At our funeral home website, we have had our share of inappropriate postings and other mischief with the online guestbook and virtual candles. There's always soemone with too much time on their hands to come along and make little messes.
However, I had no idea the lengths some online hackers would go to use deaths as a means to spread computer viruses and spyware. According to a December 4th article in the New York Times, hackers will create phony websites with information about the death and links to online "videos" which do not in fact exist, all so the unsuspecting will click on a link which causes spyware to download onto the computer.
We worried about "Big Brother" for so long, how the government would take over our privacy. Yet the internet exposes us to millions of other very individual and private (as opposed to governmental) losses of personal privacy and personal freedom.
Follow the link to the complete article.
NYTimes.com: Hacking Rings Take Advantage of Death in Boston
American Funeral Director Article
In the January issue of the American Funeral Director, beginning on page 24, you will find an article I wrote regarding the demographics of Baby Boomer mortality. Up till now, analysts in our profession have used very indirect methods of estimating how and when the baby boom will impact the volume of deaths in this country.
As an alternative, I pieced together existing government statistics in a way which more clearly predicts the outcome of boomer mortality.
For those of you that subscribe, please take a look and then post a comment. I would appreciate the feedback.
One thing I will note ahead of time about the article. The numbers used show a complete national picture. Of course in any particular town or neighborhood, the demographics could vary greatly from the average national growth of 40%. Business planning on a local level will require checking conditions carefully. In a few parts of the country, growth will be on the order of 300% or more and in other parts (because of regional job losses and the like) deaths will actually decline. So before making any major strategic decisions, test the status of local conditions first.
December 28, 2007 in Comments | Permalink | Comments (0)