The Terminator on Facebook and Twitter
The dangers of internet viruses, ad bots, malware and other nasty things that can infect our computers is nothing new. But most of us learned to avoid these internet dangers by staying away from suspicious web sites and learning what bad emails looked like so we could avoid getting hit by an internet attack.
But [...]
Food Thieves

I was on twitter last night when one of my friends @kakroo complained that someone was stealing his food from the fridge. That’s just one of the joys of living in shared accommodation. Initially I was tempted to reply with a comment on how he should look at the positives and that the lack of [...]
Google Hack In China, A Setup?

At school I was never big or strong so naturally I avoided all form of physical confrontations with bigger guys. This left me with two choices, hang around with the nerds, keep my head down and hope to not get picked on. Or use my brains to become an evil mastermind and use my mind [...]
Tube Troubles
A few days before Christmas, something strange happened in London. Something quite weird which the local inhabitants, would appear, are not well-equipped to deal with. It snowed.
It wasn’t a little bit of snow. Oh no, a good couple of inches of white blanket covered the streets, cars, rooftops and gardens.
One would think [...]
2009: The Year The Whitehouse Cyber Czar That Wasn’t
Looking back fondly over 2009 which has all but finished I recall with fondness when President Obama announced back in May to appoint a White House coordinator or czar to oversee the implementation of a national cybersecurity strategy.
As they say the best laid plans and path to hell paved with good intentions or something [...]
The Confessions of a Chief Executive and his lost laptop
Posted by The Cynic in Blog, Guest Column on December 16, 2009
As the CTO of a data protection and encryption company I hear many a tale of woe as other CTOs and CEOs confess to me the stories of how various laptops within their companies have gone astray and the destruction these lost laptops have caused in their wake. With this in mind, here is [...]
Facebook Privacy
Walking down a road on a dark night my wife has a habit of looking into peoples houses who haven’t drawn their curtains. This annoys me for two reasons.
1. How can she dare look away from me to focus her attention elsewhere
2. Why on earth don’t these people get curtains? I mean do I [...]
A New Decade A New Threat (or two)
As we approach the dawn of a new decade, there are many predictions being made. Top of the list are predictions of the mess London will find itself in when the Mayor is publically hanged for not completing the 2012 Olympic facilities on time.
A significant change that has been seen over the previous decade [...]
Wise Sayings
Growing up most people were exposed to many sayings and other words of wisdom. The only problem is that most of these sayings haven’t been updated or modernised since the times when little boys were employed as chimney sweeps. Take for example when someone says, “you sound like a broken record”, how many people [...]
Doublethink To A Secure Business
It’s frequently debated as to how effective something like PCI DSS really is. Or whether there’s any benefit in installing IDS devices because hardly anyone ever monitors it properly. It all lends itself to the fact that few businesses see the value in pouring money into information security. Particularly where the penalties or downsides [...]
The War On Drugs And Social Media
Although some of my ramblings may suggest otherwise, I have never taken drugs in my life and quite frankly I have no intention of doing so.
Neither have I ever been employed to stop drug trafficking, arrest drug dealers or help rehabilitate a drug addict.
Which makes me a perfect candidate to comment on the topic of [...]
The Hoff Responsible for Virus
David Hasselhoff. A name that most of the world know. Whether it be as Michael Knight from Knight Rider or Mitch from Baywatch. The German’s happen to know him because they think he’s a singer of some sort?
But how can one explain the phenomenal global success of one of the worlds least talented individuals? [...]
Becoming The Ultimate CISO
Every organisation has one. The ones that don’t; definitely need one. We’re talking about a Chief Information Security Officer. The alpha dog of security professionals within any given organisation. The person who sits at the board and convinces all them other executives to make sure the company protects their and their customers information.
It’s not compulsory [...]
Most Annoying Consultants
Infosec would have a better reputation if all consultants were perfect like me. When speaking to a project manager, we should have completed our research. Scoured the internet, finding out what a particular application does and how many security vulnerabilities are out there. The list goes on, but suffice to say a good consultant [...]
Twitter Risks
Posted by The Cynic in Blog, Uncategorized on October 18, 2009
Twitter is probably the most unique of the web 2.0 sites. People either ‘get it’ or they don’t. Sites like facebook are understood by everyone regardless of whether they use it or not.
So, should twitter be treated the same as other social networking websites? I mean, a lot of companies don’t allow their staff [...]
Divine Security Policy
Posted by The Cynic in Blog, Uncategorized on October 11, 2009
So companies spend countless hours writing their security policies and this isn’t an easy task. Each policy has to be drafted, proof read, re-drafted, re-proof read and then published. It’s at this point that the real fun begins where users have to be educated in the ways of the new policy. Gap analysis have [...]
Who Cares What A Hedge Fund Is
Posted by The Cynic in Blog, Uncategorized on October 4, 2009
I’ve had the pleasure of working within Information Security for almost 10 years. A great number of those years have been spent within the financial sector. So you’d probably assume that I know everything there is to know about banking.
So did I; until someone asked me what a hedge fund was. Sure I’ve spent [...]
Keeping Up With The Joneses
Posted by The Cynic in Blog, Uncategorized on September 27, 2009
I was going to write about something else but that couldn’t have been too important because I’ve forgotten what it was. Strange how that happens. What seems important one moment, is trivial the next. One day USB encryption is the current flavour and the next day it’s all about Trojans.
So what are security departments [...]
Anton Chuvakin – Stuck In the Lift With The Cynic
Posted by The Cynic in Blog, Interviews on September 23, 2009
As part of my feeble attempts to lose weight I’ve been trying to cut down on my calorie intake, work out a bit and try to walk wherever I can. Unfortunately, walking up stairs stills gives me a near cardiac arrest so I’m still taking the lift.
Much to my surprise, I found myself [...]
It’s More Than Your Salary
Posted by The Cynic in Blog, Uncategorized on September 13, 2009
How many times has someone tried to employ you with the line "There are other things to consider outside of your salary!"
Granted there are some people who agree with that statement. They’re the type of people who will view their employer as extended family and will normally be the ones making that statement. [...]

