Personal and maybe a little controversial article: What is missing in cyber security? Doing as you preach

Details

Category: Cyber Security (Personal)

Doing as you preach is not solely related to cyber security. Pick any topic and it is barely followed. Politics: speeding and getting your wife to take the points. Talking about morally repugnant investment methods and likely a lot of wealthy politicians having money stashed in the Channel Islands. Religion: following all the rules of the religion and dodging VAT & tax. Appearing religious but drinking and using prostitutes. And many more stories but I don’t want to “side track” to much.

The whole point of cyber security products and services is to secure your clients. From offering off the shelf products, security architecture design or pen testing. Yet behind the scenes are the individuals doing as they preach at home and in the office, and is the business itself actually half secure? Remember the “late” HBGary which was a U.S cyber defence firm and sold products and services to three letter U.S agencies, and the private sector.

Read more …

Lame "ransomware" email - "!WannaCry-Team Attantion!"

Details

Category: Blog

Poor spelling and just a random email.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Hello! WannaCry returned! All your devices were hacked with our program installed on them. We have developed operation of our program, so you will not be able to recover your data after the attack.
All the information will be encrypted and then erased. Antivirus software will not be able to detect our program, while firewalls will be weak against our one-of-a-kind code. Should your files be encrypted, you will lose them forever.
Our program also covers the local network, erasing data on all computers connected to the network and remote servers, all cloud-stored data, and blocking website operation. We have already deployed our program on your devices.
Deletion of your data is scheduled for June 22, 2018, at 5:00 - 10:00 PM. All data stored on your computers, servers, and mobile devices will be destroyed. Devices working on any version of Windows, iOS, macOS, Android, and Linux are subject to data erasion.
With an eye to ensure against data demolition, you can pay 0.1 BTC (~$650) to the bitcoin wallet:1A2Ra9yyNZBXyMtnskBsdAPCuLm3Qh9wH
You must pay timely and notify us about the payment via email until 5:00 PM on June 22, 2018. After payment confirmation, we will send you instructions on how to avoid data erasion and such situations from now on. In case you try to delete our program yourself, data erasion will commence shortly.
To pay with bitcoins, please use localbitcoins.com or other similar platforms, or just google for other means. After payment write to us: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Rise and Fall of Bitcoin

Details

Category: Cyber Security (Personal)

With the popularity and value of crypto currencies growing, so do the security and anonymity concerns.

As with everyone we all regret not doing something, be it not buying shares in Apple or not buying 100 LTC (Litecoins) two years ago. Bitcoin and newer crypto currencies were created as a non-capitalist, de-centralised and likely anti-government establishment alternative to the Pound, Euro or Dollar which is extremely widely accepted and has regulators. The funny thing is Bitcoin is slowly becoming more mainstream and you could argue has become part of a capitalist system!

Two years ago, 1 BTC (Bitcoin) was worth $319 and today (31/01/18) $10130 – an increase of over 3000%. A single share in Microsoft has only just about increased 100% in two years. Recently BTC dropped by about £1000 in a single day, which a share would just never do. Volatile it is, it usually jumps back and there is speculation it could hit $50,000 next year. A bank account from NatWest, Barclays and HSBC is where people normally store their cash, from pounds to hundreds of thousands until now.

Read more …