Security Made Simple
I’m often asked, particularly by new entrants into cyber, what books they should read, and what podcasts they should listen to. The list of both is endless, but I thought I’d share some titles with you. Before we start though, a word about my relationship with books… I’m a passionate reader, and a compulsive purchaser … Continue reading Social Engineering and Human Nature
It was reported on the BBC today that flight departure screens had failed at Gatwick airport for much of the day. The airport authorities implemented their contingency plans – whiteboards – and apparently no flights were delayed or cancelled. Some passengers have complained about a lack of information, but I think that the fact no … Continue reading Gatwick Continuity Planning
Quantum computing You probably know by now that typical computers function by using 1s and 0s, using binary maths. The transistors in them are either off (0) or on (1), with data being held as binary digits (bits). In quantum computing, quantum mechanics form the basis of the machine. Rather than bits and bytes, quantum … Continue reading Q is for …
This story appeared recently on the BBC website. Three members of a notorious hacking group, variously called Fin7, Carbanak and JokerStash, have been arrested and named. The three individuals were arrested in Germany, Poland and Spain: one has already been extradited to the US and extradition proceedings have begun against the other two. The hacking … Continue reading US names arrested Fin7 cyber-gang suspects
This story appeared on the BBC website the other day. Basically the town’s borough council was hit with ransomware and their systems were brought to their knees. It’s not unusual for one or two devices in an organisation to be infected with Ransomware. Typically those devices are isolated from the network and all other machines … Continue reading Town dusts off typewriters after cyber-attack
Password There has been much written about passwords, but for this entry I thought it worth defining what a password actually is. It’s a code, phrase or sequence of letters and numbers which is used to validate that you are who you say you are. It’s often used in conjunction with a username or when … Continue reading P is for …
On-premise This term is used to describe equipment which is physically located in your offices. The alternative would be a third party hosted service such as those offered by cloud hosting providers. Open Source Intelligence The internet is full of many sources of information, many of which are free. This is known as Open Source … Continue reading O is for …
Network This is an often used phrase, but what exactly is a network? In its simplest form, it is several computers connected to each other. In a single building, these would typically form a Local Area Network (LAN), or if several offices are connected together these would be called a Wide Area Network (WAN).There are … Continue reading N is for …
MacOS This is the Operating System used by Apple Macintosh desktop computers, not to be confused with that used by their smartphone and tablet devices which is iOS. Man in the middle (MITM) As the name suggests, this is a form of hacking where network traffic or messages are intercepted by someone sitting between the … Continue reading M is for …
Login Almost all of us have to prove to the computer that we are who we say we are. Normally that’s done with a username and a password. Entering these in correctly and getting access to the computer is known as logging in, and typically these credentials are called your login details. Linux This is … Continue reading L is for …
Easy Cyber 