Articles by Paul Bryant

What’s the Difference? If your business finds itself in the unfortunate position of being hit with a cyber attack, you might suddenly find semantics important. In two cases currently being played out in court in the United States, Zurich Insurance is arguing that malware attacks suffered by two of its customers should be deemed acts of war, as opposed to typical cyber attacks. What this means is that those costly attacks would not be covered by a standard insurance policy. This is due to the “war” exclusion which commonly protects insurers from having to cover costs that relate to damage

The Cisco report Cisco have released a new cybersecurity report looking at how smaller companies can help defend themselves against cybercrime. Their  “Small and Mighty” Cybersecurity Special Report draws on data gathered from hundreds of respondents across 26 countries. The report reveals that small and medium sized businesses are just as vulnerable to cybercrime as their bigger counterparts. In fact, in 2018, more than half of mid sized companies suffered a security breach. Smaller companies often use more basic security protections, and they lack specialist security staff. This means that they are not only just as vulnerable to attack as

What’s happening The tragic events in Christchurch last week are being used by scammers and attackers as an opportunity to perform targeted online cyber attacks against New Zealanders. It is sometimes astonishing, even being in this industry, the levels to which some people will stoop. But this is also an area of social engineering that is regrettably effective, because of the mood and circumstance all right-thinking people in and from New Zealand are currently in. What to look out for In particular, you should look out for: phishing emails containing links to fake or fraudulent bank accounts where you can

What’s New? Cert NZ has released its final quarterly report for 2018. The Cert NZ reports provide an interesting snapshot of recent cyber security incidents reported in New Zealand by both individuals and organisations. The latest report shows that cyber security incidents continue to increase quarter-on-quarter. In total: 1333 incident reports were made to CERT NZ in the last quarter of 2018, up 53% from Q3, and losses of almost $6 million were reported, up from $3 million in Q3. Notable Increases Reports of scams and fraud increased significantly this quarter, making up half the total number of reports received.

A couple of weeks back we had the pleasure of attending the annual Cyber Security Summit in Wellington. Over 160 cyber security experts gathered together, and there were numerous roundtables, a VIP forum and many expert speakers. We were all given the opportunity to network, discuss and uncover pathways forward for our cybersecurity frameworks. There were some fantastic speakers and much to be shared and learned. Some highlights for us included the following: The National Cyber Policy Office talked about their role in assessing cyber risks and how they manage the scale and complexity of this challenge on national scale.

Cyber Smart Week Concludes Our friends at @CERTNZ have provided us with some great tips and advice this Cyber Smart week. This last topic is all about reporting incidents. What to do when things go wrong Sometimes things go wrong online – it’s happened to all of us. Don’t worry though, there’s help at hand. Get in touch as soon as possible with us, and our team of cyber security specialists can work quickly with you to help get you back on your feet in no time at all. Why report an incident to @CERTNZ? As well as seeking expert

Cyber Smart Week Continues We’re continuing our focus on Cyber Smart week by sharing more tips from our friends at @CERTNZ. Today’s topic is privacy settings. What privacy settings? You like to keep your friends up to date with all those pictures of your pets and kids, but do you really want strangers seeing everything too? Check all your social media and other app privacy settings this Cyber Smart Week, that way you can be sure you know who can #checkyouout. Why does it matter? Unfortunately, not everyone on the internet is interested in your pets and kids and in

Cyber Smart Week Continues We are pleased to share some more useful tips from our friends at CERTNZ for Cyber Smart Week. Today’s topic is app updates. Get rid of that dreaded red dot The best way to get rid of those pesky red dots on your apps is to update them today. Updated apps keep you, your data and your device safe from bugs and baddies. Setting up automatic app updates can also help to make life easier. Why update your apps? It’s simple – those updates don’t just have shiny new features, they also patch gaps that attackers

Cyber Smart Week Continues We are continuing this week with some more useful tips from our friends at Cyber Smart Week. The next topic is two factor authentication. What the factor is 2FA? Put simply, 2FA is a great way to add another layer of protection to your important accounts. It is easy to set up and means that when you log into accounts you’ll be asked for a second thing, like a code from an app, before you can log in. Why is 2FA important? Adding another layer of protection to your accounts means that even if someone gets