Cybersecurity Expert

There has been much concern over a state-sponsor threat known as APT10 Operation Cloud Hopper, also known as Stone Panda, after the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) recently spooked UK businesses and their suppliers about a Chinese threat actor posing a serious threat to IT Managed Service Providers (MPS) and their UK clients.    Overview of the Threat APT10, a Chinese-based hacking  group also known as Stone Panda, MenuPass,  CVNX,  and Potassium is operating a hacking  campaign known as Operation Cloud Hopper, which is  believed to have been underway since 2014. There are intelligence reports which indicate the APT10 threat actor has significantly upscaled their capabilities and attack sophistication in early 2016. The APT10 Cloud Hopper campaign focuses on sending malware infected emails to staff working at  IT Managed Service Providers (MPS) , once executed the malware creates a backdoor which allows the attacker remote access t...

9 years ago I wrote a post on  WinZip Encryption Security , that post has  received tens of thousands of visits over the years and continues to be pretty popular, but it is high time for that advice to be refreshed. The advice below also applies to 7-Zip , which also supports the same type of encryption as WinZip. Do not use WinZip ‘Standard Zip 2.0 Encryption’ WinZip pre-version 9 only offered WinZip's own proprietary encryption algorithm called Zip 2.0 encryption, which is broken, so never use WinZip pre-version 9 or the “WinZip's Zip 2.0 Encryption” as an option, as passwords of any strength can very easily be recovered with third party cracking tools. WinZip versions 9 to 21 defaults to use the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) scrutinised and US government agency approved encryption algorithm called the A dvanced Encryption Standard  (AES) -  http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/STM/cavp/documents/aes/aesval.html . This is great...

Security researchers found there were able to find numerous sensitive documents by searching Microsoft’s Office 365 documents made publically accessible through the Docs.com website. Documents found included business confidential information, passwords and personal data. The issue was not caused by any security vulnerability in O365, but by its use rs misconfiguring or not understand the access permissions on their Microsoft O365 file storage, inadvertently permitting public access to t heir confidential data.  Businesses and users need to meet cloud services halfway when it comes to security, that starts obtaining a clear understanding of what security the cloud service does and does not do, so ensure your security homework is done before adopting the cloud. A patch for a critical vulnerability in Apache (Server) Struts was released this month, the vulnerability, which is being actively exploited by cyber criminals in ransomware attacks, allows the remote execution of comma...

The good folk at  The Best VPN have put together an Infographic summarising ten of the worst "known" cyber attacks and data breaches to date, its a good recap of the high stakes when cyber security goes wrong.

How much does a payment card breach cost? How large are the potential fines? What happens if we aren't PCI DSS compliant and suffer a cardholder breach? Those are common unanswered questions which businesses accepting and processing debit and credit card payments rise, businesses which are required to be compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). In recent years a growing number of UK  businesses are taking out cybersecurity insurance, and are more pressingly wanting to know whether their insurance coverage is sufficient enough to cover the cost of a payment card data breach. It is not possible to produce a formula or calculator to provide precise payment card breach costs on a per card compromised basis, as no two business payment operations are ever the same, and there are just too many factors that can impact the overall cost of a breach.  So instead I have put together the following six pointers to aid the estimation of a payment card ...

Earlier in the month of February, a grey hat hacker named " Stackoverflowin " ran a simple script which resulted in over 150,000 printers, mainly in businesses, printing out pages with some nice ASCII art and a message saying the printer was owned. Many in the media pointed the blame as a printer security issue, but the main reason was horrendously poor firewall configuration. These printers were made vulnerable due to the presence of a highly insecure rule  in their network's firewall, which allowed internally networked printers accessible across the entire internet. It didn't matter if the printers were large sophisticated multi-functional devices or simple till receipt printers, they all received rogue print jobs directly from the internet thanks to terrible firewall management. Makes you wonder what else is vulnerable on these business' networks as a result of poor firewall configuration and without the security management safety net of regular network vul...

Robust Cyber Security is an intrinsic requirement with all connected technology in our daily lives, and it is especially challenging with new cutting edge technological advances. Connected and driverless cars promises to be one greatest technological advances of the century, as such fascinates and excites yet at the time there are concerns. Getting cyber security right from the outset will be critical to the success of this industry, as vulnerable connected computer controlled cars is a matter of life and death. Securing the ever increasing sophistication and complexity of computers that control cars is certainly not for the faint hearted. The car industry recognises trust and security go hand in hand, so in league with the likes of Aeris, Intel and Uber, the industry formed an industry wide organisation called FASTR - Future of Automotive Security Technology Research.  FASTR seeks to enable automotive security by driving cybersecurity across the entire vehicle manufacturing sup...