Author: Professor John Walker

1. Accusation at the Heart of British Democracy Background on the Tory Parliamentary Expert A Tory parliamentary expert on China has been accused of spying for Beijing from a position at the very heart of the seat of British democracy has declared they are completely innocent. The unnamed male expert in question is in his twenties insisted his work in Parliament has been to ‘educate others’ about the ‘threats presented by the Chinese Communist Party’. Expert’s Defence and Role of Educating Parliament OK, so let’s look at this on a basis of our own educated status to date. My first…

Considering the known-known statistics, we seem to encounter a serious security breach at least once a week – and these are only the events which are notified or discovered. In fact, according to the BreachAware Report issued end July 2023, there were no less than 179,351,301 events involving leaked data, and other such insecurities – which does tend to focus the mind on the exposure that manifests out of, what may only be described a lacklustre cyber defence, which in real terms impact the end user account – AKA People! The question however, which hangs in the air to ponder…

Whilst the conceptual and academic discussions around dangerous forms of code have been on the agenda for many decades past, it was in 1983 when the young student Fred Cohen (who I think of as a distant friend) created the first prototype virus, followed somewhat later in the mid-eighties when the Sunday Times ran a very small article on the dangers of these new computer viruses – a threat in ‘those’ times which was denounced by GCHQ as a passing nuisance which posed no real dangers to the world of computing. However, what was not considered by that assessment was,…

Question – What separates a smart businessman from a common criminal? Answer, the breadth of a hair! Consider all those cases we have seen around insider dealing between execrative staff at say, the Bank of England, and the banking sector. Cases of false reporting, and false creative accounting, documenting assets which simply did not exist, and not forgetting Mr Robert Maxwells plundering of the companies ringfenced company retirement fund. In fact, even when we look as high as family members of a US President, we have observed the murky relationships and associated interesting dealings in the Ukraine – it may…

There is no doubt that in the right hands, Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) can bring many positive benefits to the Cyber Security Professional, Forensics Investigator, or Government Agencies and Corporations who wish to secure their Digital Assets and Footprint. However, like all things which bring technological positivity to the table, there is also the potential for the sword to have a darker side to the blade which, when in the hands of hostiles, hackers, criminals, or others such as State Sponsored Actors who may utilise the power of good, in pursuit of evil outcomes. As any OSINT practitioner will attest the…

There is absolutely no doubt that the Investigative Journalist, Geoff Whites book, The Lazarus Heist (LH) is not only one of the best researched accounts of the dirty dealings of cyber-criminals, and state sponsored geopolitical actors, but is also a very exciting read. However, when considering some comments on Social Media, and other related professional platforms such as LinkedIn, and noting the position of those who were commenting left me with an itch which I have to scratch – as it was almost like they were viewing such subject matter for the very first time through a well presented window,…

In my personal experience, I am well aware that, if you (I) say anything on Facebook that goes a little against their policies, they are very quick to act – blocking, warning, or removing said comments (which in my case related to Putin, and what should be done with him); or other such opinions, many of which would be agreeable to the vox populi – but nevertheless, good old Facebook and its team seem happy to step up to the mark in repones to supporting decent behaviours – and I get it, so on that basis I apologise for my…

Anyone with any involvement in the world of, what we call Cyber Security, will attest that the world may be moving backwards when we consider the number of successful, high-profile attacks which take place on almost a daily basis, impacting the lives of the ordinary users who are dependent on the sustainability of the digital infrastructures. Examples such as the Russian Cyber Attack against one of the world’s biggest meat processors JBS Foods, which shut down the companies’ global operations for five days. Or maybe look toward the power and utilities industry where we will see the historic encounters of…

In Part 1 published by Information Security Buzz 25th May 2022, the article considered aspects of historic threats posed by all forms of malevolence in the form logical, digital compromise, and looked back to the past encountered threats resulting from Malware and other more costly situations, such as the loss of Crypto Currency through some form of crafted attack; or maybe even by a Ransomware agent denying access to owned data. In Part 2, we will consider some other exemplified real-life attacks which led to compromise and the exposure of sensitive data-assets, and will seek to provision pragmatic, common-sense direction…

Whilst the conceptual and academic discussions around dangerous forms of code have been on the agenda of decades past, it was in 1983 when the bright young student, Fred Cohen (who I think of as a distant friend) created the first prototype virus, followed in the mid-eighties when the Sunday Times ran a very small article on the dangers of these new computer viruses – a threat in ‘those’ times which was denounced as but a passing nuisance which posed no real dangers to the world of computing. However, what was not considered by that assessment was, society, business and…