IT Industry Launches SAFECode Initiative
I attended the announcement today at the RSA Conference Europe where Microsoft, Symantec, Juniper, SAP and EMC Corporation launched the SAFECode initiative. SAFECode is an industry initiative founded by the above companies to develop and promote better software assurance practises amongst the world’s developers. Each of the above companies will make available their expertise and experience […]
More Privacy Breaches in Irish Civil Service
A recent story in the Irish Independent Newspaper reveals that a senior manager within the Department of Social and Family Affairs has resigned after having being discovered providing newspapers with personal information belonging to people who provided that information in confidence to the department. It appears that this was not a unique occurence and investigations within the […]
ISF Releases The Standard of Good Practise
The Information Security Forum have released the latest version of the Forum’s “The Standard of Good Practise”. This is an excellent resource for anyone tasked with identifying controls to improve the security of the information and systems in their charge. “The Standard of Good Practise” is broken down into the following key sections; Security Management […]
Keeping Secrets Secret
News broke today about a civil servant working in the Department of Family and Social Affairs who used his access to the department’s computer systems to get sensitive personal information on a number of individuals. This information was then passed onto his criminal brother who subsequently allegedly used that information to burgle one individual and […]
Microsoft Security
Today I was the keynote speaker for Microsoft Ireland’s IT Professional Security Training Event. It was an interesting event for me from many aspects. Firstly it gave me a chance to get up to speed on a number of Microsoft Technologies such as their Intelligent Application Gateway Server 2007 and also to get an update on the […]
Do SMEs Really Trust IT?
A business colleague who runs a IT company was lamenting to me as to why do SMEs distrust IT so much. She pointed out to me that SMEs claim in one breath that IT brings them many benefits but with the other do not see the value in investing in technology. She continued to point out […]
Microsoft – We Share Your Pain Program
Ever wonder what happens when you click on the “send” button when the dialogue box appears after an application crashes? This spoof video from Microsoft on the “We Share Your Pain” program may shed some light on that question.
WEP of Mass Disruption
The recent controvery over the Eircom implementation of WEP security still bubbles on. For those not in the know the problem relates to how Eircom, Ireland’s largest ISP, distributed security within the Netopia wireless routers it provides to consumers and small businesses. Since 2005 Eircom has been shipping these routers with wireless networking enabled to support users […]
How to get a free Risk Assessment
During last week’s COSAC conference I had an interesting discussion with one of the other delegates regarding the state of information security. We lamented the fact that the various options tried by the industry to improve security have failed. Technology is failing us, as soon as we have a solution in place the bad guys […]
September Edition of Security Watch Newsletter Now Available
The September 2007 edition of our sister publication, the Security Watch Newsletter, is now available online. For those of you who do not subscribe to our newsletter, you may find it a useful read as we highlight issues and stories that may not be applicable to our Blog.