Author: Professor John Walker

I, like many other Cyber Security Professionals have worked at multiples of cross-sector companies, within both vertical and horizontal market sectors – from Oil & Gas and Utilities to Banking, from Insurance to Credit Reference Agencies, and from Local Authorities to Central Government, which includes both the House of Commons and House of Lords. Thus, I feel I have a multilayer appreciative holistic view of the overall delivery of Cyber Security Solutions, and the said operatives who delever the prospect of robust logical protection – which over time has demonstrated that the levels of skill I have observed have ranged…

There is no doubt that, to have a word included in any form of recognised Dictionary, the lexical representation must meet the rigour of being: Common to language in conversational terms Must cross the boundaries of being meaningful to the majority Must have relational context And of course, the word in focus must spring from some known entity or subject area. So, consider the word ‘Cyber’ – a word which was not known going back a couple of decades – but is now a word which has entered, almost every level of daily conversation when it comes to security in…

A question I often get asked relating to Digital Forensic and Investigation Capabilities is ‘what tools are required?’ – a question which is both easy, and difficult to answer. Easy, because the answer is ‘everything’ you need to ‘accomplish’ the task. Hard because, it is dependent on two factors which are as follows: The level of knowledge and skill which are in place The type and objective of engagements It is important to keep in mind with every investigation, and the subsequent call on Digital Forensic Capabilities, that the most important element involved is robust, and defined process which will…

On the 29th of November 2017 I attended an interview with BBC East Midlands Today covering the cruel event of a teenage girl who had been fed, what turned out to be an overdose of drugs, and who was then driven around on the back seat of a car up to the point she died. The young lady in question who lost her life was Megan Bannister who was only 16 years of age. Megan had met her assailants, Jason Burder and Adam King both of whom are 28 years of age, on the Internet, prior to meeting up with…

Europe woke up Tuesday to massive attacks on both governments and some of the world’s largest brands. While the story is sure to develop, here’s what we’ve learned so far, and what enterprises need to take into account whether they have been affected or are trying to protect their organizations from becoming the next victim. Currently, most victim companies are in Russia and the Ukraine with some much smaller volumes observed in Western Europe. Unless the malware has some form of geo fencing, this will likely change throughout the day as the rest of world wakes up and logs on to their…

Forcepoint Security Labs will continue to refer to this as a Petya outbreak, although other vendors have chosen to apply additional or alternative names to it. In straightforward terms, the samples analysed have passed the ‘duck test’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_test) as Petya which has previously been seen to: Encrypt files on disk without changing the file extension; Forcibly reboot the machine upon infection; Encrypt the Master Boot Record on affected machines; Present a fake CHKDSK screen as a cover for the encryption process; and Present a near identical ransom demand screen after completing its activities. While the delivery and lateral movement mechanisms in…

I like many others I have been saddened and outranged by the occurrences which took place in Manchester, and in London, with the loss of so many lives in the name of the Islamic faith. However, before I get into this article please, please let us be clear that this is not a matter of most Muslims being terrorists – this carnage is the product of a small, warped and radicalised minority residing within their communities. In fact, when it comes to Muslims, some of the kindest and most respectful people I know are from that faith, so at the…

At around 14:00 hrs on the 12th of May 2017 saw, what was yet again a cyber-situation of unprecedented magnitude when the NHS, at the outset, suffered a cyber-attack against 16 authorities, which utilized ransomware as the logical weapon of choice – an attack which quickly spread to around 100 countries to infect global targets ranging from commercial organizations to train companies. This, yet another unprecedented attack following in the footsteps of the Yahoo debacle, the chaotic Talk-Talk indecent, and many, many other such unprecedented successful cyber-attacks which have laid systems to waste, and exposed millions/billions of records open to compromise by hackers and cyber criminals. One fact here…

Let’s start the article with a little general knowledge question from 2009 – which of the following statements from way then is the most accurate in respect to the state of the UK economy and what it was suffering: a) Economic Downturn, b) Global Recession, or c) Diminished GDP. My assertion is most, if not all readers will be familiar with all such statements, and of course the then, real time impact of the downturn was all, manifesting in economic shrinkage, and just above flat-lining growth. The sociological pain that economic crisis created resulted in closure of businesses, loss of employment, income, and/or…

We live in the age of economic downturn, placing both the Private and Public Sectors in a very tight financial corner. This same economic downturn has been driving Commercial, and Government leaders to seek out opportunities to reduce spend, to balance the organisational books a little closer to the black side of the accounting scale. It is for these reasons that the buzz word in over the last years has been that of Cloud. So what is this new revolution we refer to as Cloud? And what are its potentials to support the Business Mission in both Public, and Private Sectors? Furthermore,…