Archie's Cyber Blog

Here's the thing.  Archie's got this inquisitive nature.

The news that comes out of the world of Cyber Security is, at times, as pointless and irrelevant as the rest of the news you are given.  Instead of ‘circular reporting’, where the news goes around and around, from blog to blog, Archie does it's own research.  If you’re finding things out by reading mainstream news channels, then you’re the last to know.  Archie asks difficult questions of people.  We challenge the conventional thinking, we get people to justify their decisions, their beliefs.  We turn stones over because we want to know what’s underneath.  We want to know what's under the rock.

We’ve found a few things out on this journey, and they provide the fuel we need to write this blog.  It's easier to walk around and see how people are working with technology.  We know that what they believe dictates how they’ll act so if we can influence (and maybe educate?) at this point, then maybe it’ll be a better world.  Or are we as guilty of social engineering as the bad guys?

Cyber Security is just as susceptible to bullshit as any other market place.  Take anti-virus software, for example.  Yes, it is essential (totally and crucially essential) that you have it installed, configured and updated correctly.  But did you know that for most small to medium sized enterprises, it doesn’t matter which brand you use?

The way they work, what they do, takes up about 75% of the product, and that’s pretty common throughout the range - they all do the same thing.  Some providers of this 75% are better than others - there are always leaders, first to market and that.  Which leave about 25% difference from product to product.  The front end (what you the consumer look at and interacts with) is about 10% of the difference and marketing takes up the rest.  “Buy our product because it's better than their's!”

And yes, we will get flamed for saying this, but that's what we're here for.  To offer you an independent, honest opinion.  A voice which isn't tainted by bullshit.

You have to know that the way a virus works, is that it’s just code.  Malware is software with malicious intent.  Put two halves of the words Malicious and Software together and you get Mal-Ware.  Malware.  And it's written by humans.  This 'Malware' is used by a ‘threat actor’ (we can also call them ‘cyber criminals’) as a weapon against you, the 'victim', the 'target', the 'mark', the'asset'.  Without a fix, it (and they) can take advantage of vulnerabilities, the programming problems in the software on your computers, and nothing and nobody is going to stop it.  This is called a ‘zero day’.

But then the A-V providers identify and analyse it, and it's given a name.  So this malware can be recognised and ‘treated’ in the future, it’s given a ‘signature’.  And these ‘signatures’ are what A-V updates are all about, and some vendors are faster to market with relevant updates than others.

"So it doesn’t matter?  I just fit it and forget it?  I don’t need anti-virus software, right?" 

It doesn’t matter what brand of anti-virus software you're using as much as you’ve actually got one.  Deploying anti-virus software is critical.  And correctly configuring it and paying for regular updates is way more important than which product badge it’s wearing.  What I’m saying is that if it’s set up wrong, and isn't scheduled to update and scan at least daily, then it doesn’t matter which product you’re using because it’s a product ‘not working’.

Which is what we write about.  That’s the blog.

May we ask a favour of you?  If there’s anything you’d like Archie Consulting to look into, then let me know.  Same goes for product tests, scandal, or is there a piece of hardware you’d like a review on?  Maybe it’s a concept you’d like to have discussed.  Now that would flow our mop.

Get in touch.