It seems not a day goes by without some major data breach occurring on businesses systems. Anywhere from a few thousand records to many millions at a time, containing information ranging from names, addresses, telephones number, dates of birth and account details, etc. One thing I have noticed, that seems to be a constant throughout Read more about Encrypt Email addresses at Rest[…]
This a quick post to say that I have just received the latest print of my book, now updated to cover off recent changes in legislation, plus some changes from feedback given by readers – much thanks! This makes the book even more useful to those looking to properly secure personal information in businesses and Read more about Latest print of book is out[…]
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[…]
Securing Personal Information in a business is a critical undertaking. Failure to appropriately secure Personal Information can result in information breaches, heavy fines and a loss of business reputation which could impact the long viability of a business. In most countries, it is a requirement when handling Personal Information to abide by privacy regulations. This Read more about Personal Information Security[…]
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[…]
API’s are a convenient and handy way to get different computers systems to talk to each other, but often they are also an easy way to get in by the backdoor deep into computer systems. In this article, we look at few of the most common mistakes made and what you can do about it. Read more about API Security – Carefully does it![…]
Given the release of the KRACK vulnerability, it is becoming very clear you need to take additional steps to make your Wifi network more secure. You should take this as a wake up call to understanding the risks inherent with a Wifi network and just how easily it can be used to gain access into Read more about KRACK – Securing Your Wifi Network[…]
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![…]
According to a recent report – security looks to be a top concern among Software Architects. In this article I go into detail on one of the core ways in which you can achieve dependable security in evolving online systems – namely defense by depth. What is defense by depth? Simply put this is where one Read more about Software Architect Security – what does defense by depth mean on the cloud?[…]
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[…]
PII (Personally Identifiable Information) broadly speaking is information that relates directly to the individual (you) and allows you to be individually identified, plus it is often of a sensitive private nature. We explain in this article what it is and how to protect yourself against people trying to steal your identity through PII. Why is Read more about What is PII Really?[…]
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[…]
According to this article Cisco just had a bit of a shock in the Vault 7 CIA leak – namely that a simple malformed telnet command to one of its effected switches can either reboot it or get it to execute commands with admin privileges (or the equivalent of admin). This is a Zero Day as Read more about Just turn off telnet everywhere now…[…]
Something we have noticed is that people seem to be very keen to try and minimise their hosting costs, by getting the cheapest plan available and then putting all their websites into the one account. On the one hand this can be very good strategy at reducing recurrent costs, but if done ‘blindly’ it can Read more about SEO dangers of one box hosting…[…]
I read with interest an article in a local Norwest publication making the claim that due to WordPress being widely used and Open Source it is a security risk.. Also that due to it being ‘unsophisticated’ you cannot do complex websites on it. These statements are so wrong and ill considered it’s difficult to know Read more about Is WordPress Secure? Can you build complex websites with WordPress?[…]
This new flaw, called the Covert Redirect flaw, was first reported by a Singaporea PhD student in mathematics from Nanyang Technological University. The Covert Redirect flaw is not so easily patched as heartbleed… What is the Covert Redirect flaw? The flaw allows hackers to modify the process of logging into a site, silently redirecting people to dangerous websites Read more about New security flaw in OAuth and OpenID found[…]