Take a moment to jump back in your mental time machine to 31 December 1999. It was the biggest New Year’s Eve for a thousand years. The dawn of a new millennium. But as we prepared to party, the world…
Cyber security has been a hot item on the UK government agenda in the last few years. Francis Maude of the Cabinet Office is the minister in charge. So if anyone was looking for answers in this area, his…
The Heartbleed bug that’s potentially exposed the personal and financial data of millions of people stored online has also exposed a hole in the way some security software is developed and used. The bug…
The web is full of scare stories about the Heartbleed security vulnerability but panicking won’t help. Better to use this situation as an opportunity to clean up our acts. Few of us do it but we should…
If you’re struggling to understand the deluge of information about the Heartbleed vulnerability, you’re not alone. Some reports tell us to change all our online passwords immediately, others warn us that…
Cryptolocker, a particularly vicious form of malware that first appeared in September 2013, is a game-changer. After getting into your computer, it will encrypt all your data files, from your word documents…
The CIA and the congressional committees charged with overseeing it are fighting again. With a report on the agency’s post-9/11 interrogation practices still not forthcoming, senate intelligence committee…
Some recent high-profile crimes have got people thinking about how we should handle those who break the law using digital technologies. Criminal sentencing is decided by the type of crime and a range of…
Not all violence in war and conflict is simply strategic. And not all the destruction that takes place is a consequence of territorial or geopolitical objectives. Taking over the next village, blocking…
Businesses battling to keep their information safe pricked up their ears last week as it was announce that Boeing has produced a mobile phone that self-destructs should the wrong person try to use it…
South Korea has made a suprisingly public announcement that it plans to develop cyber-weapons for potential use against North Korea. The decision to make its plans known is baffling and the potential consequences…
Most office workers send dozens of electronic communications to colleagues in any given working day, through email, instant messaging and intranet systems. So many in fact that you might not notice subtle…
The massive release of the US National Security Agency (NSA)’s classified documents by Edward Snowden continues to raise questions about security. One of these documents deals with the NSA’s classified…
It’s as easy as “123456”, or so we’ve learned from Splashdata’s annual worst password of the year list. Slipping down to number two in this most recent list was last year’s favourite, the ever-popular…
As business leaders and politicians gather in Davos to discuss how to reshape the world, one of the topics on their agenda will be cyber-resilience, which is all about preparing organisations and individuals…
President Obama faced a difficult task in his speech on reform of the NSA’s surveillance activities. As an accomplished orator, crafting a well-received speech was obviously within his capabilities, but…
Of the many tricks used by the world’s greatest military strategists, one usually works well – taking the enemy by surprise. It is an approach that goes back to the horse that brought down Troy. But surprise…
To my amazement, the latest Eurobarometer survey on Cyber Security across Europe received very little attention in the UK, despite its quite revealing findings. The report shows in no uncertain terms that…
The worrying developments in UK internet freedom over the last year make predictions for 2014 gloomy to say the least. Censorship now affects us all, so we should be thinking about it. And it’s not politically…
In its often fractious dealings with western governments, Chinese tech giant Huawei has been repeatedly accused of being a proxy for government espionage and other practices unbecoming of a global corporation…