South West Cyber Beat

This podcast is titled  Dealing with the basics, what you really need to know.
Ross Brown from The SWCRC is joined in this episode Paul Croker. Paul is the CIO and Director of 18it  an IT compnay based in Bristol.  Paul believes every business needs a strategy. and that your IT needs to align and empower your staff. 18iT aligns your IT to your business plan delivering successful outcomes.
This episode really does take us back to basics and is aimed at those who are new  to cyber security or need a refresh. We look at what makes a good password, how to back up data to the cloud, and how inexpensive this can be particularly when set against less reliable backup means, as well as loads of the other useful hints and tips.

As always tanks to Richard Smithson and his music from the album Upbeat

Ross from the SWCRC is talking to Chris Burn from CSRB Limited all about GDPR.  CSRB have a head office in Bristol and a further office in Manchester. Chris fulfils Data Protection Officer roles for organisations across the UK, providing advice to charities, solopreneurs, micro businesses, SMEs, all the way through to blue chip organisations. Chris also has a wealth of commercial and professional experience and undertakes monthly CPD training to ensure all data protection advice given is accurate, compliant, concise, relevant, and offers business owners peace of mind. 
So buckle up and enjoy 20 minutes of plain speaking on how to make GDPR painless.

This podcast is led by Prof. John Goodacre: University of Manchester who is here to tell us all about the UK Research and Innovation 

John is Professor of Computer Architectures at the Department of Computer Science, The University of Manchester in the UK having previously spent 17 years with Arm Ltd as the Director of Technology and Systems where he defined and introduced the first multicore processors and other core technologies. He is also appointed by UK government's Research & Innovation agency as the Director of the Digital Security by Design Challenge Fund, a £200M programme to enable industry and researchers to create a step change in approach to cybersecurity, blocking vulnerabilities by design and protecting the operation and data by default. His research interest include web-scale servers, exascale efficient systems and secure and ubiquitous computing.
The UK’s National Cyber Strategy realises that the unsustainable “react and patch” approach to cyber security today, is not enough to shift the needle against cybercrime.
UK Government acknowledge that it is imperative that businesses move to ensure products are delivered to be more secure by design.  
The continuous cycle of patching and mitigating vulnerabilities is at the core of today’s organisation’s strategy to protect their cyber-attack surface. 

Cybercriminals only need to be right once, while defenders need to be right all the time. 

The Digital Security by Design Challenge (DSbD), run by UKRI, is rethinking how computers are built to be inherently more secure from cyber-attacks.

As always tanks to Richard Smithson and his music from the album Upbeat

This was first run as webinar on 5 Oct with Ross Brown SWCRC talking to Neil Furminger the Cyber Essentials (CE) manager from IASME. By popular request this is being put out as a podcast for all those who missed it the first time around and for those of you who asked to share it with others. 
This episode is just the start of your journey explaining all about CE and how you can achieve it, the free tools available to help you and what resources you look to for support. 

As always tanks to Richard Smithson and his music from the album Upbeat

Megan is a Cyber Protect Officer with Avon and Somerset Police. In this episode she talks to Ross Brown from the SWCRC about what her role entails as well as how to make your business safer online. She also talks about fraud prevention measures. There are Cyber Protect Officers in each force area should you need to contact them. 



Thanks to Richard Smithson and his music from the album Upbeat

Ross Brown SWCRC and Sarah who is a senior leader in cyber security and Deputy Director of the National Cyber Security Centre discuss how the NCSC supports local businesses.

 Sarah has responsibility for Economy and Society Resilience. The Economy and Society team leads on interactions with charities, Small and Medium-sized businesses, academic institutions, wider economic sectors, as well as citizens. Sarah has been working in cyber security since 2010 and has grown the Economy and Society team from scratch when the NCSC was formed. She has also led the NCSC’s cyber security support to HMG’s COVID-19 response and the Critical National Infrastructure Resilience team.

Thanks to Richard Smithson and his music from the album Upbeat

This podcast is titled  Responding to a Ransomware Attack – An introduction to Threat Actors Comms

 Ross Brown from the SWCRC is joined in this episode by Gurvinder Dhiman. Gurvinder is a Senior Digital Forensics Incident Response (DFIR) Analyst, based out of Kivu’s London office. With extensive experience in cyber security particually around digital forensics, incident response, security consulting, threat hunting, cyber intelligence, and proactive computer network defense solutions and services. He has worked in a variety of industries, including retail, insurance, medical, technology and government. Gurvinder has received multiple awards throughout his career for his tehnical skills and outstanding client realtionship management.

We talk extensively on how to deal with a Ransomware attack. This is really worth a listen as it is a subject that is not often discussed.

Thanks to Richard Smithson and his music from the album Upbeat

In this Episode Ross Brown of the SWCRC talks to Mandy Haeburn-Little of Business Resilience International Management (BRIM) about the CRC concept and their relevance and importance to businesses and their supply chains, as well as the benefits that can be had from joining the Board of a Cyber Resilience Centre.

Mandy has worked in the private sector throughout her career. She has worked extensively with companies facing significant challenges and has been recognised for her creativity in finding solutions to dilemmas, has an unparalleled network of contacts and has particular acute knowledge of the international cyber landscape as well as excellent socio-political knowledge.

As well as leading and delivering the national Programme of Cyber Centres for Policing, Mandy is also now working directly with National and International business leaders on the development of a single National entity which will support the network of Regional Cyber Resilience Centres.

Thanks to Richard Smithson and his music from the album Upbeat

In this episode Mark Moore form SWCRC talks to Lior Arbel from Encore io  who Encore integrates your entire security stack into one simple interface, allowing you to focus on what really matters - improving your security posture. 
Lior talks about becoming an entrepreneur at fifty, and his dreams of ending wasted cybersecurity expenditure. Do medium and larger companies actually know what’s going on in their networks? 

 
Thanks to Richard Smithson and his music from the album Upbeat

In this podcast, we discuss so-called ‘supply chain risk’ with Sean Arrowsmith Sales Director of Crossword Cybersecurity.

Crossword Cybersecurity plc focuses on commercialisation of university research-based cyber security and risk management software and cyber security consulting.

Because it’s all very well being safe yourself, but if those who provide you with services and goods aren’t protected, then they might be the weak link in your chain. With potentially disastrous consequences. If you’re interested in using the free tool discussed in the podcast, you can access it via our website at www.swcrc.co.uk/offers. 

Thanks to Richard Smithson and his music from the album Upbeat

Dr Emma Philpott is director and CEO of IASME.  A material scientist by training, Emma spent time working in the UK Ministry of Defence and QinetiQ followed by 5 years working in Singapore. She joined the organisation in 2013.  IASME work alongside a network of over 280 Certification Bodies across the UK and Crown Dependencies to help certify organisations of all sizes in both cyber security and counter fraud. IASME are also a diversity champion with  40% of their workforce are neuro diverse.

In this podcast we talk at length about the need for Cyber Essentials (CE) and how it benefits UK cyber security as well businesses in particular. Emma although a champion for micro and SME's so explains that CE is equally applicable to larger businesses. 

Thanks to Richard Smithson and his music from the album Upbeat

Ross talks to Craig Wooldridge from the IASME Consortium Ltd about the place of Cyber Security in the Maritime arena.
Craig is the Maritime Cyber Baseline & Counter Fraud Fundamentals Certifications Manager for IASME Consortium Ltd  IASME work alongside a network of over 280 Certification Bodies across the UK and Crown Dependencies to help certify organisations of all sizes in both cyber security and counter fraud.
We discuss the Maritime Security Baseline assessment and how it will help keep vessels safer whilst at sea. A must for anyone operating in the maritime arena.


Thanks to Richard Smithson and his music from the album Upbeat

This Episode of the South West Cyber Beat is all about supply Chains.  What is a supply chain, how they are vulnerable to Cyber Attack and how you can secure your Supply Chains. 
We stress the importance of how everyone in a supply is potentially vulnerable so it is not just you who may suffer and therefore it is important that everyone plays their part in securing them. 
We refer to the case study of Kaseya, an IT solutions developer that was the victim of a cyberattack in 2021 over the American Independence Day weekend. The attack was carried out as a supply chain ransomware attack by leveraging a vulnerability in Kaseya's VSA software against multiple managed service providers and their customers.

 Thanks to Richard Smithson and his music from the album Upbeat

We are once again Joined by Olly Jones. Thanks go to Olly who is a Senior Cyber Security Consultant with  Protection Group International, they are a Digital Risk Management Consultancy who specialise in digital security, capacity building and digital investigations.
 The Podcast will help you to understand the balance to be had between human and technology security awareness. He stressed that one shouldnt inhibit the other and how businesses should carry out staff awareness training 
In conclusion Olly gives you some easily applied and practical ways to keep your business safer online. 

Thanks to Richard Smithson and his music from the album Upbeat

Ed Renwick is a Partner Manager at Redstor he has over 24 years experience in Data Protection. Redstor provide backup and recovery services for your data. Ed tells you everything you need to know about backing up data and the risks to SME's if you dont backup your data. These include compliance issues as well as reputational risks. Well worth a listen.



Thanks to Richard Smithson and his music from the album Upbeat

In 2021, over £57M was lost to scams that involved criminals remotely connecting to a victim's computer. This episode is all Remote Access Trojans (RAT's) timed to coincide with a National Campaign from  the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau to highlight Remote Access Tool Scams. 
RAT's are stealthy programmes that allow an attacker to carry out a range of remote functions on a network, including installing backdoors and exfiltrating data. Sam P our guest speaker this week is a Cyber Protect and Prepare Officer form the South West Regional Cyber Crime Unit. She tells us what RAT's are and how to maintain vigilance and how to protect  against them.
Don't forget Never allow remote access to your computer following an unsolicited call, text message or browser pop-up. It’s probably a scam.

 Thanks to Richard Smithson and his music from the album Upbeat

Ross Brown this week talks to Keith Buzzard CTO of Protection Group International about Penetration Testing (PT) and Vulnerability Assessments(VA).  We discuss amongst other things when is the right time to conduct a VA as well as the merits of black box versus white box PT. In conclusion Keith discusses what good PT systems look like and what you should look for.


Thanks to Richard Smithson and his music from the album Upbeat

In episode 9 of the SW Cyber Beat Ross Brown SWCRC is joined by Olly Jones. Olly is a  Senior Cyber Security Consultant with Protection Group  International who are a Digital Risk Management Consultancy who specialise in digital security, capacity building and digital investigations.
 The Podcast will help you to understand what Cyber threat actors are, how they attack vulnerabilities  in systems, networks, domains and devices. We examine the types of threat actors, their motivation, and the reasons behind this.
In conclusion Olly gives you some easily applied and practical ways to keep your business safer online. 

Thanks to Richard Smithson and his music from the album Upbeat

As so many of us are still working form home Lucy from C3iA Solutions Ltd joins us to talk about the threats when working from home. She introduces social engineering, which is how criminals deceive you into divulging confidential details. She also tells us how to detect suspicious emails and concludes with top tips on how to stay secure when working from home.
C3iA Solutions are  a leading provider of secure ICT, technical programme management and information security services and solutions for small to medium businesses.



Thanks to Richard Smithson and his music from the album Upbeat

Ross Brown this week talks to Keith Buzzard CTO of Protection Group International about the different types of Cyber Attack. With the current situation developing between Russia nd Ukraine and with a heightened threat of Cyber Attacks as a result this Podcast has never been more relevant. Keith gives practical advice on the attacks themselves, how to mitigate them and most importantly staff awareness. 


Thanks to Richard Smithson and his music from the album Upbeat