Bite size Cyber: #1 Patching

Are you new to cyber security, and / or is it something you’ve been asked to look at for your organisation? Are you struggling to find sensible advice which is practical and pragmatic? Are you looking for some simple steps which you can follow to help get the ball rolling? Then this short series of … Continue reading Bite size Cyber: #1 Patching

Good Social Media Hygiene

We’ve all started to get used to our “new normal” of working from home. There have been a lot of posts about how to do this effectively, and some of you may even have used some of the guidance I recently published on here. (A big thank you if you have!) A quick heads up is … Continue reading Good Social Media Hygiene

Working From Home during the pandemic: a simple guide for companies and individuals alike

There’s a lot of talk at the moment about enabling staff to work from home due to coronavirus / covid19. There are probably a lot of organisations that would like to make this happen, but who don’t know how to do this securely. These organisations may also have staff who will be working from home … Continue reading Working From Home during the pandemic: a simple guide for companies and individuals alike

Shadow IT

Have you heard of Shadow IT? Do you worry about it? Many organisations have a defined IT policy and processes surrounding it. They may outsource provision to a Third Party, or they may have their own IT department, even if that’s just Billy sitting in the corner, who is totally self taught. The organisation may … Continue reading Shadow IT

Careers in Cyber

Does this sound familiar?  You keep seeing headlines about cyber security, about information security, usually when there’s been a loss of passwords or data, sometimes about large fines being levied on companies for poor practice. You’ve heard that there are lots of vacancies in the world of cyber and would like to look at a … Continue reading Careers in Cyber

The Great Hack

It would appear that the furore over Facebook / Cambridge Analytica and manipulation of elections hasn’t died down that much. I recently watched a documentary on Netflix called The Great Hack, and I’d recommend that you do too, if you can. The programme provided a lot of the backstory to who was involved, how and … Continue reading The Great Hack

World Password Day

Did you know that today, May 2nd, is World Password Day?  To mark the event, I thought I’d post a quick update, based on a new approach to password management. Both the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have published changes to their recommendations for managing … Continue reading World Password Day

Ciphers and Codes, Oh My!

In previous posts we’ve looked at encryption and decryption, and talked about how messages are obscured, but at a very basic level, have you heard of ciphers and codes? Have you ever wondered about the difference between the two? On a recent visit to Bletchley Park I came across a notice with the image shown … Continue reading Ciphers and Codes, Oh My!

A new approach for 2019

I know it’s a bit hackneyed, but making New Year’s resolutions is part and parcel of this time of year. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone in security could all make the same one, to commit to doing the same thing? We’d need to bring others with us, like our IT colleagues, our enthusiastic amateur … Continue reading A new approach for 2019

Z is for …

Zero Day The time taken between a vulnerability existing and a patch being released to fix it can be several weeks, months or even years. An exploit written to take advantage of this gap is known as a Zero Day. The bad guys are particularly interested in carrying out attacks against systems with vulnerabilities but no patches, … Continue reading Z is for …