IOT
The digital explosion, the consumerization of technology and the world of internet connected fridges leads to a range of security and privacy risks.
There’s lots of work that’s occurred in this space, for example there is the : Code of Practice for Consumer IoT Security
Read more “IoT Security”
Leadership
Defending a single server is often far more complex than people apreciate, defending a single organisation is significantly harder than a single server, defending a country… a much more complex challenge than I think people actually realise.
According to the NCSC:
The aim of ACD is to “Protect the majority of people in the UK from the majority of the harm caused by the majority of the cyber attacks the majority of the time.” We do this through a wide range of mechanisms, which at their core have the ability to provide protection at scale.
ACD is intended to tackle the high-volume commodity attacks that affect people’s everyday lives, rather than the highly sophisticated and targeted attacks, which NCSC deal with in other ways.
UK NCSC
The UK NCSC offer and run a range of Active Cyber Defence capabilities which include the following:
Read more “UK NCSC Active Cyber Defence (ACD)”
Guides
Checking an environment configuration is one of those things where it’s easy to say and harder to do. If we take the cyber essentials standard and look at the requirements, they are quite different from say the CIS baselines. This alone makes for some fun, let’s investigate this further:
CIS baselines are based on a specific component e.g., Windows Server or Windows client and is contextually aware of roles: e.g., Domain Controller vs Member Server.
Is this registry key set?
Read more “Measuring Cyber Essentials: Windows Security Configuration”
Defence
It’s “only” essential but it can be bloody difficult!
mRr3b00t
Cyber Essentials is a minimum baseline standard for ensuring foundational cyber security considerations and controls are in place. It’s a good starting point, but by no means should it be “THE GOAL” and just because it has “Essentials” in its name, don’t think it’s easy to comply with. Whilst the standard isn’t outlandish with its requirements in the main, the reality between technical capabilities and being able to discover, audit and remediate security configurations in organisations is often nowhere near as simple as someone may tell you. The news here is that the standard has been extended to include some wider areas.
Read more “The Challenges of Cyber Essentials Audit and Compliance Activities”
Defence
Sir Jeremy Fleming was speaking at CyberUK, the UK’s flagship cyber security conference this week.
The full presentation is here but I’ve picked out some key highlights.
“Of course, we can count ourselves lucky compared to those caught up in wars, but we are also seeing a heightened cyber risk. Cyber criminals are consistently evolving their tactics; the lines are blurring with hostile state activity and ransomware remains a real threat.”
“Cyber clearly matters to everyone.”
“At the global level, the UK has developed as a cyber power. Alongside the more traditional forms of diplomacy and statecraft, cyber now plays a vital role in our national security and prosperity.”
Read more “The Director of GCHQ speaks at CyberUK 2022”