A couple of discussions at Networkshop this week have raised the question of cyber-insurance, and whether this might be useful to universities and colleges. To think about that I split the question into three: What sort of risks does insurance cover, and are they things that are high on your risk register? If an incident […]
A growing challenge for on-line e-infrastructures is to manage an increasing number of user accounts, ensuring that accounts are only used by their intended users, that users can be held accountable for any misuse, and that accounts are disabled when users are no longer entitled to use them. Users face a similar challenge in managing […]
E-infrastructures are large computer systems with considerable processing and storage capacity and in some cases, holding valuable or sensitive data. They are therefore likely to be attractive targets for attackers with a wide range of motivations. However, to support international research, e-infrastructures must be accessible to users located anywhere on the Internet. In many cases […]
Next month I’ll be going to an academic conference on Google Spain and the “Right to be Forgotten” (actually, “right to be delinked”) so I thought I’d better organise my thoughts on why, as a provider and user of communications and information services, the decision worries me. And I am much more worried by the […]
The Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015, which received Royal Assent last week, has some network-related provisions among its various powers relating to terrorism. Section 21 adds further “relevant internet data” to the list of information that public telecommunications operators may be required to retain about the use of their networks and systems. Although in Parliament […]
Tilmann Haak’s presentation at this week’s TF-CSIRT/FIRST meeting was on incorporating security requirements into software development processes using agile methods, but his key points seem relevant to any style of software or system development: Make sure security features are treated as first-class user requirement, of equal status with the functional requirements provided by others. We’ve […]
I’ve done a couple of presentations this week, comparing the risks and benefits of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) with those that research and education organisations already accept in the ways we use organisation-managed mobile devices. As the title of my talk in Dundee asked, “BYOD: What’s the Difference” Nowadays, most of the significant risks […]
During a recent conversation about learning analytics it occurred to me that it might be helpful to analyse how universities use student data in terms of the different justifications provided by UK and European Data Protection Law. Although the ‘big data’ techniques used in learning analytics are sometimes said to be challenging for both law […]
“Is scanning lawful?” sounds as if it ought to be a straightforward question with a simple answer. However investigating it turns out to be a good illustration of how tricky it is to apply real-world analogies to the Internet, and the very different results that different countries’ legislators (and courts) can come up with when […]
Recently we had one of our regular reviews of security incidents that have affected the company in the past few months. All three – one social engineering attack, one technical one, and one equipment loss – were minor, in that only limited information or systems were put at risk; all were detected and fixed, to […]