Category: architecture
Protecting against the biggest security vulnerability
First off, do you know what the biggest single cause of security vulnerabilities and successful attacks against computer systems is? A lot of people think of insufficient access controls, a lack of process, SQL injection, etc but there is something more fundamental sitting behind a lot of these that often gets overlooked. I’m talking about Read more about Protecting against the biggest security vulnerability[…]
First book published
This a quick post to say that my first book has now been published on Amazon. In total its taken a good 9 months from the initial idea. The book focusses on Personal Information Security and how in business personal information needs to be secured and protected. The book is full of lots of practical Read more about First book published[…]
Privacy and Security go hand in hand
In our modern world its difficult to comprehend how many systems hold various bits of information on you, it ranges from banks, credit score agencies, dentists, all the way to SaaS providers and your telco. Social networks also have mountains of information on you that they mine to work out your personal preferences, so they Read more about Privacy and Security go hand in hand[…]
User Authentication, you must do it right!
I must admit, one of my all time pet peeves is when engineers do not implement their user authentication service in the right way to be defendable against an attack. Take for the instance the recent hack against Zomato in which they had 6.6m hashed user passwords stolen. The real problem here is not that the Read more about User Authentication, you must do it right![…]
The Evils of Technical Debt
Technical Debt – A phrase that brings shiver to any experienced engineer or software architect. In this article I’ll explore why it is so Evil and a few basic things you can do to stop it bringing your whole business to a go slow state. (This is a follow-up article from my talk on Technical Read more about The Evils of Technical Debt[…]
Software Architect skills, the top 5
Software Architects need a combination of skills to be able to succeed and deliver designs that are long lived and able to provide strong commercial value to a business. Below I list what I consider to be the top 5 skills in order to be a good Software Architect. #1 Able to listen and confirm Read more about Software Architect skills, the top 5[…]
Systems Architecture & Security, winning at both
Online systems need to be both secure and designed to last, so how can you achieve both and not blow the budget? This article covers a few simple principals you can adopt which are both good for your systems architecture and good for your security. #1 System Components should only do what they say on Read more about Systems Architecture & Security, winning at both[…]
What is a software architect, really?
Software/Enterprise/System/X Architect all seem to be pretty much interchangeable titles these days – the trouble is for most people it’s hard to exactly pin down what a X Architect is and what they are expected to do on a day to day basis. Well you are in luck, this article will shed some light on Read more about What is a software architect, really?[…]
Why do cloud services fail?
Given the recent outage with AWS and how some bad typing could bring down a large part of the cloud infrastructure of Amazon I thought it might be informative to pull the veil back a bit on how cloud systems work and what are the common failure modes and how to guard against it. A Read more about Why do cloud services fail?[…]
Security and Architecture – always consider both together
Software or Systems architecture is often undertaken from a very technical point of view, the main concerns being around reducing technical complexity and dependencies to make it easier to deal with change in the long run. This is fine for ‘standalone systems’ but in today’s highly interconnected world – the boundary of a system is often Read more about Security and Architecture – always consider both together[…]
Cybersecurity Services
Unsure of your business security?Need to secure a website?Looking to build your cyber resilience?Need to comply with a security standard to win business? We can help. Aykira has the expertise to reduce business risks and improve your security posture. Our security services include: Aykira has a proven track record with over 15 years of direct Read more about Cybersecurity Services[…]