Cybersecurity Expert

I have just finished reading the book "Hacked Again" by US CyberSecurity Expert Scott Schober. Along with covering and explaining several recent major hacks, the book provides excellent advice and tips for staying safe from cyber crime.  What I found particularly interesting was Scott's own account on how he was hacked. As CEO of his own successful Wireless Security company and a popular Cyber Security TV pundit, I imagine Scott's natural instinct would be to not disclose his "been hacked" experience with the world. Scott disregards any potential embarrassment to himself and chooses to explain what exactly happened to him and why, passing on valuable lessons learnt to help others, a brave and noble undertaking I applaud. What "Hacked Again" is, is a potent reminder that no one is ever safe from the clutches of persistent cyber criminals. But this doesn't mean we should give up trying to be secure, on the contrary, as following the practica...

Given I am regularly asked to explain cyber attacks and then advise on how to protect against them, particularly to home users of late, I thought I would try my hand at creating a simple InfoGraphic to help. It was a challenge to create due to the limitation to the amount of space for text, which means you can't cover everything and you can't go into much detail. However concise messaging is kind of the point of infographics, especially when using them as awareness tools.  This InfoGraphic is squarely aimed at the average "home user", it highlights what the bad guys are after, their most popular and most successful attack methods, and then provides 10 tips to help avoid and detect home user cyber attacks, simples. If this InfoGraphic proves popular I'll create some more, starting with one covering home IoT Security advice, another subject I'm regularly asked about at the moment. Download full version here

Law firms collect, process and store vast amounts of extremely sensitive data about their clients, this when combined with a poor 'people security' culture and a general lack of digital security know-how, is a recipe that leaves legal companies highly vulnerable to cyber attacks. Given the typical large scope and sensitivity of data held by law firms, cyber attacks in the legal industry can be particularly costly affairs to recover from. Often you will read about regulators imposing considerable data breach fines on companies that have been the subject of a cyber attack. Yet the hidden cost of a data breach recovery in using crisis management services, disruption of critical business operations, contractual penalties, bringing in forensic investigators, and engaging a legal counsel, ironic I know, and the loss of client trust often exceeds the financial penalty figures plastered across the headlines. Emphasising the legal profession's vulnerability to cyber at...

Cyber security experts have long predicted that thousands of vulnerable Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as internet-connected CCTV systems would be hacked on mass and directed to perform huge DDoS attacks. That’s exactly what happened on 21 st October when 152,000 IoT devices infected with malware were remote controlled by hackers and then used to orchestrate a 1Tb DDoS attack, the largest in history. A tsunami of network traffic was directed at a company called Dyn, a major domain name registrar, and it impacted their client’s web services, including Twitter, Yammer, PayPal, Starbucks, The Guardian, PlayStation, Wix, CNN, Spotify, Github, Weebly and Reddit. Those IoT developers may want to read up on my IoT guidance on the IBM developersWorks website -  Combating IoT cyber threats  Top security best practices for IoT applications The UK National Cyber Security Centre HQ went operational, which is part of the UK government's 5 year £1.9 billion cyber defence s...

IBM Security recently released a white paper on the mobile malware threat, which included general guidance on managing the mobile threat and an overview of IBM’s MaaS360 Mobile Threat Management tool, I thought it was good advice and well worth sharing. Mobile is the New Playground for Thieves: How to Protect against Mobile Malware According to Arxan Technologies. 97% and 87%t of the top paid Android and iOS apps, respectively, have been hacked and posted to third-party app stores. Mobile Security Guidance (by IBM Security) Educate Employees about Application Security: Educate employees about the dangers of downloading third-party applications and the potential dangers that can result from weak device permissioning . Protect BYOD devices: Apply enterprise mobility management capabilities to enable employees to use their own devices while maintaining organisational security. Permit Employees to download from Authorised App Stores Only : Allow employees to download ap...

The theft of over half a billion Yahoo user accounts by hackers has dominated the news headlines in the last couple of weeks. Since announcing the largest hack in history, Yahoo has come in for heavy criticism, given it took two years for Yahoo to notice the massive data theft, talk of lacklustre security behind the scenes at the company, and doubts over Yahoo’s claims the cyber attack was state-sponsored. Lawyers representing users, the US Senate and the UK ICO have all lined up to take pop-shots at Yahoo and are threatening action.    I posted known Yahoo hack information and advice , and Yahoo hack industry analysis Interesting example of Hacktivism after a Russian group called "Fancy Bears" hacked and released the World Anti-Doping Agency medical records of prominent British and American Olympic athletes. The motivate appears to be a revenge protest aimed at causing embarrassment to medal winning Western athletes  following...

Yesterday I spoke at the R3 Summit (Resilience, Response and Recovery) in London, on the topic of Cyber Security Incident Management and response. Given the Q & A and the ensuing discussion after my talk, the attendees were particularly interested in my views on incident containment ahead of recovery. Below is a summary of what I said. Step 1: Incident Management Planning and Preparation The most crucial part of incident management is the preparation, it is important to always consider cyber security incidents as a ‘When’ not an ‘If’ as you plan ahead. So here’s my ‘brain dump’ of an incident management planning strategy: A company Cyber Security Incident Management Policy It must define what the company (aka the board) consider as a cyber security incident Cyber Security Incident notification communications channel or even better a reporting application/system Upon identifying an incident who do staff notify (the incident management team) Staff awareness of how to...