Cybersecurity Expert

A Sky News investigation uncovered the shady dealings of some computer repair shops in London. An undercover reporter presented a laptop for repair at several computer repair shops, with the only problem being an easy to detect loose memory chip. However Sky had rigged their laptop to monitor how it was dealt with utilising keylogger software and they even had the laptop camera video the dodgy goings on. One cheeky rogue trader charged the reporter £130, saying the laptop required a new motherboard, even though the original motherboard was absolutely fine, however more sinister and worrying was the invasion of customer privacy. Computer shop repair engineers were recorded rifling through marked private documents held on the laptop (folder was titled "private"), one scoundrel was captured actually stealing documents, removing them onto a USB memory stick, which included a text file labelled as holding passwords for Facebook, Hotmail, eBay and an online bank account. After l...

On Wednesday I popped into The Manchester Museum , and as I strolled into the “Money" collection of exhibits, I was greeted by a bunch of friendly guys sat behind a desk. The desk had various old coins laid out and a sign stating “Please DO Touch”. After a couple of minutes of weighing up and flipping various 2,000+ year ancient Alexander the Great and Roman coins, naturally me being me I started chatting about the fraud aspects, when one of the guys produced a Chinese bank note from the 14th century, which was safely housed in a protective plastic cover. This particular note happens to be one of the oldest surviving banks notes in existence. Now the Chinese invented and started using paper money around 960 following a metal shortage, without copper, silver and gold they couldn’t meet the demand to make coins, although there is evidence of cruder forms of paper money being made by Chinese centuries earlier, but these weren't widely adopted. The construction of the Great Wall o...

"118800” is a new commercial Mobile Phone Directory Search venture, which charges absolutely anyone at all, £1 to obtain the mobile phone number of a UK citizen, searching by name and location. 118800 have amassed a database around 15 Million UK names, locations and mobile numbers for their directory, which was set to launch earlier in the week. I read a quote from an 118800 representative who stated the contact names and mobile phone numbers in their directory were harvested from the public domain, but what they really meant by public domain, was means they probably purchased the information from market research companies, online businesses and information brokers. EDIT 12/06/09: Since I originally posted, a representative from 118800 has been in contact and provided further clarity on the 118800 directory search method. It seems my brief description of service was only partial, so may be misleading. I was unable to fully test the service at the time of posting, as the...

Are you wondering why there haven’t been any UK Government Department Information breaches making the news headlines in recent months? Has our government departments resolved their poor Information Security Management and poor security cultures? Has other topics such as swine flu and dodgey MP expenses claims kept government data breach headlines out of the press?  I would love to think UK Government Departments have cleaned up their Information Security Act, as I know serious efforts are being made, however we can't really be sure government have stemmed their poor information management tide, as I heard another reason which goes to explain why the once steady drip of media coverage of government departments data breaches has come to a halt. I don’t want to name any names, but I heard a member of government committee working on the Digital Britain report say, government departments had been advised by a UK security service department to stop publicis...

Don't tell the misses, but I walked into a popular fast food restaurant in Central London today, I noticed the restaurant had fixed to the payment counter their Chip & Pin payment devices, these devices are known as Pin Entry Devices (PEDs) within the Payments Card Industry. The problem was they had fixed these devices behind the main raised counter, and the devices had no “pin protectors” on them, so forcing their customers to reach over a raised counter to the cashier's side, to type in the their 4 digit pin numbers. I observed several transactions taking place, each customer did not shield their pin entry with their free hand, probably because it would be too cumbersome to reach over the raised counter with both hands. The net result was most people in the queue and behind the counter could observe the 4 digit pin number as it was typed in. This type of setup is a real goldmine for any potential pickpocket or mugger, as obtaining a payment card together with the pin nu...

Vanessa George, who worked at a Portsmouth nursery, stands accused of appalling sexual offences against young children. Already media reporters are queuing up in criticising the “enhanced Criminal Records Bureau (CRB)“ check, which this apparently despicable person passed, saying the check must of either failed or the CRB checking system itself is at fault. The CRB checking system has not failed nor is the CRB system at fault, as any seasoned security professional worth his salt will know, clear staff background checks does not guarantee an individual is not a dodgy person and is not capable of doing bad things. The truth is no background security check or test can ever provide a guarantee, whether it’s checking airport workers aren’t terrorists, checking child minders are suitable to be alone with children, or a data entry clerks aren’t data thieves. Most organisations with staff dealing with financial information, government data or child care are required to carry out a CRB checks...

I reluctantly posted my European electoral postal vote today, reluctantly because I considered not voting at all mainly due to a lack of an anonymous voting system, reluctantly because the European Union Parliament is not very democratic, in that unelected and non-accountable members of committees make the laws, not the people to whom I am being asked to vote to represent me as an European Union (EU) Member of Parliament. Voting choice wise, there is no other option provided other than a postal vote, for whatever reason it is just not possible to vote at a traditional polling station, not in my area anyway. The postal voting system involves enclosing a traditional ballet form within a pre-paid envelope, on which your full name is pre-printed with a unique ID number, your date of birth and your signature. Once sealed, the envelope must be placed into the public postal system as a “normal” letter, with its contents easily identifiable as a voting ballot (see picture). Should the en...