By Dave Cartwright, CISSP  In February 2023, something very unusual happened. Following a ransomware attack on Royal Mail International, a division of the U.K.’s (formerly state-owned) mail and parcel delivery service, the negotiation between the firm’s representatives and the LockBit ransomware attackers made it into the public domain.  As reported in January 2023, Royal Mail engaged with the U.K. National Crime Agency (NCA) and National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), and part of the resulting activity was to negotiate with representatives of LockBit – without much success.  The first thing of note is that the chat covers a time period of nearly a month – from January 12 to February 9. As can be seen in the transcript, many of the

By Nidhi Kannoujia, (ISC)² Candidate  The cybersecurity industry is a dynamic and promising field that welcomes diverse perspectives. It requires individuals who understand the intricacies of other industries since security is a collective responsibility. While the security industry is embracing diversity, unfortunately, it still faces a significant gap in terms of gender representation, particularly with women being underrepresented. Women account for only 25% jobs in cybersecurity, according to a Women in Cybersecurity report by Cybersecurity Ventures. There is an opportunity to leverage our skills to close this gender gap. Several years ago, I began exploring this exciting field and have continued to dive deeper into it ever since, discovering new areas to learn and grow. I am delighted to share my

What have all these webinars got in common? They feature women at the top their cybersecurity game. March 8, 2023, is International Women’s Day, a focal point for recognizing the achievements and contributions that women have made to every element of society.   The cybersecurity sector is fortunate to include women who are experts and visionaries that are changing our technologies and approaches for the better, as well as serving as role models to help encourage even more women to pursue a career in the sector and bring greater equality and balance to the workforce.  Whether you want to go deeper into one of your core domains, or dive into an area you’ve not really explored to date, here’s a selection of

On International Women’s Day, we look back at the legacy of Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, an innovator and trailblazer in software development and standards for testing computer systems and components.  It would be wrong, as we reach International Women’s Day 2023, not to write about a prominent woman from the tech-and-cyber world. And of the rising number of female stars of the industry, there is one whose name rises immediately to the top of the list: the late Rear Admiral Grace Brewster Hopper, who was born Grace Murray in December 1906 and lived until the age of 85.  Mathematics was core to Hopper’s education; her PhD was mathematics-based, following on from her first degree (in and math and physics) and

Spoiler alert: the obvious answer is not always the correct one! Migrating services, apps and data to the cloud is both promising and challenging. The advantages of scalability, flexibility, reduced operational costs and supporting a hybrid workforce can be eliminated by the challenges of cloud security and talent gap. Those two challenges are closely interrelated as it is demonstrated by numerous surveys. For example, the (ISC)² Cloud Security Report 2022 indicates that: 93% of organizations are moderately to extremely concerned about the massive skills shortage of qualified cybersecurity professionals 57% admit this lack of staff expertise makes cloud compliance challenging 56% of respondents believe that cloud security capabilities are the most essential talent for their organizations The hiring process is