Last December, in the midst of the busy pre-Christmas rush, about 300 Spar newsagents in the UK were effectively shut down due to a crippling ransomware attack. Card payments, ordering systems and email were all brought down. Some stores had to close their doors altogether, while others were able to maintain a basic service, but…
For almost 30 years now (I know, can you believe it!), Woody and Buzz have been entertaining us and warming our hearts. I remember going to see the first one in the cinema and being drawn into the antics, insecurities and uplifting outcomes of the two small toys lost in a big world. Toy Story…
Do you think people are good at picking up on subtle hints? Imagine you are interviewing for a senior professional role, and had a candidate in front of you. His CV looked good, his experience was impressive and the technical phone interview went well. You bring him in for a face-to-face meeting, and his dress-suit…
People can have some pretty strong views on what can be very important topics. - Is Die Hard a Christmas movie? - How is GIF pronounced? - Pepsi or Coke? Luckily one you wont have to argue over is which anti virus is the best. Typically people have one AV installed on their machines, and…
Securing a business is often seen as a cost – something that you spend money on with no obvious return. While it is clear that you are reducing risks, it can feel like you are putting money into something and not seeing a return out the other end. So how can you turn a cost…
Allianz have released their Risk Barometer for 2022, and cyber attacks are top of the year. Cyber crime is estimated to cost the global economy over US$1 Trillion, due to three main factors: - The rise in ransomware - The growth of the digital economy, and companies increasing reliance on this - The shift to…
Cloud based and online SaaS services are a normal part of business these days. Whether it is GSuite, Salesforce, HubSpot, or any one of thousands of other online services, people and companies rely on these for their day to day activities. So what can you do to ensure you are using these services in as…
1. Thinking security must be a big task A typical IT network is often a complex combination of laptops, servers, switches, routers, databases, cloud platforms, etc, etc. In a moderately sized organisation, it can be hard to step back and get a sense of the whole picture. And this can make it challenging to consider…
When working on your server, there will be many occasions in which you will need to read files saved on the file system. These could be config files, README files, log files or scripts. Basic server administration means being able to open files and read what is saved to your system. If you are working…
The default and most common means of logging into your server over SSH is through using a password. The problem with this is that you leave open the possibility for an attacker to try log in to your account by guessing your password multiple times until they get it right. Attackers can run continuous dictionary…