2020-07-04 -  You may have noticed that things have changed around here - I built a new website, following the ethos that it should be as clear, lightweight, and fast as possible while respecting visitors’ privacy by keeping outside scripts and tracking to a minimum. In this post I take you through...

2020-02-15 -  A restless mind, a new feature, and a concerning news story had me worried about privacy over Christmas. Here’s how I installed Pi-hole on my home network to try to block requests from my Samsung Smart TV – and what the data it collected revealed… It was the night before...

2020-02-02 -  Web browsing privacy is of increasing concern as people’s business and personal lives become ever more entwined with the internet. This essay examines various connection scenarios to establish how secure your data really is. Introduction After years of industry concern, web browsing privacy is finally becoming a matter of interest...

2019-04-21 -  Tech support scams – which attempt to extort money from vulerable people by exploiting their lack of technical knowledge – are difficult to stop, but I recently discovered a Twitch streamer working to raise awareness of the threat. A few years ago, one of my family members fell victim to...

2019-03-29 -  I’ve been sticking to several new year’s resolutions in 2019, including learning languages, staying fit, and working on geeky projects – and leaving Facebook has helped to give me the time and focus I’ve needed to stay on track. Normally my last post of each month goes off-topic and covers...

2019-03-22 -  Formula 1 technical director and former Brawn GP team principal Ross Brawn gives his perspectives on strategy and decision making in his book Total Competition – and there are more parallels with cyber security than you might think. You could make a good case that Formula 1 shares a lot with...

2019-03-01 -  Agile is unavoidable in modern corporate IT, and it is therefore an inescapable part of life as a cyber security professional. Here’s a brief introduction to the project management framework’s key priorities, players, and processes. While I’ve written about some interesting technical subjects (and will continue to do so), I...

2019-02-01 -  It’s been a while since I’ve written anything new for the series documenting my SQL learning, so this week I’m going to explain the various ways you can add, modify, and drop columns in a table using the ALTER TABLE statement. Many SQL database management systems provide nice graphical interfaces...

2019-01-04 -  In the last few months I’ve cut more than 30 minutes from my morning routine, freeing up time to sleep a little longer. When I thought about how my mornings have changed, I realised I’ve naturally followed a process used by software developers. Don’t worry – this isn’t one of...

2018-06-09 -  When it first came out eight years ago, I assumed The Social Network would be a fairly dull retelling of the origin story of what was then everyone’s favourite social network. I finally caught it the other day, and it turns out I’d been missing out on a great movie....