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Bluffer’s guide to home cyber security

Keep your devices safe and help others too!

home cyber security

Everyone needs to protect themselves online. There is a lot of advice out there but much of it is confusing and contradictory. We’ll show you simple but effective steps you can take to put yourself in the top ranks. And you can help your friends and loved ones stay safe too.

Welcome to the Bluffer’s Guide to Home Cyber Security!

This article is going to tell you everything you need to know to stay safe online. It won’t baffle you with too much detail. But rest assured, although the steps are simple they are backed up by our thorough and unbiased understanding of how computer security works. We don’t have anything to sell you. This is all good, free advice.

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Cyber Security DE:CODED – Cyber Security First Principles

“A mugger can only attack one person at a time… cybercriminals can defraud thousands of people simultaneously.”

Show notes for series 1, episode 4

In this episode we describe cyber security first principles.

Why can’t we just lock everything up in a safe?

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2020: year of the breach

Solid endpoint protection is a bare minimum

Solid endpoint protection

If it feels like new breaches are reported every week, it’s because they are. Attackers are taking no prisoners and are successfully breaking into businesses, political organisations and systems belonging to individuals. Most believe they have solid endpoint protection in place.

It’s not like a bank robbery, where the bad guys have to spend lots of time and effort to put themselves at physical risk for the sake of one big score. Ransomware extortions can happen in parallel. Criminals sit in front of screens watching piles of victims become compromised.

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Ransomware evolved – Persistent Ransomware Attack

A set of backups may no longer be enough

Ransomware infecting backup tape

A journalist asked us if we felt that ransomware attackers had evolved. But the truth of the matter is, there’s no need for them to do so judging by the large number of publicised cases in which they are able to achieve success without being too creative.

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How reliable are security product tests?

And how can you tell?

Security product tests

If you are in charge of protecting an organisation, you need good data to help make buying decisions. The consequences of simply trusting internet reviews, vendor sales pitches and instinct are extremely serious. So which security product tests are the best?

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SE Labs has been hacked…

And we’re really quite proud about it!

SE Labs has been hacked

Our tests are so close to real-life hacking that sometimes there is no practical difference between the two. We don’t usually expect to interact directly with cyber criminals, but it sometimes happens. In this case, our attacker was rude enough to spoil our initial analysis and to leave a sexually aggressive message for our team, too. SE Labs has been hacked!


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Network Security Performance Testing Evolved

How fast is your firewall? And does it still protect your business when it’s busy?

SE Labs has launched its network security performance testing service. Our reports will answer questions like, “How fast is this NGFW, really?” And, “How well does it protect, even when it’s very busy?”

We have worked with the major global vendors in this area for over a year, identifying and addressing gaps in existing network performance testing. We’ve focussed on ensuring that these new tests from SE Labs are fair, honest, reliable and accurate.

These tests are the first of a new breed.

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Serial Hackers

How we run our Breach Response testing, and why

In this blog post our CTO Stefan Dumitrascu explains some of the challenges behind our newly launched Breach Response testing, why things are now different (better) and the background on how we came to make some of our decisions.

One of our most exciting projects this year has been the Breach Response testing programme. In this article we explain what has changed since last year, and why.

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Hands up, who’s been hacked?

Get ahead in the game that never ends

Have you ever been hacked? You, personally, or your business? If your answer is, “no” it would be interesting to know how you can be so sure.

I once spoke to a marketing manager at a global anti-malware company who claimed that his PC had never been infected by malware, despite him not using anti-virus. How would be know?

Not all malware announces its presence as clearly as, say ransomware. “I just would,” he claimed.

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Next-gen testing for next-gen security products

Bad guys help SE Labs keep its testing up to date.

For the first time in our endpoint protection tests we’ve seen a strong overall performance from both well-established anti-malware brands and newer entrants to the market.

Vendors such as FireEye and Crowdstrike are well-known and respected brands in the security world, but they are relatively new compared to Symantec, McAfee and even Microsoft. Microsoft has not promoted its anti-malware software until quite recently.

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