Insight

by Dr Amel Bennaceur, lead educator Cyber Security Operations microcredential, FutureLearn.com; academic in Computing at the Open University As our reliance on digital, connected devices increases, so does our need for security. Secure systems must provide the necessary capabilities to protect assets from harm. These systems rely on an explicit definition of their security requirements to describe precisely which actions in a system are allowed and which ones are prohibited. Once security requirements are specified,...

by Allen Abel, VP of AMS, Syntax Remote work exacerbates IT challenges for internal teams already stretched thin, but Applied Managed Services (AMS) can provide some relief. As the coronavirus continues to strain economies and businesses worldwide, IT executives now expect a 4% decrease in IT budgets in 2020. At the same time, companies are tasked with supporting fully remote workplaces, which require the right tools, software and security to ensure organisations’ fragile infrastructure is...

When it comes to secure development, how do you integrate a code scanner into the process, what are the traps and pitfalls? Аll developers face static analysis (static application security testing or SAST, which means code analysis without execution). However, we still rarely see full-fledged SAST solutions in use capable of detecting advanced vulnerabilities. Well-known open-source tools often cannot cope with this task just because they focus on another area (bugs and simple vulnerabilities). A...

The interconnected world provides us with untold opportunities and conveniences. From shopping online to e-banking to something as simple as ordering a pizza, all made possible by the internet. However, these conveniences do not come risk-free, the internet also has a darker side. It is predicted that cybercrime could cost the global community up to £5.4 trillion annually by 2021. However, not every part of the world is equally exposed to cyberattacks, which then poses...

After spending several months and millions of pounds on technology that experts had repeatedly warned would not work, the UK Government was forced to abandon its centralised Covid-19 contact tracing app. A stream of IT failures in recent years has earned the Government a chequered reputation when it comes overpromising and underdelivering where digital transformation is concerned. The story of the tracing app follows a familiar narrative: an ambitious project marked with delays, overspending, and...

VPN software has been prevalent in the digital market for decades now, however for most SMEs, the use of a virtual private network gained immense popularity more recently. Based on a recent report, hackers are using the coronavirus pandemic to spread malware on a colossal scale. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, people are now often working from home, and it has become the new norm for many organisations. This has highlighted the advantages of using a...

At a time when students’ lives in the UK have already been upended with the school year being cut short by a deadly pandemic, an added layer of chaos and controversy has erupted after officials decided to entrust establishing pupils’ A-Level grades to a computer algorithm. In theory, the algorithm used to determine the grades would be the “fairest possible for students progressing on to further study or employment as planned”, according to exams regulator...

  By Richard Orange, Regional Director of UK&I at Forescout Connected devices continue to transform the way organisations operate in every industry. From healthcare and retail to manufacturing and financial services, Internet of Things (IoT) devices are omnipresent and positively impact the bottom line of many organisations. But an increase in connected devices also means an increase in the potential attack surface for bad actors who are constantly on the lookout for vulnerabilities to exploit....