Businesses And The Planned Attack
Most people outside of the security industry still have a very stereotypical view of hacker culture. Just this week I had a discussion at work (retail industry) and was surprised that just about everyone on my team still thought hackers were spotty no-friend kids who messed things up to get their kicks. That simply isn’t […]
Government NHS Database Plans Suspended Following Criticism From Its Own Privacy Watchdog
Government plans to store the medical history data of every patient in England have been questioned by both its own watchdog for privacy, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), and the British Medical Association (BMA). Leading doctors have also pitched in, saying that NHS patients have been “inadequately informed” about the proposed sharing of their medical data. […]
Data Theft Punishment – South Korea vs The UK
I’ve read two different stories this morning which, whilst based upon the same theme of data theft, offer up two contrasting views of the problem and how it is dealt with by the parties involved. The first article I read was about three credit card issuers in South Korea. Between them they had experienced the […]
Majority Of Organisations Unable To Respond Effectively To A Cyber Attack
A new report from AccessData and the Ponemon institute paints a pretty poor picture of how organisations struggle to cope in the aftermath of a cyber attack. The report, Threat Intelligence & Incident Response: A Study of U.S. & EMEA Organizations polled 1,083 Chief Information Security Officers and security personnel across a range of businesses in […]
(ISC)2 Launches Safe And Secure Online Programme In Ireland
The (ISC)2 Foundation has launched its Safe and Secure Online programme in Ireland to coincide with Safer Internet Day 2014. The new programme, which is free, is designed to help students, teachers, parents and governors to use the internet in a more secure manner. Volunteers, who are all (ISC)2-certified information security experts, will make themselves […]
Opinion Piece on the Alleged Surveillance of the Offices of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission
I was asked yesterday by the Irish Daily Star newspaper to write what my thoughts were on the recent revelations regarding alleged hacking of the computer network for the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission office and surveillance of their phone system. As I have not seen the original security report or have any other insight into the […]
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? – Security Breach at Garda Ombudman Commission Offices
The Latin phrase “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” is often translated to “Who watches the watchmen?” and is used to challenge calls for blanket surveillance by governments. The idea behind it is that we need some level of accountability to those that we give the powers of arrest and surveillance to. This morning the Sunday Times […]
Barclays Breached, Account Details Of 27,000 Customers Sold To Brokers
Barclays bank has launched an investigation following a data breach which saw 27,000 customers’ details stolen and sold. The Mail on Sunday said it had been handed a memory stick by an anonymous ex-City worker. The USB drive contained files on 2,000 of the bank’s customers. The whistleblower indicated that records for a further 25,000 […]
Stand and Deliver, Your Money or Your Bytes
Europol’s Cyber Crime Centre (EC3) released a report on the rising threat of Ransomware to individual computer users and to businesses. This report follows on from a number of media stories on how this scourge is spreading. The EC3 report, which was developed jointly with the Dutch National High Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU), aims to raise […]
Stand And Deliver, Your Bandwidth And Our Bitcoins
Ransomware is a fairly new phenomenon but one that is becoming increasingly prevalent. Just this morning Brian wrote about how some companies are being held to ransom, leading to loss of business data or payment of monies for the return of their lost bytes. But the criminals who write this particular type of malware use […]