Digital Piracy Can Kindle Grief Of Amazonian Proportion

Love it or hate it, digital content is here to stay. Be it games distributed via Steam, underpriced apps from the App Store, or books from Amazon, all your digital entertainment and business needs can seemingly be provided for by the virtual world. But that can cause problems. Take apps for example – acquiring them […]

Server Anomaly Detected Captain Freenode, Set Passwords To Change

Email – malware attachments and phishing scams, but maybe not dead just yet. Facebook – privacy, what is privacy? WhatsApp – location, location. Snapchat – nothing is ever truly gone forever. There are many different ways of communicating these days (anyone remember the good ol’ times when you had to use a pen and paper and […]

Facebook's Exploding Posts: Mission Impossible vs. Robin Of Sherwood

This Facebook post will self-destruct in 5 seconds. Well, ok, maybe not 5 seconds. But your latest Facebook post could soon be gone in a timescale chosen by you (well, ok, anywhere between 1 hour and a week). A small number of users spotted the new feature in a Facebook iOS app earlier this week […]

Microsoft Sings We're Not Gonna Take It, Invites Contempt

“See you in court!” Aaargggh, no thanks, that sounds like a mighty stressful and bank balance-busting exercise in futility to me. But then again, I’m not Microsoft so perhaps I’ve got good reason to not want to end up in front of a judge. Not that I’ve done anything wrong of course. Honest. Just ask […]

Passwords: Microsoft Likes Them Easy, Google Prefers Them Pronounceable

Back in July Microsoft researchers suggested that simple passwords may be suitable for the majority of user accounts, based around their studies which showed the majority of users still preferred to recycle the same ridiculously simple login credentials everywhere they go on the web. And that’s despite the fact that password managers, which can be […]

Barclays: You're So Vein You Probably Think This Authentication Is About You

Back in May I asked elsewhere whether your veins could provide an alternative means of verifying your identity at the cash point. I concluded that, on the whole, the idea was sound though not entirely infallible. Sure, the risk of having your fingers cut off by a cash thief were slim (assuming the thief realised […]

Hanging Out With Tom Raftery on Technology For Good

Last week I was delighted to take part in the Technology for Good podcast. Tom Raftery kindly invited me onto the show. The show focuses on the latest technology news with a view to seeing how it can be used for the greater good. It was a fun podcast and typical of two Irish men […]

It Professionals: Phishing Attacks Against Organisations Are Rife

A new survey sponsored by HP has revealed that 69% of IT professionals are seeing phishing attacks within their organisation at least once a week. It also discovered that seven out of every ten attacks originating within the network came from a malware-infected machine, suggesting that a layered approach to security was still relevant, in […]

Responding To Computer Security Incidents

The following is an article I wrote for the Emergency Services Ireland Magazine; Once the realm of IT security professionals, computer security is now an issue and concern for all business people. Recent high profile security breaches such as those at eBay which exposed over 140 million users’ details, the Target retail chain in the […]

Computer Security – Threats & Solutions

Here is a copy of an article I wrote for LIA‘s magazine “The Financial Professional” Once the realm of IT security professionals, computer security is now an issue and concern for all business people. Recent high profile security breaches such as those at eBay which exposed over 140 million users’ details, the Target retail chain […]