MARCH

Greetings from the East,

It is my pleasure to serve this lodge to the best of my ability. 

It is starting to look like we are getting back into full swing of things. 

We had an awesome February 2023 by having three first degree initiations and welcomed brothers Anar Babazade, Guney Tamer and George Codru to our craft (a big shout out to Worshipful Bertolli and Visiting Worshipful Baca for their awesome degree work). We sent flowers to several Sweethearts for Masonic Widows Month and rented out our parking lot for filming of “Always Sunny in Philadelphia''. 

March is Youth Orders Month, so please show support to our youth orders. Also in March we are also planning to have our Stated dinner hosted by the Job’s Daughters on March 2, 2023, a 3rd Degree for Brother Oscar Hood on March 9, 2023, and a blood drive on March 18, 2023 in the social hall. On April 1, 2023 we are having a Hiram Award Celebration honoring Worshipful James Bayhylle at the Odyssey restaurant in Granada Hills. 

So please check the calendar at www.hollywoodmasons.org for all future events. 

Things are looking bright in the East and this year will be a great year for Hollywood Lodge #355.

Sincerely and Fraternally,

Worshipful Master

Cedric Williamson 

master@hollywoodmasons.org

By Brother Hal Bookbinder

Description of “Practicing Safe Computing”

Along with malware infecting your computer and hackers attempting to con you, your data on the Web is also at risk from breaches beyond your control. In January 2023, T-Mobile disclosed a data breach affecting 37 million customers. In December 2022 data on over 200 million Twitter users was circulated among hackers. Major breaches in which millions of customer records have been exposed are reported most every month.

Wars have always provided laboratories for testing and improving weaponry and tactics. Cyberwar is no different. State actors and private cyber warriors are likely to come out of the Russian war on Ukraine more capable and dangerous. Russian cyberwarriors are certainly learning ways to circumvent the defenses that Ukrainian volunteers are able to create and so will be better prepared to overcome our cyber-defenses.

Even in the absence of bad actors, computers become corrupted and storage devices fail resulting in the potential loss of years of genealogical research. This talk discusses the risks, the myths, ways to reduce the likelihood of being hacked and how to minimize the impact of hacks and breaches that do occur. 

Bio for Hal Bookbinder

Hal was raised to Master Mason in Ellenville, New York in 1969. His father was a 32oMason and his mother was Eastern Star Matron in Ellenville.  He Affiliated with Hollywood Lodge 1in 2012. Hal is a retired information systems professional who continues to instruct at the university level. He has been actively researching his genealogy for more than three decades, identifying over 4,000 relatives and tracing two lines to the mid-1700s in modern Ukraine. He is a past president of the Jewish Genealogy Society of Los Angeles and of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies. Hal publishes a series of monthly articles on safe computing which are freely available at http://www.tinyurl.com/SafeComputingArticles . He and his wife, Marci, were raised in the Catskills of New York State. After attending New York University and a four-year stint in the US Air Force in Colorado Springs, they have lived in the Los Angeles area.