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In May 2021 when the gasoline supplies to the East Coast of the US went down as a consequence of the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack, nobody foresaw the mass panic that the hack would entail. Breaching the internal systems which controlled the company’s billing and supplies with the aid of a compromised password, DarkSide crippled…

Introduction In the beginning, there was Stuxnet. The year was 2010, and the world had not yet encountered a cyberweapon. Stuxnet, a computer worm unleashed on Siemens systems deployed in Iran’s uranium facilities, successfully slowed down and significantly damaged the centrifuges used to separate elements in the uranium gas. Infecting the Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs),…

There is an ominous ring to the word ‘dark’. The words dark web, dark matter, and dark night, to name just a few, evoke feelings of fear and anxiety. Dark data is no different. Getting its name from its invisible nature, dark data is being increasingly considered a problem in the making for organizations. Gartner…

In the not-so-distant past, it was the done thing for Security Operating Centers (SOC) to manually address data breaches. Cyberattacks today however are so frequent, voluminous, and automated that such a reactive posture is no longer feasible. Entry points have grown. So too has the wherewithal of cybercriminals who have incorporated automation into their cyberattacks.…

It’s safe to say that the future of computers and communication lies not in the conventional desktop, but with mobile devices like smartphones, tablets, and laptops. The ease of operation, the single point benefits they offer, their price effectiveness, and their size make them a hot favorite, ideal to use from any place that provides…

Introduction When Graham Bell invented the first working telephone in 1876, almost a century and a half ago, never would he have imagined even in his wildest dreams where his invention would go, or what avenues would unfold as a consequence. Yet it wasn’t until another 60 years later in 1936 when Alan Turing built…

One of the crudest but also true-to-life jokes about the advent of online goes like this: “Terrorist organizations have decided to get into online crime to keep up to date. They have just launched a new app called Pay-Up-Pal.” A joke, yes, but one that is driving cyber criminals today, hell-bent on making online fraud,…

Introduction The Aesop fable of the boy who repeatedly raised false alarms about a big bad wolf teaches us that people may become inured to repeated warnings, even if they are eventually proven true. This resonates with how people are currently responding to data breaches – they are becoming more accepting of them rather than…

2023 – The year of things cyber Just about recovering from the ravages of Covid-19, only to see it resurface, 2023 seems to be the year of things cyber, going by some of the major predictions that are doing the rounds. This is despite climate change continuing to be a hot topic the world over.…

Why every cybersecurity person needs to think like a hacker Introduction In the world of football, it is not uncommon to see coaches’ pore over video recordings of opposing teams’ matches in the endeavor to understand their plays, game strategies and strengths and weaknesses. The reason is not difficult to discern. In order that they…