Is your name in the Ashley Madison hack? Or others? Check it out.

Is your name in The Ashley Madison hack?
(Another data dump today by the way, bigger than last weeks).

Or the other data breaches of Adobe, Snapchat, Adult Friend Finder, Domino's, Forbes and many, many others?

https://haveibeenpwned.com/ 

....is the place to check we are reliably told (nope, not a site that has anything to do with us). Cut and Paste it into your browser.

You'll have to verify your email first so that it's not someone else trying to find out. 

And no harm to, because if you have, you can change passwords, stop credit cards and take some action.

Just because we've been asked! 
(And no, we're not there!).

Hope it helps.

What we're listening to. Bob Dylan, 'Desire'.

Yes indeed, we're not Bob Dylan fans either.....but there's one or two Albums that do stand out ('Street Legal' and 'At The Budokan' we're thinking). This is the one.

'Desire' from 1976 was his 15th record (it followed 'Blood on the tracks') but made infamous from the opening track, 'Hurricane' which is the story of black boxer Rubin Carter. His conviction was overturned in 1985 btw, but in no small order from the attention that the song brought.

'Joey' another standout track, is about Mafia gangster, Crazy Joe Gallo ("king of the streets") who was shot in 'Umberto's' Clam House in Little Italy NYC (by 4 Colombo family gunmen including Philip Gambino). But Frank Sheeran claimed later to be the sole gunman in Gallo's shooting (we recommend the book 'I heard you paint houses') and that he also shot Jimmy Hoffa. 'I heard you paint houses' is mafia-speak for 'So you're a hitman?'.

Was rumoured that Gallo was the shooter of legendary Mafiosa, Joe Colombo and separately, Albert Anastasia, so his killing was revenge. His brother was known as 'Kid Blast' and referenced in the song. Dylan was criticised for glorifying, romanticising mob violence - but it's still a great track.

'Sara' is all about his relationship with his then wife whom divorced a year later in 1977. One that hurt him so much, he never played 'Sara' live but he also wrote the classic, 'Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands' for her. For us, this is the winner. 

'Mozambique' and 'One more cup of coffee' are also up there but generally it's an Album of classic storytelling. The track 'Isis' is also often quoted but not sure it's as good as. 

You should get it. Got the Streamabout 'hard to please, thumbs up' in here for sure.

Here's Sara for our Sarah....

And of course, 'Hurricane'.

Video Ads UK Report.. They're marching on as the dominant Ad medium. 18% higher click-thrus too.

Video is becoming the dominant Ad display notably for mobiles.

According to a new Business Insider Report, US digital Video Advertising revenue will top 5 Billion usd this year. That's growth of +22% every year for the last 5.

It's replacing desktop static Advertising Display (currently 26%) forecasted to 40% by 2020.

Video Ads produced higher click-thru rates (CTR) than normal display ads. 18% higher.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter have joined most media in offering new video display opportunities.

And viewability issues are being replaced by guaranteed video views.

So Video Ads march on.
You need to be involved in space with your campaign.

And yes, we create them and yes, we place them.

Ashley Madison data. Fake or Real?

Some talk this morning, notably by the company, that the "infidelity site", AshleyMadison.com hack dump of data yesterday, is fake. 

On the surface, it looks very real.

Firstly, it has been leaked 30 days after the hack as promised so that's significant.

Secondly, the amount of data in the 35 GB file (compressed) of 33 million users, is in itself, more real. It's too much to make up and a fake release would tend to be smaller pots of data posted over time.

Thirdly, the level of data including profile information, credit transactional detail, email addresses and so on, is unusual to say the least, if it was false.

But more critically that perhaps of all that, the data dump included employee records, charts, contracts, sales data on the company, which really could only have come from the hack. It looks more like a full scale compromise.

Finally, those online who do know their stuff are generally looking at it and saying it is real. 

Not unlike a company to raise the doubt to protect their (and their members) reputations but as people acknowledge (and many have this morning) that it is their genuine data, then company doubts will quickly evaporate. 

Interesting though, that the data shows 14% were female and claims "a lot of fake female profiles"....hmmmm. 

One thing for sure, it's going to cause a lot of hurt.
And that's not nice.