Sunday, 26 April 2009

London workers will sell company secrets - for a price

One in three London workers (out of a survey of 600) said they would be prepared to sell their company data and information for the right price.

The amount of access they have is a real eye-opener. Levels of access include; customer data bases (83%); business plans (72%); accounting systems (53%); human resources databases (51%); and IT admin passwords (37%).

If you want to know how to minimise exposure to insider threats like this contact FaberBrent.

Thursday, 23 April 2009

Luxury car dealers accused of spying for commercial edge

3 senior employees of luxury car dealership Universal Autosports in New York have been accused of illegally accessing the e-mail system of a rival dealer.

Cash prize for smart mobile design

There is now a cash incentive for designers to come up with a design for secure mobile phones.

The Design Council has recognised the considerable crime associated with mobile devices and this has driven the initiative.

UK considering hardwireing to provide on-demand wiretapping

Lord West (the security minister) told Parliament on Monday that the government are considering installing hardware that would provide instant information on demand for all Internet traffic in the UK.

The technology under consideration is Deep Packet Inspection (DPI).

Welsh trial to track schoolkids with GPS to start in May

A trial will be starting in wales in May to track school children during their journey to and from school. 

Parents will be able to use a web portal to see their children's geographical location.

Tuesday, 21 April 2009

The British Council has been ordered to encrypt all portable data

Following a loss of a disc containing data on 2,000 people including trade union membership and banking details the British Council has been ordered to encrypt all data by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).


We say ENCRYPT ALL PORTABLE DATA NOW, the campaign starts here. How many more 'horses bolted' stories do we need?

Monday, 20 April 2009

The FBI have been using homebrew spyware for years

Recently declassified documents have revealed that the FBI have been using their own brand of spyware to install on targets computers and gather wide range of data to send back to Virginia.

Thursday, 16 April 2009

Tramp has phone numbers of Cabinet ministers on stolen Blackberry

A journalism student purchased the Blackberry device while working on an assignment about the homeless.

He discovered phone numbers several cabinet ministers and other sensitive data.

Now Blackberries have pretty good security.... as long as it is switched on! more here...

Fraudsters discover how to decrypt banking PIN numbers - is this the end of PIN's as we know it?

Hackers have discovered how to decrypt the algorythm that protects
bank card PIN data.

The best way to explain this is the Kentucky Fried Chicken anology.
Previously they could loiter at KFC and steal 1
piece of chicken at a time (perhaps a full bucket on a good day),
now they have the Colonel's secret recepie!

SAS laptop containing confidential information is unencrypted and missing

The Telegraph are reporting that a laptop belonging to the Signals Regiment attached to the SAS has gone missing.

The laptop containing counter terrorism and military data was discovered missing during an equipment audit. Unbelievably the laptop was unencrypted. 

Employees still have access to company data after they leave

A new survey has highlighted a very common problem. when an employee leaves they frequently still have access to systems, login's and data.

The figures are shocking, read the full article here...

If you want help designing an effective policy for departing staff contact FaberBrent.

Monday, 13 April 2009

Coronation Street producers sweep for bugs to combat leaks

Coronation Street producers have been sweeping for bugs as part of
their security measures to combat plot line leaks. 
Senior production staff have been asked to provide mobile phone
records and other data to try to identify where leaks may have
happened.

This comes as cost and wage cutting hangs over the heads of both
actors and production staff at ITV.

When times are hard we see an increase in unscrupulous activity such
as this. If you are concerned about industrial espionage contact FaberBrent.

Sunday, 12 April 2009

Watching a burglary live on web cam

Great video of a live burglary watched by a Florida woman live on her own covert security web cam.

Our mobile phones are self-inflicted surveillance

Great article on The Register detailing how our phones are effectively surveillance tags giving away endless data about our movements and behavior patterns.

Another delay for ICO data breach powers

Once again this government has failed to deliver on deadlines to bring in new powers for the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to fine companies who lose personal data. There has been no comment on why they missed the deadline, or when they now plan to publish the secondary legislation.

Perhaps they need time to gather the funds required to meet all the fines that will be leveled against government departments.... or just to try to get their own house in order?

Report shows decline in UK business mobile security

The report claims that more than half of UK business workers have to access remote sensitive data on an ongoing basis.

The report claims one in three businesses do not have sufficient security for this process.

In our experience this is very true. Many companies don't know how to implement better security for fear of compromising efficiency. If you need help finding the balance contact Faberbrent.

Key Brown advisor still doesn't understand emails are 'published documents'

Damian McBride had to resign after sending “juvenile and inappropriate” emails from his Downing Street email address.

How can someone who works in a senior public position have such a fundamental gap in their understanding of information security.

Thursday, 9 April 2009

Police Chief Bob Quick Resigns - UK's most senior counter-terror officer resigns because of stupidity!

Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick, Britain's most senior anti-terrorist policeman has resigned after walking into Downing Street carrying papers detailing 'Pathway', an undercover operation to arrest al-Qaeda suspects planning a major terrorist attacks in the UK.

As a result the raids were brought forward and 12 people were arrested last night. 

When will people realise that security has to be holistic, a piece of paper is just as dangerous as an electronic document or conversation.

Lets hope the operation (and the safety of the officers involved) was not compromised for the sake of an envelope!

More here, here and here

Monday, 6 April 2009

Big brother is recording you right now viewing this page - UK go live today with new EU directive

Quietly, and to some degree by the back door, a new EU directive has gone live today in the UK. It is now law that all Internet usage, websites visited, emails and web phonecalls will be recorded and stored for at least 12 months.

The idea is for police and security services to have easy access to the data to combat crime and terrorism. Be aware that many other bodies including local councils will also be able to access the data.

Why has there been so little media attention to this?

more here...

UKBA set to share fingerprint data with US, Canada and Australia

We are soon going to see cross-border information sharing from the UK Border Agency.  This appears to be the first major move from the organisation (that has achieved full executive agency status from 1st April).

I wonder how long until all biometric data will be freely exchanged between border agencies?

more here...