What's New Cert NZ has released its first quarterly report for 2018, and social engineering attacks feature heavily in the new statistics. The Cert NZ reports provide an interesting snapshot of recent cyber security incidents reported by both individuals and organisations. The number of reported incidents reached a peak of 506 in the first quarter of [...]
Spectre and Meltdown You might have heard of Meltdown or Spectre in mainstream media since early Jan 2018. What are they and what's it all about? Spectre and Meltdown are the brand names for a related set of vulnerabilities that go to the heart of how modern CPUs work. (Yes, vulnerabilities have brand names, logos [...]
(It's that time of the year in New Zealand. This little post was in draft just ahead of the summer holiday period and it has taken until now to hit "publish". Between then and now the industry has been rocked by the Meltdown and Spectre CVEs which are commanding the attention of IT departments, service [...]
CERT NZ recently released its Quarterly Report to 30 September 2017. The report summarises both incidents and trends observed by CERT NZ during the quarter along with a small amount of commentary and some case/malware studies. One of the key take-aways is that the vast majority of incidents are initiated from inside the victim's network. [...]
While billions of people use social media every day to tell the world what they had for breakfast, popular channels like Facebook are increasingly being used by criminals to gain access to personal data that can wreak havoc socially and financially. Just how prevalent the problem is in New Zealand is unknown. There is general [...]
When it comes to keeping your personal information safe online, your operating system is your main line of defence. As well as making sure your device works properly, an up to date OS can go a long way towards providing the peace of mind we all want – it’s the big fence, scary dog and [...]
If you’ve been using the same password for your email since your first Hotmail account, it’s time to change. And if that password is also your go-to for your other online accounts, it’s time to change today. The ‘set and forget’ mentality with passwords is changing as people increasingly realise the importance of strong passwords [...]
People often share documents for work, so when Rupert received an email saying "click on the link to approve my document", he didn't think twice. Even though Rupert’s pretty tech savvy, he couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary – the link looked legitimate. But his antivirus and firewall had other ideas. They were [...]
It’s time to step up your cyber defence If you have one password you use for everything and hit ‘remind me later’ when an update pops up on your phone, you’re not alone. For many, cyber safety is something we know is important, but feels too hard or a hassle to do something about. [...]
