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Views: “It is what it is…”

It’s 87 days and counting until election day.  We’re now in the “Oppo Dump on the Veepstakes candidates” phase of the election.  Wonder where the video of Karen Bass talking at a Scientology event came from?  Think it’s just an accident that there’s a story about Susan Rice’s finances?  Curious about the provenance of the story about Kamala’s latest NDA with a former staffer?

Political reporters are trolling for information, and competitors and former employees are only too happy to oblige.

Whoever the VP nominee is, expect an unprecedented barrage of negativity to come from Team Trump when she is announced, so I say, better now than after the pick is made.

So who will be Biden’s choice for Veep?  PredictIT has Kamala at even money and Susan Rice at 3:1 odds?  You tell us — drop us a line and let us know who you think.

Meanwhile, the President decided to sit down with normally friendly reporter Jonathan Swan of Axios to try to reboot his campaign effort.  Mr. Swan came prepared, and challenged the President on issue after issue — at one point saying “It is what it is” about the death of 150,000 Americans.  Simply put, the President did not look ready for prime time.

Our question — which one of the President’s aides is saying that it’s a good idea to do long sit down interviews.  To this person, we say — to paraphrase Bull Durham — “Don’t think meat. You can only hurt the team!”

Tech Takes

There was a huge hearing in tech-world this week as the CEOs from Amazon, Google, Apple, and Facebook testified before the House’s panel with jurisdiction over competitiveness issues.

In these hearings (as Mark Blafkin is wont to say) you don’t have to outrun the bear, you only have to outrun the other guy.

In our View, Apple came out of the hearing largely unscathed, while Google and Facebook took the brunt of the incoming.

There’s no doubt that tech has challenges.  These iconic brands used to be considered national champions.  Now, most of the criticism centers around the fact that they are giants with massive economic power.  Is there a serious competitiveness critique in there?  Maybe, but that didn’t shine through.

But if Democrats win in November, tech’s problems won’t go away and investigations and hearings will become the norm.  As we’ve said previously, it’s time to get your house in order and build a strong network of supporters willing to make the case why your platform is good for jobs and innovation and the economy.

Cyber Corner

The Carrot or the Stick?

With studies showing that up to 90% of data breaches are due to human error, many companies are choosing to punish employees for careless action. According to a new study of UK businesses by CybSafe, 42% of companies take disciplinary action against employees who make cybersecurity errors, which puts them at greater risk of attack.

But does the stick approach work? Speaking with InfoSecurity Magazine, CybSafe revealed that it conducted a lab-based experiment to test the impact of these kinds of punishments. It found that doing so has a “highly detrimental” impact on staff with punishments increasing anxiety levels and reducing productivity. The findings suggest punishments may have a long-term impact on employees’ mental health and actually reduce their cyber-resilience.

So businesses are faced with having to choose between two scenarios — happy employees that are cyber insecure or unhappy employees who are anxious and secure. Certainly, there must be a better way.

A National Cybersecurity Corps.

Uncle Sam Needs You!  Vrge’s Adam Benson laid out his plan for a patriotic solution to our nation’s cybersecurity talent gap in Dark Reading this week.  Check it out.

The Musts – Read, Watch & Listen

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Jonathan Swan’s Instant Classic Interview with President Trump

Perry Mason Season Finale

Lost on Hulu