATURELY AND WASTE IT. They are misled by assuming that ‘date stamped’ is federally regulated, and wrongly believe that food product dates relate to Safety. “Neither is true; ‘Best By’ labeling decisions are made voluntarily by food companies as dates of ‘quality & freshness’ with ‘Use By’ as last recommended for peak quality; ‘Sell By’ indicates how long a store should display or sell for inventory management reasons.” A thousand-person study by Waste Management found six in ten who believe these terms referred to safety, but with the exception of Infant Formula dating, “you can usually trust your senses – noticeable change in odor, flavor or texture – to know when packaged food is unsafe.”  [LBN EXAMINER – 11/1/20]
  • “STATES HAVE A LONG HISTORY OF IMPOSING DRACONIAN MEASURES TO RESPOND TO PERCEIVED THREATS, and the greater the threat the more severe the emergency powers. Today, some who wish to prevent the rise of malevolent Artificial Intelligence or catastrophic technologies argue we may need ubiquitous global surveillance of every living person, at all times… The question is whether events occurring in our century could shape the fate of our species over the next thousand if not millions of years and are we, right now, at a turning point? Is this really plausible? …To give this a more personal framing, if you believed that the next day of your life would be the most influential so far, then you’d put a lot of time & effort into it straight away, versus believing it was decades away and might focus on other priorities first.” Some fascinating philosophy is at: bbc.com/future/article/20201014-totalitarian-world-in-chains-artificial-intelligence
  • THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK: Over 50% of U.S. adults ages 18-29 are now living at home with their parents, according to vox.com survey.

         From Google former CEO and a major shareholder: “The context of social networks serving as amplifiers for idiots and crazy people is not what we intended… Excesses allowing the spread of misinformation and lies are likely to result in greater regulation