Yes, data protection matters to you too

It's been a big week for security news. Parliamentary email hacked, UK politician logon credentials circulating for sale, a massive (paper) data breach at the NHS, another massive ransomware outbreak, Boomerang Video fined... Wait, what? Who the hell are Boomerang Video? Boomerang are a small video-game rental operation. Their website was hacked in 2014 and … Continue reading Yes, data protection matters to you too →

I told you so

Reuters: Ransomware virus hits computer servers across the globe I told you so. And yes, it looks like it's the same attack method as WannaCry. This time without a killswitch. Did you do anything after WannaCry? Looks like lots of people didn't... Backup now. Patch MS-CVE-2017-010 now. Patch MS-CVE-2017-0199 now. Turn off SMB1 now. Send out … Continue reading I told you so →

Hahahahahahahahahahaha

Oh you really couldn’t make it up. Recent terrorist outrages have prompted various European politicians to call, with more or less complete technological illiteracy, for encryption to be weakened so that the security services can spy on us more effectively. I’ve written about this several times, pointing out why this is a criminally stupid suggestion, … Continue reading Hahahahahahahahahahaha →

News in brief

UEA accidentally sent a spreadsheet with confidential medical information to 320 undergrads. The sheet wasn’t password protected, or encrypted, because... the confidential medical information was stored in a spreadsheet because… the spreadsheet was accessible to be attached to an email because… Please tell me that the GDPR will prompt UK orgs to spend at least … Continue reading News in brief →

At least make a token effort

I was talking to someone about data security yesterday afternoon, and mentioned the Mexican data breach where 93.4m citizen records were left in an unsecured cloud database – and immediately stolen – as an example of the carelessness people seem to experience when taking advantage of cheap web storage and processing. Pretty much while I … Continue reading At least make a token effort →