So another year passes and the nearest this Mayoman gets to Croke Park in September is the annual Global Security Week conference.  However the quality of yesterday’s Cyber Crime seminar more than made up for Mayo not reaching the All-Ireland final. 

The Cyber Crime seminar that we hosted as part of Global Security Week was very successful and once again we got excellent feedback.  My heartfelt thanks go out to our two key speakers, Owen O’Connor and John Finan.

The two talks were excellent as they moved away from the hype that we often see in the media or indeed by some, who should know better, in the information security industry.  Some of the key take aways that I thought both speakers highlighted were;

• Cyber Crime is a real threat.  Don’t always assume that your stolen laptop was the result of someone looking to make a quick few euros selling it to cover their drug habit.  Increasingly criminals are becoming more and more aware of the value of data held on laptops and mobile devices.  Even if your device is stolen by someone trying to get their next high, the device could pass into the hands of someone who appreciates the value of the data on the device.
• There is no legal obligation in Ireland for you to report a cyber crime.  It is down to each individual company to do what they see as the right thing for their business.  Both Owen and I have differing opinions on this and hopefully we can present our cases in an appropriate forum in the future.
• Keeping log files and audit trails of your key systems is essential in investigating any suspected breach.  So do you know what you are logging, how you are logging that information and how to handle that logging information in the event of an investigation?  If not you should look at remedying that situation as soon as possible.  I have a presentation available on our whitepapers page on managing logs if you need some pointers.  Alternatively visit the excellent Anton Chuvakin Blog – “Security Warrior” Blog.
• Finally ensure your information security incident response plan is up to date.  Don’t forget to test your information security incident response plan to ensure you can get the information you need from your logs and that you can deal with the event appropriately.  While you are at it you should also consider integrating your information security response plan into your Business Continuity Plan.  You may have to keep key systems offline during an incident, or those systems may be taken by the police as evidence, so can you keep your business going while you deal with the security incident.  If you need some pointers you can have a look at my whitepaper on “Incident Handling and Management“.

My thanks to all who took the time to attend and participate in the event to make it one of the most interesting events I have attended in a long time.  I am looking forward to next year’s event already and who knows with some luck I may get to see Croke Park twice in September.