This Week's Gurus

Having worked in the data management industry for nearly two decades, I have noticed that "the new data culture" promised by the introduction of cloud technologies hasn’t quite taken off to the level promised to the enterprise market. As the cloud model has matured from basic hosting all the way up to full services, a huge element of competitive uniqueness and identity is the data that is generated and leveraged across businesses. Cloud architectural models...

If you have been following the technology news over the last few days it has been filled with reports that Marcus Hutchins has been arrested by the FBI. For those that don’t know who Marcus is, you may remember the WannaCry attacks on the NHS last month. Marcus is a security researcher and was credited for stopping the attack on the NHS (or at least limiting the impact by finding the kill switch within the...

The healthcare sector is now a prime target for cyber criminals who are keen to capitalise on this sector’s need to run an always-on operation and malware infections are the biggest information security concern amongst healthcare providers, as revealed by KPMG.   A recent Freedom of Information (FoI) request revealed that 88 NHS trusts out of 260 across England, Scotland and Wales were the victim of ransomware in just an 18 month period, even before...

The most prevalent cybersecurity concern in 2017 is undeniably ransomware, this year has seen it reassert itself into the public eye in a big way. The WannaCry attack in May was one of the largest ransomware attacks ever, affecting more than 300,000 computers running Microsoft Windows worldwide. What’s more the attack hit a huge range of public and private organisations. It’s the old adage - fail to prepare and be prepared to fail, and people...

If the last few months have taught us anything, it’s that enterprises clearly need to take a long hard look at the cyber security they have in place.  One thing is clear – cyber threats now present a bigger risk to organisations than ever before.  Considering the huge growth in the number of new ransomware families (an increase of 752% since 2015), online extortion has become a major issue and one that businesses must address....

The fallout of data breaches has long lasting effects – as we’ve seen from the continued impact of the 2012 data breach at LinkedIn. Although the attack happened five years ago, the ripple effects continue to this day. Recent reports of credentials stolen from U.K. officials are a good demonstration of this. Email addresses and passwords of MPs, parliamentary staff, diplomats and senior police officers were sold, bartered and then made available for free on...

More and more connected devices are released onto the market every day, making the futuristic utopia of the sixties cartoon series The Jetsons, now seem an imminent reality. Hanna-Barbera’s futuristic imagination brought robots, holograms and flying cars to our TV screens. Over 50 years later, robots are entering our homes, holograms are taking the place of live performances and flying cars are being tested. The connected home is no longer a futuristic concept, it’s a...

In this article I want to address some of the concerns that small and medium sized enterprises may have around cybersecurity, especially in the wake of the WannaCry ransomware attack and a continuous news flow around successful attacks on high profile companies. Does the fact that well-known brands are successfully attacked and breached mean that SMEs are even more at risk? If SMEs can defend themselves, how should they go about doing so? I’ll look...

If you attended Infosec in London last month, you may have seen the panel discussion that I was part of.  It took place on the exhibition floor and was also streamed throughout the show.  The topic was social engineering and I was sharing the stage with a number of experts on the subject. One of them was Jenny Radcliffe, who is pretty much the best social engineer I know.  Her talks are a great listen,...

United States voters have had no shortage of cybersecurity news related to elections in recent months, ranging from allegations of Russian interference to revelations that specific states were targeted in attack campaigns. Among some of the frequent topics being discussed in the news have been political infighting, conjecture regarding collusion, and questions about what’s being done to prepare for the “next attack.” as we inch closer to the 2018 midterm elections. And we are inching closer to the...