2017-04-03 -  Rick and Morty returned this weekend, and the third season premiere unexpectedly showcased just how devastating a successful command injection attack can be. Held prisoner in a simulation of his own memories, sometimes-great, always-mad scientist Rick Sanchez is forced to relive the moment he created his portal gun so his...

2017-03-27 -  The SANS Cyber Retraining Academy concludes this week, but before graduation there was time for students to take one last GIAC examination to assess our incident handling skills. I’d already passed the GIAC Security Essentials (GSEC) exam with 94 per cent a few weeks ago, but I was more nervous...

2017-03-24 -  This week was all about hacking at the SANS Cyber Retraining Academy, as students attempted to take control of a drone before embarking on a two-day Netwars capture the flag marathon. The challenges spanned a huge range of skills – we found ourselves doing everything from setting up backdoors and...

2017-03-18 -  I used to swear by macOS, but in recent years I found performance dropping and frustration growing. Luckily, my eyes were opened to what a great alternative Linux has become. Since 2009, I’ve been a pretty consistent user of macOS – or OS X, as it was called until recently....

2017-03-09 -  We shouldn’t be surprised that organisations like the CIA are using technology to monitor people of interest to them, but the weaknesses they knowingly leave behind are a big concern. This week, along with other students at the SANS Cyber Retraining Academy, I completed two capture the flag challenges. I...

2017-02-24 -  At the beginning of this year I embarked upon a new adventure in cyber security with the government-backed SANS Cyber Retraining Academy. At the end of week five – the course’s halfway point – I figured it was time for an update on how things are going. If I were...

2017-02-09 -  When you think of a hacker, what do you picture? As someone who grew up in the ’90s, my go-to mental image was always Boris Grishenko, the bespectacled computer technician from 1995’s James Bond film GoldenEye, known for his catchphrase, “I am invincible!” Things have only slightly changed 22 years...

2017-02-03 -  Every Windows user knows it’s foolish to use their computer without installing anti-virus software, but there’s some complacency among users of other operating systems that’s putting them, their data and their money at risk. It’s time they rejoined reality and protected themselves. The most common culprits are Mac users. I...

2017-01-09 -  Another year, another Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The annual showcase of the most innovative and extravagant gadgets concluded on Sunday, and as expected it included a variety of longstanding household appliances granted digital superpowers thanks to new WiFi connections. Summing up what he’d seen in Las Vegas, The Guardian‘s Adam...

2017-01-06 -  Happy new year, and welcome to this long overdue post! 2017’s barely begun, but I already have a lot to update you on and I’m sure it’s going to be quite different to any year of my life so far. My first major news is that I’m leaving Business Reporter,...