Security Breach At the North Pole
Well it had to happen. Reports are coming in of a serious security incident at the North Pole resulting in the loss of Santa’s naughty and nice list. It appears that an unencrypted USB key containing the list was lost. There are already reports that the information on the USB key has been leaked. Obviously the […]
Christmas Wishes
We would like to take the opportunity to wish all our readers, clients, associates and partners the very best for the Christmas season and that you all have a properous and secure New Year. As is our tradition BH Consulting will not be sending Christmas cards, instead we donate money to a charity of our […]
Latest Column Piece in HelpNet Security Magazine
In my latest piece for HelpNet Security Magazine I highlight a trait that I see lacking in many information security professionals lately. That is being able to ask the right question to identify what needs to be done to secure our systems. Too often we jump to the solution (usually technical) without properly understanding what […]
5th Annual Data Protection Conference
The 5th Annual Data Protection conference will be held on the 21st February 2013 in Dublin’s Ballsbridge Hotel. I will be one of the speakers at the conference. This is the largest Data Protection Conference in Ireland and is the top go-to event for the DP community. The conference will have a number of informative […]
Economic Espionage – The Reality
There is a lot of rhetoric in the media lately about cyber warfare and cybercrime. While a lot of this coverage is hyperbole and is often backed by vendors trying to promote their products, there is a reality that we should acknowledge. Espionage has been going on ever since man organised himself into tribes. In the […]
Databreach at O2 Ireland
Today the mobile network operator O2 announced that it suffered a security breach. The breach occurred in the summer of 2011 when O2’s IT provider IBM lost a backup tape. O2 was made aware of the loss this summer an in their press release say they have been working with the Data Protection Commissioner’s office […]
First Impressions
There is an old saying that goess “first impressions last”. Which means that very often when we meet someone or visit somewhere for the first time we subconciously assess and judge that person or place within the first few seconds. This means that each relationship is built upon that initial first assessment. So if the […]
Phishing Email Targeting Irish Revenue Service
Today I received an interesting email. It was a phishing email purporting to be from the Irish Revenue Service. It bore the good news that I was due a tax refund, €278 in fact. In these days of economic strife €278 could come in quite handy. However, closer examination of the email reveals that it […]
Brian Honan One of the Judges for the Tech Trailblazers Awards
I am delighted to say that I have been selected to be one of the judges for a very exciting new and innovative IT awards program, the Tech Trailblazers, aimed at technology start-ups. It promises to be an exciting project which will hopefully identify and launch some great new technologies onto the market. I am joined […]
MakeITSecure Campaign Launched
The Department of Communications recently launched its latest MakeITSecure campaign. The purpose of the campaign is to raise better awareness amongst people and businesses about the security issues they face and how to address them. I attended the launch and thought it was interesting how the Department highlighted the risks many people now face using […]