Scott Wright’s Security Views

Have you been invited to participate in helping create or celebrate a miracle today by email; or maybe contribute to a new Guiness World Record, or to support a cause by forwarding an email to show your support?

As tempting as it may be to participate, or to avoid feeling guilty for not passing on email chain letters, please don�t do it! Despite the feelings of guilt that you may have in not forwarding an email from a friend (because it warns of dire consequences if you don�t, or good luck if you do!), there are too many very good reasons not to comply, and to ask them politely to stop being part of the problem. Continue Reading »

You can spend a lot of money on security technology. You can spend a lot of time developing security policies and procedures. And you can have security awareness training sessions once a year for staff. You can do all of these things and still have major security incidents.

Why is security so hard to get security right, even when you do all the things the standards, manuals, books and courses say you are supposed to do? Continue Reading »

Just to ad a little bit of confusion to the question of “Who are the bad guys and who are the good guys?”, there has been discussion of how some dangerous links are able to get into the Google Adwords ads on the right side (and sometimes first few search results) of a Google search results page.

Didier Stevens did an interesting experiment to demonstrate how easy it was for a malicious site to get an ad in a high position, where it might infect people with inadequate security on their systems if they click on them. Continue Reading »

On occasion, I am struck with how unaware the management in some industries are of the number of risks they face in everyday situations. Take the hospitality industry. In between client meetings I sometimes look for a quiet, comfortable place to sit and do email or finish some work. Hotel lobbies are one of my favourites. I’m sure many business travellers would agree with me.

Within a 30 minute timeframe the other day in a hotel lobby, I made quick notes on every conversation the hotel staff around me were involved in while I was working. Given that I was sitting within earshot of the front desk, but 30 feet away, there were several revealing tidbits I was able to overhear. Continue Reading »

Here’s another in a series of Free Security Tools (Here) that I am posting to this site.  This one is a 2-page self-assessment to give a general idea of how well you’re protecting your critical business systems.  Continue Reading »

I have been hearing the name Alan Calder from several sources lately. So, I ordered the book above (Here). It’s definitely worth having on the shelf, even if it does have a fairly high “price per page”.

I found the book to be packed with relevant references for everything from standards to market surveys. I marked it up pretty well inside, making notes to myself on how the information could be used. Continue Reading »