Cybersecurity Expert

Guest article by Genevra Champion, Sector Marketing Manager  at  IT Governance The financial services industry is naturally a lucrative target for cyber criminals. Financial organisations trade and control vast amounts of money, as well as collect and store customers’ personal information so clearly, a data breach could be disastrous for an industry that is built on trust with its customers. The financial services industry is second only to retail in terms of the industries most affected by cyber crime – the number of breaches reported by UK financial services firms to the FCA increased 480 per cent in 2018, compared to the previous year. While financial services organisations are heavily regulated and cybersecurity is becoming more of a business priority, there is still much more to be accomplished when it comes to businesses understanding what measures must be taken – from the C-suite down – to effectively protect organisations against inevitable breaches. So how can fina...

Guest article by Andy Pearch, Head of IA Services at CORVID 78% of businesses cite cyber security as a high priority for their organisation’s senior management. Whilst it is encouraging that this figure has risen year on year, generating awareness of cyber security is only one part of the issue. The next step for organisations to take is not only understanding, but intelligently acting on the risks presented. Despite the heightened awareness, many organisations are still focusing on mitigating assumed risks, rather than real risks, without a robust security strategy in place. Whilst perimeter security is a key part of any organisation’s security posture, the fact is that it cannot work in isolation. Data breaches are now commonplace and largely regarded as inevitable, and the rise of new technologies means that today’s threats have increased in sophistication. As Andy Pearch, Head of IA Services at CORVID , explains, safeguarding data integrity, confidentiality and availability sh...

Guest article by Adrian Taylor, Regional Vice President at  A10 Networks DDoS attacks can be catastrophic, but the right knowledge and tactics can drastically improve your chances of successfully mitigating attacks. In this article, we’ll explore the five ways, listed below, that automation can significantly improve response times during a DDoS attack while assessing the means to block such attacks. Response time is critical for every enterprise because, in our hyper-connected world, DDoS attacks cause downtime, and downtime means money lost. The longer your systems are down, the more your profits will sink. Let’s take a closer look at all the ways that automation can put time on your side during a DDoS attack. But first, let’s clarify just how much time an automated defence system can save. Automated vs. Manual Response Time Sure, automated DDoS defence is faster than manual DDoS defence, but by how much? Founder and CEO of NimbusDDoS Andy Shoemaker recently conducted a study to ...

BSides conferences are fantastic events for budding cyber and information security novices through to seasoned security professionals to learn, discuss the latest security challenges, network with peers and to make new contacts from across the UK cyber security scene.  Some BSides conferences are run in tandem with nearby popular mainstream security conferences, but unlike most mainstream security conferences, BSides agendas are more participation driven and are more collaborative focused. Any group of security passionate individuals can organise a BSides event at a city not already covered, under the official Security BSides direction . In recent years, following on from the multi-year success of BSides London, there has been a steady stream of new BSides conferences popping up at the various regions throughout the UK. Mark Your Calendar & Don't Miss Out UK BSides events are incredibly popular, they tend to be ticket only events, with tickets often selling out weeks and...

May 2019 was the busiest month of the year for critical security vulnerabilities and patch announcements. The standout was a  Microsoft critical security update for Windows, rated with a CVSS score of 9.8 of 10 . This vulnerability fixes  CVE-2019-0708  aka 'BlueKeep', which if exploited could allow the rapid propagation of malware (i.e. worm) across networked devices, similar to the devastating WannaCry ransomware attacks of 2017 .  Such is the concern at Microsoft, they have released BlueKeep patches for their unsupported versions of Windows (i.e. XP, Visa, Server 2003) , a very rare occurrence. Researchers at Errata Security said they have found almost one million internet-connected systems which are vulnerable  to the BlueKeep bug. A zero-day Microsoft vulnerability was also reported by an individual called 'SandboxEscaper ', which I expect Microsoft will patch as part of their monthly patch cycle in June.  And a past Microsoft vulnerability, CVE-201...