Cyber warfare: truth is stranger than fiction

What does a movie like Live Free or Die Hard have to do with war? Not much you may think.

As with many big-budget Hollywood movies such stories are seriously over-the-top fiction. Ridiculous fight scenes with the star miraculously escaping almost every bullet while dispatching the enemy first time. You could be excused for thinking that such a far-fetched story-line could never become reality.

Read more ...

SME IT security: creating a simple and affordable bullet-proof closed network

Ask anyone “what makes computers today insecure?”, and the answer will inevitably be “evil hackers and viruses”.

The simple answer to the question is the network cable or wireless network connection. Take away the internet connection and your computer or network is close to being 100% secure since no one outside can connect to it. The only other vulnerability is physical security ... when someone breaks into an office to steal hard drives or computers.

Read more ...

Why not controlling your business data is a bad idea

Over the last few months I have chatted to a number of small-to-medium businesses and it is surprising how relaxed they are about storing and/or emailing business work data at home. Storing data on your own personal hardware opens up a whole can of worms, mainly around policy, legal and technical issues. So what are the problems?

Email
A UK government minister once remarked that emails were as secure as a postcard. Data emailed to him could be intercepted and, given their record for unauthorised access, using Google and Hotmail accounts exposes all data, business or personal, held in the email account to the risk of access.

Read more ...