“Update on Recent Security Incident”

WTF?!@#&%^$*! You guys too?

The email sat at the top of my inbox. It had been there for 6 minutes. My mind erupted with similar emails from countless other companies in recent memory.

Each company’s email sounds the same.

1. Information

2. Apology

3. Gratitude

But seriously, F^ck Off with that crap.

You did?

I scan my email.

I see one from the same company that I’d gotten three weeks ago. What’s “recent”?

Okay, well, I already don’t trust you — three weeks is a millennia in our modern technological day, one where politicians try to pass a 4,000 page omnibus bill nearly overnight.

The quick scan in my email for “security incident” reveals:

1. a “breach” from a different company about three weeks ago…

2. A “data breach” email from September from another big data security company related to an airline that includes Passport information? oh geeeezus.

What am I supposed to do, exactly?

Is there a protocol for this?

Oh yeah, it’s my choice of fetal position, arms wrapped around my shins with my chin on my knees, or child’s pose, arms draped behind me with my body weight pressing down onto my thighs and my ass in the air…

Either way, my privates are in a prime position for penetration at the preference of the perpetrators who’ve gotten through the defenses of the companies that are not doing their F^ck*ng Jobs.

Cool it, Joshua, woo-sah, and sh*t.

Further scanning…

3. Another breach in September, this time, a ride-share company. “The [18 year old] attacker reportedly used social engineering to compromise an employee’s Slack account, persuading them to hand over a password that allowed them access to [company] systems.”

4. Another one, a week earlier, says, “a moving and storage company, announced that customers’ rental contracts between November 2021 and April 2022 were accessed by hackers. Breached information includes customers’ names and driver’s license information.”

O. M. G.

The fibers in the back of my neck that connect my skull to my neck and hold my head on straight start to tingle.

My eyebrows lift to resist the attack they’re getting from my eyelashes, and only when my eyeballs bulge out and nearly hit my glasses do I realize my forehead is furrowed.

My diaphragm assumes its old familiar pre anxiety-attack posture.

I start to pick at my fingers. This isn’t just a drop in humidity causing dry skin. I’m anxious AF.

Playing with what surfaces in my mind from the fragments of our shared cultural horror helps me make it less overwhelming.

That’s just page one, showing “1–100 of many” of my email search results for the query “security incident.”

I’m not sure if I’m more anxious to go to page two or to enter a new query — “breach”, to see what that brings back.

Either way, it’s not important.

What is important is that I breathe — Slowly. Smoothly. Fully.

The more I breathe, the more my heart reminds my head that it isn’t in charge. My heart is.

Instead of entering a new search string, I go to page 2. It’s only one-click after all.

Oh, G-d, another one in September, from another major global tech company.

“Valued customer”, scoff.

“security is a top priority.” smirk.

The scene from the movie “Office Space”, when the consultants Bob ask the the employee Bob, who later gets crippled in a car accident, “what is it you say you do here, Bob?” runs through my mind. Chuckle.

Breathe Josh. Breathe — Slowly. Smoothly. Fully.

20 minutes later.

O! M! G!

Breathe.

That’s the task though, isn’t it. Breathe.

I tell my mom and she asks how many of the emails I’m siting in this piece came from internet security companies, saying that the more breaches I see, the more likely I am to buy their cyber security products.

(more on this when I publish, “Tales of Turbulence — Part 1”, Coming Soon)

I feel like there’s a name for the cycle where people or companies create problems to justify their solutions, but the specific name doesn’t drip down from intuition to a concrete word in my mind to share (if you know the name, please share it in the comments).

I hold onto conviction that the name will surface, that is, until my attention dips into anxiety. Fortunately, I realize it, and I let it go before it consumes me.

My heart hurts from the ages of emotions I’ve stuffed to survive (protect myself from) the controllers of the “official narrative.”

Attention and direction from a heart-led strategy for living is the only way to survive the future, I reaffirm to myself.

With all the deception baked into augmented reality, our brains will be force fed lies at an increasing rate.

Sounds like something from an old cowboy movie.

What are we going to do? I worry.

There’s nothing to do. That’s the trick.

It’s not a trick. It’s a task.

The task is to hold the highest vibration possible, with faith in a future that’s best for humans and humanity.

Thanks for Reading!

Author bio: Hi! I’m Joshua Blatman.

I am an Earth school student and teacher, family man, writer, musician, survivor, healer, and psychonaut. I’ve been to almost every state, I’ve lived on 5 continents, and now I’m raising my family in my hometown.

I love to wrestle out meaning and share insights about life with minds behind eyes wide open.

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