Society has always had its share of bad apples. Even now, in the midst of an unprecedented crisis all some people can see is the opportunity to take advantage of others. There’s been a huge uptick in all kinds of fraud, usually targeting people’s understandable anxieties about the virus or their own financial situation. Here’s what you … Continue reading One man’s crisis is another man’s opportunity.
I was having a chat with a journalist over the weekend, talking about what the future looks like for cyber-security risk in the UK. Here’s a transcript: J: Where does it all go from here? BR: Lots of hot air from politicians. Nothing done for months. A massive deal for ATOS or someone to refresh … Continue reading #WannaCrypt #NHSCyberAttacks : what comes next?
And in other entirely unrelated news, we still haven't had a single report of a widespread POS malware attack on a UK retailer. Almost every US hotel chain; several very large US retailers including Walmart (Asda's parent); and so on and so forth. But never in Britain. I'm sure this is entirely unrelated to our … Continue reading Tills down at Asda…
It’s not always about you. Sometimes hackers attack your network just to use it to attack other people. They’re not after your data or your money, and they’ll do everything they can to avoid you noticing so they can carry on using your resources. This used to be about botnets – when hackers use malware … Continue reading When you hack others without knowing it
Internet pages taking a while to load? Struggling to pick up your email? Corporate Dropbox downloads taking forever? Quick – reboot the router; shout at the IT department; buy more bandwidth… Or you could have a look at what’s going on inside your network. Here’s are the top 4 reasons we find customer networks going … Continue reading Is your network running slow?
Just got off the phone from our corporate card provider to reset my card after a fraud block. Their words: “a number of customer card details were copied from where they were used recently and are being used to make fraudulent transactions”. So presumably at least one of the promised Christmas POS malware attacks came … Continue reading Someone’s been breached…but I don’t know whom
Have we reached peak internet? No, you cry, more things can still go online for more people more of the time. Yup. But how much of that time will those people spend defending themselves against digital threats, or recovering from the consequences, or wading through unsolicited messages, or drowning in advertising? The slightly duller version … Continue reading Is the internet eating itself?
“That’s criminal!” said my wife when I told her about Cryptolocker. Actually, all malware is criminal (Computer Misuse Act 1990, for the legal eagles), but Cryptolocker is particularly nasty, and currently running rampant. In case you haven’t heard of it, it’s malware which once running on your PC sets about encrypting your files; to get … Continue reading What can we do about Cryptolocker?
IT service desk culture is full of sarcastic problem descriptions – PICNIC, ID-ten-T, PEBCAK. All of them serve as reminders that the root cause of many issues is user error, not systems failure. This is particularly true in information security, a point I’ve covered more than once before. So why bring it up again? Because … Continue reading Security training or MDM – you choose
The internet has a freedom problem. Not freedom of speech, or net neutrality, or freedom from bullying – although it has problems with all of those too. I’m talking about freedom from paying for stuff. There are other examples of goods and services being free – like broadcast television and free newspapers – but none … Continue reading Free does not equal good
A bigger picture 