Don't get 'cyber-mugged' on holiday this summer At this time of year, it’s all about going away on holiday and having the time of our lives. These days, our phones and other devices are integral to our vacation experience, whether that’s Instagramming pics of the local architecture or checking Twitter on the beach. We [...]
Pentagon “Do Not Buy” Software List The trend towards globalised software development may have just taken an interesting new twist. Over recent years, China, India and Russia have all emerged as countries with banks of talented developers available at a lower cost than their counterparts in some other parts of the world, such as [...]
Cybersecurity experts scarce as threats increase It can sometimes seem like it is impossible to open a newspaper without coming across a story relating to an IT security scare. To be fair, many of these stories are a few paragraphs in the business section, rather than front page, headline stories, however, both statistics [...]
What CEOs are doing wrong with their cyber security Way back in IT prehistory (2004), Michael Soden, then chief executive of the Bank of Ireland group, resigned after it was discovered that he had been visiting websites which were forbidden under company policy. While this story is probably all but forgotten by now, Code42’s [...]
Recovering from a hacking attack on your website Hacking attacks are one of the harsh realities of life. While you should, of course, aim to prevent them from happening in the first place, it’s also strongly recommended to have a recovery plan in place in case hackers do get past your security. Here is [...]
What to do when your computer systems are hacked Even with the best security in the world, you have to accept that there is a risk of your computer systems being hacked, and this means you need to think about what to do if this does happen. Hackers are relentless in their pursuit of [...]
Do you know who’s been reading your email? Recently, the Wall Street Journal ran an article about the fact that third-party app developers could gain access to your Gmail without you necessarily understanding the fact that you had authorised them to do so. The article was picked up by other news sources and [...]
What is social engineering in the context of digital security? The Guardian defines social engineering as “a non-technical strategy cyber attackers use that relies heavily on human interaction and often involves tricking people into breaking standard security practices”. It involves breaking into digital security systems not with software but with talking to people, [...]
Cybersecurity innovation is overdue. What’s on the cards? It’s not like the IT industry hasn’t tried, particularly the payment industry. Think back over the last 40 years or so (since IT began to go truly mainstream) and it’s easy to see that the IT industry, as a whole, has put a lot of effort [...]
The role of the NCSC in cyber security The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) was officially opened in February 2017, although it had actually been operational since October 2016. It comes under the aegis of GCHQ and includes some existing GCHQ staff and has absorbed some staff from other government organisations, along with [...]
