Everything Changes – Everything Remains the Same
I recently attended the recent BlackHat Europe briefings in Amsterdam and attended a number of the many interesting talks. The briefings highlighted the many extremely intelligent and dedicated professionals there are within the information security field who work tirelessly to help us better defend our networks from those with less admirable goals. Two talks in […]
Securing Wireless Networks
The freedom and ease of use of wireless networks is making them more and more popular both for personal and business use. However, as with all technologies it is important to ensure that they are deployed correctly and securely. At many of the seminars or presentations I give on seurity I am often asked how […]
45 Million Credit Card Numbers Exposed
At last TJX, who own TK Maxx shops in Ireland and the UK, have finally released the number of credit card numbers exposed. It is the biggest credit card exposure in history with over 45 million credit card numbers exposed going back to 2002. Now some of those cards may be expired but it still […]
Latest Symantec Internet Threat Report
Symantec’s latest Internet Security Threat Report claims that online criminals are exchanging stolen full identities for between $14 and $18. A full identity includes the victim’s Social Security number, bank account details including passwords and other personal information such as date of birth and the mother of the victim’s maiden name. The main victims of online […]
Internet Auction Fraud Most Commonly Reported Online Crime
According to the 2006 annual report released by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), Internet auction fraud is the most commonly reported online crime. 45% of the 207,492 complaints received by the IC3 in 2006 related to auction fraud which was down significantly from the 2005 figure of 65%. Overall […]
Be aware of Fraudulent ISACA Exam sites
Thanks to Gary Hinson’s NoticeBored Blog we became aware that there are a number of fraudulent websites claiming to be official ISACA sites for registering for the upcoming CISA exams. ISACA have a post on their site warning about these sites and remind people that the only legimate way to register for the exams is on […]
Hanging on the Telephone
One of the key areas many companies overlook when it comes to information security is their phone system. Not only will a compromised phone system provide a hacker with the ability to eavesdrop on company confidential information or to disrupt your communications by reconfiguring the system, but it can also cost a company a lot of money. […]
Anatomy of an Attack
An interesting article recently appeared on informit.com. It uses a fictional company as an example on how corporate information security defences can be breached. The article, How to Steal 80,000 Identities in One Day, goes through the various stages of an attack, including reconnaissance, identifying the weakest link and exploiting it. While it is a fictional […]
Update on TK Maxx Hack
Some more information on the TJX Hack. It now looks like the attack happened earlier than expected and TJX have admitted that it is quite possible Irish shoppers at the TK Maxx shops have been compromised. The Register and The Washington Post have details on the story. Irish customers concerned about their details can call […]
SPAM, SPAM, SPAM
Like all Blogs we have to contend with a certain proportion of comment SPAM. For those of you not aware of what comment SPAM is, it is basically where people try to promote their site(s) by adding comments to posts with links to their site(s). These comments never have anything relevant to say about the […]