Cybersecurity Expert

Written by Katie Barnett, Director of Cyber Security at Toro Solutions Insider risk is still often framed around intent, with the focus placed on malicious employees, disgruntled contractors, or deliberate misuse of access for personal gain. Those cases exist and they matter, but they are rarely where risk first begins, and they do not reflect how most insider-related incidents actually develop. In reality, many cases take shape slowly and quietly. They are shaped by pressure, fatigue, disengagement, coercion, manipulation or personal strain rather than hostility. The behaviour that later causes harm is often preceded by long periods of stress, isolation, being influenced or unresolved workplace issues. By the time someone is formally labelled an insider threat,the opportunity for early, proportionate support has usually passed, and the organisation is left with far fewer options. This is why treating insider risk purely as a disciplinary or compliance issue consistently falls short. ...

     A roundup of UK focused Cyber and Information Security News, Blog Posts, Reports and general Threat Intelligence from the previous calendar month, June 2021. How was UK Government Building CCTV Leaked? The  Sun newspaper published CCTV workplace footage of Health Secretary Matt Hancock, kissing aide Gina Coladangelo  on 6th May 2021, the fact both are married to different people fuelled several days of sensational headlines. Given Matt Hancock has led the charge on directing the UK's COVID rules, his position in government quickly became untenable, resigning a few days later after the story broke. However, the big security concern here, is how was internal UK government building CCTV footage obtained by an external reporter?   CCTV Leaked from UK Gov Buildings is a security concern The Northern Ireland secretary,  Brandon Lewis,  summed up the security concern when he said  “t he security and privacy of government business mean min...

    A roundup of UK focused Cyber and Information Security News, Blog Posts, Reports and general Threat Intelligence from the previous calendar month, May 2021. UK Smarties Cities Cybersecurity Warning The UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) published its Smart Cities (connected places) guidance for UK local authorities . NCSC warned UK  Smart Cities will be highly targeted by hackers, and as such, councils need to ensure they are properly prepared as they rollout increasingly connected and technology-reliant infrastructure. The NCSC said critical public services must be protected from disruption, while sensitive data also needs to be secured from being stolen in large volumes. Smart cities and connected rural environments promise a host of benefits for UK society, for instance, sensors will monitor pollution, real-time information on parking spaces, while cameras will track congestion and smartly manage traffic flow. However, another concern is the large volume...

The United Kingdom's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) handled a record number of cybersecurity incidents over the last year, a 20% increase in cases handled the year before. With the increasing number and more innovative nature of cyber attacks, businesses of all sizes must prioritise cybersecurity. However, the fundamental starting point of any organisation’s security infrastructure must be a trained and aware workforce, who understand their responsibility in keeping business data safe. Oliver Paterson, Product Expert, VIPRE Security Awareness Training and Safesend , explains. Business Size Doesn’t Matter Whether a business is a start-up or a larger corporate organisation, all companies are at risk of a cyber-attack. We often see million-pound enterprises on the news when they suffer from a data breach, such as Estée Lauder, Microsoft and Broadvoice . But, no organisation is too small to target, including small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), who are the target for an es...

   A roundup of UK focused Cyber and Information Security News, Blog Posts, Reports and general Threat Intelligence from the previous calendar month, April 2021. Think Before You LinkedIn! Business social media platform LinkedIn is being exploited by nation-state threat actors to target UK citizens.  The UK Security Service MI5 said 10,000 staff from every UK government department and from important UK industries have been lured by fake LinkedIn profiles. MI5 said the faked LinkedIn accounts are created and operation by nation-state spy agencies, with an intent to  recruit individuals or gather sensitive information. MI5 released a campaign video called "Think Before You Link" to raise awareness  of the threat. The personal information of 11 million UK Facebook profiles were been found on a hackers website , with the social media giant seemingly dismissing the significance of the data within a statement, " This is old data that was previously reported on in 2019...

   A roundup of UK focused Cyber and Information Security News, Blog Posts, Reports and general Threat Intelligence from the previous calendar month, March 2021. How not to disclosure a Hack UK fashion retailer FatFace angered customers in its handling of a customer data theft hack.   The clothes retailer revealed a data theft which included its customer's full names, home addresses, email addresses, and partial debit\credit card details. The payment card details included the last four digits and the card's security verification code, the latter code is never permitted to be stored after a payment card authorisation under Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard requirements, so it would appear the business was not PCI DSS compliant at the time of their hack, which strongly suggests the business may not doing enough of the expected IT security good practices to prevent being hacked in the first place, a poor IT defence posture which appears to have even been corrobora...