Cybersecurity Expert

Last week I was left rather concerned about the state of security awareness in the UK, after hearing various people in my train carriage rattle on loudly about information which was clearly meant to be kept confidential , a World War II awareness phrase comes to mind, Loose Lips sink Ships.  However my faith in personal security awareness has been somewhat been restored, as over the weekend I noticed many football superstars demonstrating a very simple security control, a control which I believe has been coached to them by their clubs, in other words information security awareness training. This simple tactic is to cover your month when speaking, a technique used to mitigate the risk of media, and perhaps opposition teams, from being able to eavesdrop what you are saying, namely by them using lip reading experts to interpret what is being said by watching TV or camera footage. This practice was very evident in last night’s El Clasico, Real Madrid versus Barcelona, a ...

This week I experienced a rather concerning two hour journey from London aboard a Virgin Pendolino train. Might be the Age of the Train, but it's not the Age of Privac y Awareness I had just taken my seat on board, and the train had just cleared the tunnel just north of Euston station. As I was settling in to the journey I noticed something through the gap of the two seats in front, like a magpie drawn to a sparkling object, something had caught my eye. I have spent years conducting security assessments, checking system logs and databases for the presence of credit card data. During this time I have unwittingly developed the canny knack of quickly spotting a 16 digit primary account number of a credit card, along with a expiry date and the 3 digit security code. My eyes were drawn to the laptop screen of the passenger in front, which had a webpage fully on show, which displayed his typed in credit card details, including the 3 digit security code, which was not obfuscat...

The disappearance of Flight MH370 is turning into one of the biggest mysteries of the age, the evidence is sketchy, everyone seems to have their theory, and the media are running riot with endless speculation. As a security professional I can’t help but wonder whether there was a cyber element to the incident, especially given the high amount of technology used in modern fly-by-wire jet planes like the Boeing 777-200ER. Was Flight MH370 Cyber Jacked? I have managed and consulted with many cyber security incidents over the years, but the following will be my own conjecture. When I usually deal cyber incidents, my golden rule is to only deal with the facts and the evidence, and saving any speculation for the Sherlock Holmes fan club. But with this incident I am allowing myself the luxury of exploring potential cyber attack possibilities with the MH370 flight disappearance, as over the week quite a few people have asked me whether the flight could have been hacked, the ‘cyber j...