Cybersecurity Expert

Written by Katie Barnett, Director of Cyber Security, and Gavin Wilson, Director of Physical Security and Risk, at  Toro Solutions After spending years working with organisations on security, one thing becomes hard to ignore. When something serious happens, the root causes are sadly rarely surprising and there is often a sense of inevitability to them. Access that was never quite tidied up, controls that were written down but not really enforced, multi factor authentication that was recommended but not mandatory or decisions that made sense in the moment and were never revisited. Last year’s headlines about the Louvre brought this into focus. The Louvre Museum, the world’s most visited cultural landmark, faced heavy criticism after investigators revealed that its internal video surveillance system was protected by the password “Louvre.” This came after a daylight heist in which thieves stole French Crown Jewels valued at over $100 million. The striking thing was not how bold the th...

Article by  Beau Peters As a freelancer in any industry, you are likely more susceptible to hackers and cybercrime than many other professions. Not only are you pulling in a constant stream of customer data, but as a worker on the go, you likely work exclusively in the digital realm with all of your information in the online space. That means that you are basically presenting data on a silver platter for cybercriminals to find and use for malicious purposes. If you take your business seriously, then cybersecurity needs to be your top priority , not only for your clients but also for the stability of your own enterprise. Luckily, you can stay out of the way of cybercriminals by implementing a few basic security features along with an understanding of common threats. We’ll explain both solutions below. Protect Client Data It is important to remember that just about any piece of client data can be used by cybercriminals to cause havoc. Credit card and social security numbers are espec...

    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...

   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, December 2020. A suspected nation-state sophisticated cyber-attack of SolarWinds which led to the distribution of a tainted version the SolarWinds Orion network monitoring tool, compromising their customers, dominated the cyber headlines in mid-December 2020.  This was not only one of the most significant cyberattacks of 2020 but perhaps of all time. The United States news media reported the Pentagon, US intelligence agencies, nuclear labs, the Commerce, Justice, Treasury and Homeland Security departments, and several utilities were all compromised by the attack. For the full details of the SolarWinds cyber-attack see my article  Sunburst: SolarWinds Orion Compromise Overview Two other cyberattacks are possibly linked to the SolarWinds hack was also reported, the cyber-theft of sophisticated hacking tools from  cybersecurity fi...

Article by Kristin Herman, a writer and editor at Ukwritings.com and Academized.com The term 'cybersecurity' has been tossed around lately. But although cybersecurity has been viewed as a saving grace for mobile devices, computers, etc. the topic is still cloaked in misconception. Things that might pop up, when it comes to cybersecurity, are: The idea of security Password strength Who cybersecurity threats target and affect If insurance will cover damages How effective an IT team actually is Cybersecurity “costs” What devices are most vulnerable to malware? However, as one side says one thing, while the other side contests it, it’s easy to get caught up in believing the wrong things. In fact, a lot of people get it all wrong. So, to understand the truth about cybersecurity, then check out this quick guide, which will cover seven of the most debunked myths about the subject matter: 1. “Physical Security and Cybersecurity are Two Different Things” “The truth is, physical securit...

Guest Post by Susan Doktor Staying at home, something we’ve all been doing a lot more of, can be relaxing. But as our attention has been focused elsewhere, particularly on our health and the economic crisis brought on by the global pandemic, some of us may have also relaxed our safety standards. We are witnessing a serious spike in cybercrime since the coronavirus took the world hostage. Even those institutions that are working diligently to vanquish the virus have not been immune to attack. And that means we have to be more diligent about our privacy and cyber safety. As mentioned in a recent post , the technology we’re relying on to stay connected while adhering to social distancing guidelines may be contributing to our vulnerability. But whether you’re chatting on a video conferencing app or charging airline tickets to your travel credit card , there are built-in security weaknesses inherent to our online lives. I’m talking about passwords. They’re necessary, of course. And they...

A roundup of UK focused Cyber and Information Security News, Blog Posts, Reports and general Threat Intelligence from the previous calendar month, May 2020. EasyJet's disclosure of a "highly sophisticated cyber-attack", which occurred in January 2020, impacting 9 million of their customers was the biggest cybersecurity story of May 2020 in the UK. Although no details about this 'cyber-attack' were disclosed, other than 2,208 customers had their credit card details accessed.   Using terms like "highly sophisticated" without providing any actual details of the cyberattack makes one think back to when TalkTalk CEO Dido Harding described a cyber-attack as " significant and sustained cyber-attack " in 2015. In TalkTalk's case, that cyber attack turned out to be a bunch of teenage kids taking advantage of a then 10-year-old SQL injection vulnerability.  City A.M. described Dido's responses as "naive", noting when asked if the aff...