By James Rees, MD, Razorthorn Security In an era of interconnected services and external partnerships, two critical security challenges loom large: third party risk and insider threats. Recent events highlight these concerns – from the massive breach of Social Security numbers through a service provider to the CrowdStrike incident that grounded major airlines, causing hundreds of millions in damages.

By James Rees, MD, Razorthorn Security In today’s complex cybersecurity landscape, Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) tools have become essential for organisations managing intricate security ecosystems. These tools are designed to centralise information, streamline processes and offer crucial insights into an organisation’s risk posture. However, as cybersecurity expert Jack Jones revealed when he joined me on a recent podcast, the reality often falls short of these ambitious claims.

The cybersecurity industry is known for its cutting edge technology and constant evolution, but beneath the surface of firewalls and threat detection lies a aspect that’s discussed less regularly: the mental health and wellbeing of its professionals. As cyber threats grow more sophisticated, so too does the pressure on those tasked with defending against them.

By James Rees, MD, Razorthorn Security In the rapidly evolving world of cybersecurity, artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs), have become buzzwords that seem to promise revolutionary solutions. However, as with any emerging technology, it’s crucial to separate hype from reality.

By James Rees, MD, Razorthorn Security Times must change (and always will) and nowhere is this more true than in the realm of technological advancement. Thirty years ago, the technological landscape was vastly different from what we have today and technological change has outpaced Moore’s Law for some time now. Information security must keep pace with these advancements. This has become especially true with the advent of AI.

By Michael Aguilera, Lead Penetration Tester, Razorthorn Security Over the past decade, crowdsourced penetration testing has grown in popularity because of its convenience and cost effectiveness. However, this surge in popularity does not come without its caveats. In this blog, we’ll explore the benefits and risks of crowdsourced penetration testing, compare it with traditional methods and help you make an informed decision for your organisation’s cybersecurity needs.

The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is set to reshape the landscape of financial services in the European Union. But its impact extends beyond EU borders, particularly affecting UK-based Information and Communication Technology (ICT) service providers. Let’s explore how DORA might influence these providers and what steps they should consider taking.

Companies must prioritise a comprehensive and proactive approach to network security. Among the most effective strategies to ensure robust defence mechanisms is rigorous penetration testing. By adopting an “assumed breach” mentality, organisations can better prepare for potential attacks, ensuring they are not merely reacting to threats but actively preventing them.

In late March 2024, the cybersecurity community was shaken by the revelation of a critical vulnerability in XZ Utils, a popular open source compression tool integral to many Linux systems. The discovery was made by Andres Freund, a developer at Microsoft, who reported that versions 5.6.0 and 5.6.1 had a backdoor that could potentially allow unauthorised remote code execution.

Recently, Computer Weekly released an article entitled “Budgets Rise As IT Decision Makers Ramp Up Cybersecurity Spending” on 18th March 2024. It was an interesting article as it cited a number of stats that showed that IT departments plan to increase their cybersecurity budget and that globally 65% of organisations were going to spend more on cybersecurity.