Kai Roer – Stuck in the lift with the Cynic

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It’s been claimed from time to time that I actually sabotage lifts in order to ensure some face time with someone. But I put it down to just bad luck. A bit like how Bruce Willis in the Die Hard films always ends up at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Today, sharing my luck [...]

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IronKey S200

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A few hours ago I was pondering what to write about. But that problem was solved when a friend asked if I’d written about the fantastically new and secure USB stick by Iron Key. The truth is that I’d forgotten about it so could only muster up a few Hugh Grant-esque “gosh” and “jollys”. [...]

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Nathan Reynolds – Stuck in the lift with the cynic

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Getting stuck in a lift with any stranger can be a daunting experience. Contrary to what many claim, there is no scientific evidence to prove that getting stuck in a lift with the Infosec Cynic causes any form of long term damage.
Recently, the Cynic found himself stuck in a lift with Nathan Reynolds, a [...]

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1 giant step to improve security

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These days it’s pretty bad for a company when they lose their sensitive data and it’s even worse if they lose their customers data. Not a day goes past where some numpty doesn’t leave their laptop in the back of a taxi. Many solutions have been suggested, tried and implemented, often at great cost.
I’ve [...]

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Is it easier to kill than lose data?

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 According to the beeb  an 84 year old man killed his wife whilst reversing his car in the driveway. There aren’t much details on the story, but apparently it wasn’t intentional and no, the man hadn’t been plucking up the courage all these years. It was simply  tragic accident…
 Contrast this to the corporate world, where [...]

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Perception is Reality – not always

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I recently decided to go out and upgrade my vehicle from a little panda to a monster XC90. I like to do my bit for the environment you see – and I don’t know about most of you, but I would be quite happy to not have to pay high energy bills to heat my [...]

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A Million English Words and IT security

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Apparently we have hit the million word mark in English, according to some American organization that monitors such things. Now I know that most of you will probably be inclined to make some disparaging remark about Americans and the English language but it just goes to show that there’s probably about nine hundred and [...]

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Road signs

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Whilst driving in London, one can’t help but notice that nearly every lamp post, every telegraph pole, every branch in every tree is plastered with instructions about what the motorist can or cannot do at that particular moment.
You’re on a red route so you have a sign, then another, and then another explaining exactly [...]

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The cynics mailbox

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I remember watching some TV shows and at least once in a series they’d have a kind of ‘recap episode’. It will be one of those kinds of episodes where right in the beginning one of the characters, say Starsky gets knocked on the head and loses his memory. Hutch would then help him [...]

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Fermat’s last theorem and the cynics first

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I have always been impressed by the dedication of mathematicians to tirelessly push the boundaries of understanding and reasoning in both the abstract and real world. One famous problem that was recently solved (recently in the context of the history of mathematics) was Fermat’s Last Theorem (1637).
The Theroem states that that no three positive [...]

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Referee’s, umpires and infosec

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I’m not really a big sports fan, yet whenever there is a world cup or championship of any sort, I’ll sometimes buy into the hype and watch some, if only so that I don’t come across as completely ignorant during those water-cooler conversations in the office.
Recently the 20-20 cricket world cup took place. Its [...]

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8 things not to say to your Infosec guy

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You may not be an infosec person, but maybe you’ve worked with infosec people, or hired them or have them fix all your mistakes.
From experience and what I’ve gleaned from interactions, I’ve put together this list of things you should not say to your security consultant.
1.You’re a chick?
Just from the title of this list [...]

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Sun Tzu: The art of war for infosec

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Sun Tzu was a military General. But his principles are timeless and can be applied to many different kinds of battlefields.
Here we examine Sun Tzu’s ten principles in light of being successful in Infosec.
Learn to fight
Don’t step into the infosec arena without knowing how to defend yourself and attack the opponents. Importantly, know when to [...]

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Why do infosec consultants move jobs?

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Infosec professionals are sometimes caught in between two worlds. We’re not strictly IT people and we’re not really business people. I’d like to think that we take the best qualities from both worlds and combine them to make the perfect worker that any organisation could ever hope to employ.
Being a slightly different breed of [...]

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5 hacking forefathers

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As a security consultant, as much as I owe my livelihood to Microsoft for creating such insecure products, I owe just as much to hackers and criminals out there who keep on doing bad stuff that keeps me employed.
However, modern day hackers like Gary McKinnon owe a lot to the original forefathers of hacking who [...]

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Underground Security Assessment

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For readers based outside of London, you’re probably oblivious to the fact that yesterday and today London’s tube (trains that run underground) union decided they weren’t getting paid enough or that they wanted a bigger pension pot or something and threw their toys out of the pram and decided to go on strike.
Charming…
The streets of [...]

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A chat with the boss

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So today was one of those rare days I came up with a good business plan. I was so excited about it I phoned up my boss to run the idea past him. Transcript of the call is below:
Boss – Hello
Cynic – Whassup chief.
Boss – Oh, it’s you. What can I do for you?
Cynic [...]

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Is PCI DSS Useless?

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There seems to be much debate ongoing these days regarding the effectiveness of PCI DSS. There have been several high profile cases such as Heartland and RBS WorldPay where these companies had PCI DSS certification, yet still suffered card data breaches.
Some commentators are of the opinion that the standard is flawed, useless, merely a [...]

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Infosec Dream Team

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Lately there’s been a lot of hype surrounding President 2.0, Obama’s intentions to protect America’s digital infrastructure. Mr Obama stated, “It is now clear,” he said, “this cyber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation.”
It’s quite refreshing that a modern leader of the day has [...]

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Security challenges Italian Style

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Three years ago I bought a house in the south of Italy and since then I have been trying to immerse myself in the local culture. It recently occurred to me that actually there was a great deal of similarity between the nuances and national characteristics of Italy and the challenges faced by security [...]

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