Cybersecurity Expert

The GDPR is the biggest privacy shakeup since the dawn of the internet and it is just weeks before it comes into force on 25th May. GDPR comes with potentially head-spinning financial penalties for businesses found not complying, so it really is essential for any business which touches EU citizen's personal data, to thoroughly do their privacy rights homework and properly prepare. Sage have produced a nice GDPR infographic which breaks down the basics of the GDPR with tips on complying, which is shared below. I am currently writing a comprehensive GDPR Application Developer's Guidance series for IBM developerWorks, which will be released in the coming weeks. The GDPR: A guide for international business - A Sage Infographic

February saw over 5,000 websites infected by cryptocurrency mining malware after a popular accessibility plugin called ‘BrowseAloud’ was compromised by hackers. This led to several UK Government and Councils websites going offline, including the Information Commissioner's Office, the Student Loans Company, and Manchester City, Camden and Croydon Council website. Symantec Researchers also announced that 'Crytojacking' attacks had increased 1,200% in the UK . Cryptojacking  once involved the installation of cryptocurrency mining malware on users computers, but now it is more frequently used in-browser, by hacking a website and execute a malicious mining JavaScript as the user visits the compromised website, as with the case with the 'BrowseAloud' incident. More than 25% of UK Councils are said to have suffered a breach in the last five years according to the privacy group Big Brother Watch, who said UK Councils are unprepared for Cyber Attacks . There wa...

A nice infographic by bestvpns.co.uk  which simply depicts 77 facts about cyber crime we should all be aware of this year.

Company preparations for GDPR compliance are (or should be!) in full swing with the 25th May enforcement date fast looming on the horizon. With that in mind, I found the following set of recent GDPR articles a decent and interesting read. The list was compiled by Brian Pennington of Coalfire , he has kindly allowed me to repost. Eight Ways Board Directors Should Be Preparing for the GDPR Right Now GDPR: Whose problem is it anyway? ISACA has pulled together a list of some of the main tips that can help any enterprise to tackle GDPR Right to be Forgotten: Right Here, Right Now? Get Ready For The EU’s Kafkaesque Data #Privacy Rules It’s time to grow your brokerage through GDPR Data protection compliance costs less than noncompliance Breach-Proofing Your Data in a GDPR World A GDPR Survival Guide For Marketers GDPR And Grassley Clash GDPR Highlights US Cyber Risks Europe's new data rules go much deeper than PCI — and many U.S. companies must com...

2018 started with a big security alert bang after Google Security Researchers disclosed serious security vulnerabilities in just about every computer processor in use on the planet.  Named 'Meltdown' and 'Spectre ’, when exploited by a hacker or malware, these vulnerabilities disclose confidential data. As a result, a whole raft of critical security updates was hastily released for computer and smartphone operating systems, web browsers, and processor drivers. While processor manufacturers have been rather lethargic in reacting and producing  patches for the problem, software vendors such as Microsoft, Google and Apple have reacted quickly, releasing security updates to protect their customers from the vulnerable processors, kudos to them. The UK Information Commission's Office (ICO) heavily criticised the Carphone Warehouse for security inadequacies and fined the company £400K following their 2015 data breach , when the personal data, includin...

The privacy enthusiasts at   The Best VPN have put together crystal clear guidance on protecting your privacy online in one fabulous infographic.

The New Year has started with a big security bang after new dangerous security vulnerabilities were discovered within Intel, AMD and ARM processors, placing just about every Server, PC, Cloud Service, IoT device, Smartphone and Tablet on the planet at risk.  Google Security Researchers, aka Project Zero, discovered the new computer processor flaws, which they have named ' Meltdown' and ' Spectre ' when  breaking the bad news on 3rd January 2018. Both Meltdown and Spectre allo w an attacker or malware to access privileged information from within what should be a protected area of ( kernel ) memory. Meaning the potential disclosure of passwords, encryption keys, and confidential data from within virtual environments i.e. where multiple virtual machines are hosted on a single hardware platform. Meltdown The Meltdown vulnerability is present on all Intel processors manufactured after 1995 and is the easiest of the two flaws to exploit. This vulnerability exploitati...