Cybersecurity Expert

  A roundup of UK focused Cyber and Information Security News, Blog Posts, Reports and general Threat Intelligence from the previous calendar month, February 2021. Serious Linux Vulnerability Last month  a newly discovered critical vulnerability in 'sudo', a fundamental program present in all Linux and Unix operating systems caught my eye. The sudo vulnerability aka  CVE-2001-3156 , seemed to go under the radar after it was announced and patches were released on 26th January 2021. I  wrote a blog post  about my concerns given Linux is embedded everywhere, yet many of these systems are rarely, and even never updated with security updates. From IoT devices to internet-based services, the security of countless devices and web-based services' are dependant upon a secure Linux account privilege model. While these Linux operating systems remain unpatched to prevent exploitation of the CVE-2021-3156 vulnerability, there are waiting to be hacked. Npower App Hack Npowe...

Guest article by Adrian Taylor, Regional VP of Sales for A10 Networks  Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks are now everyday occurrences. Whether you’re a small non-profit or a huge multinational conglomerate, your online services—email, websites, anything that faces the internet—can be slowed or completely stopped by a DDoS attack. Moreover, DDoS attacks are sometimes used to distract your cybersecurity operations while other criminal activity, such as data theft or network infiltration, is underway.  Why are DDoS attacks bigger and more frequent than ever? DDoS attacks are getting bigger and more frequent The first known Distributed Denial of Service attack occurred in 1996 when Panix, now one of the oldest internet service providers, was knocked offline for several days by an SYN flood, a technique that has become a classic DDoS attack. Over the next few years, DDoS attacks became common and  Cisco predicts that the total number of DDoS a...

A roundup of UK focused Cyber and Information Security News, Blog Posts, Reports and general Threat Intelligence from the previous calendar month, June 2020. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a sophisticated nation-state actor is causing increasing havoc by attacking the country’s government, corporate institutions, and his country's critical infrastructure operators . He said,  “We know it is a sophisticated state-based cyber actor because of the scale and nature of the targeting and the tradecraft used". While Morrison didn't actually name the specific country responsible in his statement, Reuters said its sources confirmed China was the culprit.  Political t ensions have ramped up between Australia and China in recent months after Australia called for an investigation into China’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. China then reacted by placing tariffs on Australian exports and banning shipments of beef from Australia . Why am I leading a UK cyber...

It was just a matter of time before cyberattacks were catapulted into the forefront of the UK 2019 General Election campaign, with two cyber-attacks on the Labour Party in the last two days. It was reported the Labour Party was targeted by two separate Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. Labour have not publically disclosed which of its digital systems were targetted by the DDoS attacks, but it is understood cyber attacks impacted the speed of their election and campaigning tools on Monday. A Labour spokeswoman said: “We have ongoing security processes in place to protect our platforms, so users may be experiencing some differences. We are dealing with this quickly and efficiently.” Following reports of a second cyber-attack, a Labour Party spokesperson said: "We have ongoing security processes in place to protect our platforms, so users may be experiencing some differences. We are dealing with this quickly and efficiently." The National Cyber Security Cen...

Anyone over the age of 40 in the UK will remember patiently browsing for holidays bargains on their TV via Teletext. While the TV version of Teletext Holidays died out years ago due to the creation of the world-wide-web, Teletext Holidays, a  trading name of Truly Travel,  continued as an online and telephone travel agent business.  Verdict Media discovered an unsecured Amazon Web Services Service (Cloud Server) used by Teletext Holidays and was able to access 212,000   call centre audio recordings with their UK customers. The audio recordings were taken between 10th April and 10th August 2016 and were found in a data repository called 'speechanalytics'. Businesses neglecting to properly secure their cloud services is an evermore common culprit behind mass data breaches of late. Utilising cloud-based IT systems does not absolve businesses of their IT security responsibilities at their cloud service provider.  Booking Holidays on Ceefax in the 1980s W...

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 ...

The UK government controversially gave a green light to Huawei get involved with the building of the UK's 5G networks , although the Chinese tech giant role will be limited to non-sensitive areas of the network, such as providing antennas. This decision made by Theresa May came days after US intelligence announced Huawei was Chinese state funded , and amidst reports historical backdoors in Huawei products, stoking up the Huawei political and security row even further this month, and has resulted in the UK Defence Secretary, Gavin Williamson, being sacked.  Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson sacked over Huawei leak Daily Telegraph publishes details of a meeting about using the Chinese telecoms firm to help build the UK's 5G network Huawei row: Inquiry to be held into National Security Council leak Is Huawei a Threat to UK National Security? What's the greater risk to UK 5G, Huawei backdoors or DDoS? Backdoors found in Huawei-supplied Vodafone e...