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 […]

Gardai Issue Warning About Police Themed Scam

The Gardai are warning the public to be aware of a computer scam which utilises Garda logos to make it look like an official communique fron An Garda Siochana.  The scam after a PC has been infected with a piece of malware.  That malware detects which country the computer is located in and pops up […]

Securitywatch Blog Featured in the Sunday Times

BH Consulting‘s blog was featured in the Sunday Times at the weekend in the “Become the new kid on the blog” article which focused on the business benefits social media can bring. As you know BH Consulting has been running this blog for quite a number of years and also are active on Twitter.  I tweet quite regularly as […]

LinkedIn LeaksOut

Earlier today it emerged that a large database of 6.5 million passwords belonging to users of the popular professional network, LinkedIn, was leaked onto the Internet.  I was first made aware of the issue early this morning by Per Thorsheim (@thorsheim), a Norwegian security professional who specialises in password security. Once the news broke on […]