DON'T BE A TARGET... ON RETAIL POS, BANKS, EMV & WINDOWS XP...

McAfee Labs' latest report reveals that hackers are using basic 'off the shelf' malware to target retail POS systems, a very topical subject, I’m sure you will agree... But we have to remember that the breaches mentioned in the McAfee report took place in the US, and there is one notable difference between retailers there and those in Europe: the US haven’t yet adopted EMV (aka Chip & PIN)...

A CONSOLIDATED VIEW ON DATA BREACHES IN 2012 - PART 2...

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It seems that many of you found my previous post of interest, so as promised, here’s the second part. But first, let’s all have a look at this 2min 48s video: Security Threats by the Numbers from the Cisco 2013 Annual Security Report. Unsurprisingly, the Trustwave GSR highlights that e-commerce sites were the most targeted asset, accounting for 48% of all investigations...

DON'T ACCEPT SWEETIES FROM STRANGERS...

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[Updated 17th March 2013] Hello everyone! It’s been a long time since I wrote on this blog and I have to say, there have been so many interesting things happening that I haven’t really been able to make my mind up on what to talk about... What spurred me into action was a combination of various industry discussions and security conferences, the fact that lots of us are busily preparing for the festive season (or wishing they were!) and that all the children in my life are SO technically savvy...

THE UNBEARABLE RISKINESS OF BEING... SOCIAL

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[Updated 4th August 2012]
The inevitability of social media in both our private and professional lives is undeniable. With social networks transforming the rules of business engagement, many businesses think the biggest risk of social media is the brand and reputational damage that could result from negative interactions or the potential disclosure of proprietary or sensitive information...

5 STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL SOCIAL ATTACK - What's Your Threshold?...

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In a previous post, I highlighted that mass marketing fraud against individuals cost the UK economy £3.5 billion in 2011, that is ten time more than the cost of plastic card fraud in the same year, or equivalent to the total fraud losses incurred by the financial services sector in the same period! Sobering perpective, don't you think? We all know that mass marketing fraud is where criminals aim to defraud multiple individuals to maximise revenue by persuading victims to transfer monies in advance in exchange for promised goods, services or benefits. And we all know that this is usually done via mass-communications media (such as telephone calls, letters, emails and text messages) and ranges from foreign lottery/ sweepstake frauds through to ponzi schemes and romance frauds or any other abuse of trust... So, we all know better, don't we?... 

THE TRUTH BEHIND DATA BREACHES...

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I was pleased to see the release of the Trustwave 2012 Global Security Report as I find it always a very good source of information! This year’s report analyses 300 data breach investigations across 18 countries and, unsurprisingly, 89% of the breaches involved the theft of customer records, including payment card data and other personally identifiable information such as email addresses.

DATA PROTECTION AND ALL THAT – WHAT DO YOU THINK?...

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Well, January is nearly over and it’s time to look at all the research that’s been produced over the past year to try and draw meaningful and usable statistics...

I do this very selfishly before starting in anger on the conference circuit as I like to have up-to-date figures and stats in my presentations (and let’s face it, we all love numbers! ;-)

Today, I focus on the research produced by the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in the two following reports Report on Information Commissioner's Office Annual Track 2011 - Individuals and Report on Information Commissioner's Office Annual Track 2011 - Organisations.