Microsoft is criticizing government agencies for hoarding software flaws and keeping them secret, calling this weekend’s massive ransomware attack a “wake-up call.” Brad Smith, Microsoft’s chief counsel, wrote Sunday in a company blog post that by keeping the vulnerabilities secret from vendors, it opens users open to attacks like the WannaCry hack, in which malware locked down computers while demanding a hefty sum for freedom. He compared the WikiLeaks release of NSA hack tools toRead More

A week ago I heard from Troy Mursch, an IT consultant based in Las Vegas. A big fan of proactive medical testing, Mursch said he’s been getting his various lab results reviewed annually for the past two years with the help of a company based in Frisco, Texas called True Health Diagnostics. True Health is a privately held health services company specializing in “comprehensive testing for early detection of chronic diseases,” according to the company’sRead More

Setting the scene Sheila from an IT Helpdesk was trying to go home. Traffic was building up, and a 30-minute trip back home would become an hour’s trip shortly. Just as she’s about to shut down, she receives an email appearing to be from a very important customer, with an attachment claiming to be a screenshot of a problem. Always keen to do her bit for the company, Sheila stays a few minutes late toRead More

Cyber security – defined as the protection of systems, networks and data in cyberspace – is a critical issue for all businesses. Cyber security will only become more important as more devices are connected to the Internet. While rapid technological developments have provided vast areas of new opportunity and potential sources of efficiency for organisations of all sizes, these new technologies have also brought unprecedented threats. Cyber security for organisations An effective cyber security postureRead More

hat’s the all-too-common question when a major cyber incident is discovered—or, too often, announced. Up to 70 percent of data breaches are detected by third parties rather than by organizations’ own security operations teams, a clear indication that most current methods of security monitoring are inadequate for a cyberattacks. From a business perspective, for all the money companies spend on the latest detection technologies, IT shouldn’t miss anything at all, right? Ironically, the reason soRead More