Author: Kevin Hawkins

Data Breaches and their consequences General Security Issues News Security

Data Protection – A Timely Reminder

Data Protection is a somewhat dry subject that many companies, particularly SMEs, and many think they can get away from by simply paying a bit of lip service.  The Data Protection Act 2018, or as it has become known, UK GDPR, is far from a toothless beast and can cause businesses to find themselves in all sorts of problems if they’re not careful.

As M&S has discovered and now, the Ministry of Justice.   The cyber-attack was on the Legal Aid Agency and appears to have accessed a ‘significant amount’ of applicants’ personal data, to which the government admitted.  ‘This data may have included contact details and addresses of applicants, their dates of birth, national ID numbers [national insurance], criminal history, employment status and financial data such as contribution amounts, debts and payments,’ the MoJ said.

…….. ‘it has become clear that to safeguard the service and its users, we needed to take radical action. That is why we’ve taken the decision to take the online service down. We have put in place the necessary contingency plans to ensure those most in need of legal support and advice can continue to access the help they need during this time’.  Serious indeed.

Initial findings suggest that this is the result of systemic issues within the organisation which they have failed to correct, over many years.

What are the possible fall outs from this?

That very much depends on how the Information Commissioner views it.  If this is seen as negligence, then the potential fine could be very significant indeed.  If, on the other hand, it is deemed that the MOJ took all reasonable precautions that they could to protect the data, then that is a good mitigation which will reduce the potential punishment. 

But that’s not the end of it.  The reputational damage that this does is incalculable and the cost of fixing the issues will be high.  Then there is the potential for legal action by anyone whose data was compromised, that could easily be the biggest issues that the MOJ faces.

Only time and a thorough investigation will determine the outcome.

Data Protection and the SME

My subscribers wi8ll know that my focus is the SME, large and small.  So how does data protection impact them.  Not so long ago a London estate agent was fined £80,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), after leaving the personal data of more than 18,000 customers exposed for almost two years.

The incident occurred when the estate agent passed the details from its own servers onto a partner company. An “Anonymous Authentication” function was not switched off, which meant there were no access restrictions to the data.

It’s surprising just how much PII estate agents hold.  Just think about what they ask for when you’re buying a house.  In this case the exposed details included bank statements, salary details, copies of passports, dates of birth and addresses of both tenants and landlords.

Then, as above, that might not be the end of it.  Individuals can sue companies that release data into the wild.  In fact, there are now law firms advertising no win no fee when representing these cases.  Remember that data breaches almost always involve multiple people, sometimes hundreds if not thousands of records.

What size does a business need to be for the regulations to apply?

The regulations apply to all businesses large and small, although some exceptions exist for SMEs. Companies with fewer than 250 employees are not required to keep records of their processing activities unless it’s a regular activity, concerns sensitive information or the data could threaten an individuals’ rights.  Just exposing PII can threaten an individual’s right to privacy.

Just about everyone processes personal data of some sort.  Data that can identify a living individual.  HR data will have bank account information, home addresses, NOK, phone numbers, maybe references from previous employers.  The exposure of some or all of that could be judged as prejudicial to an individual’s rights.  Some companies may have bigger problems, for example Solicitors, Estate Agents, Financial Advisors and Recruiters (the list is not exhaustive), which hold an abundance of personal data about their clients, much of which, under other legislation they are required to retain for up to 7 years.

Do I need written policies and processes?

Yes – What this means is that a significant number of policies and processes will need to be written and taken into use by the organisation.  It is not unusual for many to visit the web and download templates to cover their requirements.  However, whilst these templates in themselves maybe adequate when used by someone who knows what the requirement is, they may be less than effective in the hands of someone who is just looking for a quick tick in the box.

How is UK GDPR effected by cyber security?

The Act requires personal data to be secured by ‘default and design’.  This means that cyber security requirements must be designed into your protections.  This could mean at least another 6 or 7 policies and procedures.

How can I keep track of all my PII holdings and keep it secure?

When we are first approached by a prospective client and we begin our offer of a 30 day free trial to examine their requirements, one of the first things we find is that they don’t know what data they are holding, or where it all is.  Oh, they have a general idea; it’s on the cloud server(s), it’s not on laptops or desktops, it’s just the stuff we need to process our clients’ requirements and yes, we’ve only got one copy.  And then we install our software that first carries out a discovery exercise and we find that their laptops/desktops are holding lots of copies of the data that is on the cloud server(s).  How does that happen?  Over time, especially with many now employing the hybrid system of working, ie between the office and remote (home) locations, employees log on to the cloud, find they have a bit of shaky internet link and download the data they need, work on it and then upload it again, forgetting to delete it from their machine.  Or they need to share it and attach it to an email and send it out, forgetting, or perhaps not realising, that the data is now stored, attached to an email, on their email server.

Then comes the issue with audit trails.  If the ICO ever wanted to carry out an investigation, then having an audit trail of who created/copied/deleted/forwarded what to who, is essential.  And let’s not forget the member of the public who is fully entitled to submit a Data Subject Access Request or DSAR, which demands that you reveal what data you are holding on that person.  The law insists on it, and you can’t refuse it.  I know of a financial firm that took nearly 3 weeks to satisfy a DSAR, taking an employee off billing, for that time.

Are there solutions suitable and affordable for SMEs?

We have a solution that meets the requirements and not only that, has a built in encryption system, all within the same monthly cost.  It’ll cost you nothing to trial it and we’d be very surprised if once you’ve seen it and seen the ridiculously low monthly charge for the managed service, you don’t want to keep it.

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Cyber Attacks on SMEs

We’ve posted a few pieces recently on why setting a realistic budget for cyber security is so important and we thought we’d follow that up with some real-life examples.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly being targeted by cybercriminals in 2025 and are facing a range of sophisticated threats that exploit limited resources and evolving technologies. Here’s a quick look at some of the most pressing cybersecurity incidents and trends that have affected SMEs so far this year:

Major Cybersecurity Incidents Impacting SMEs

  • Co-op Supermarket Chain Cyberattack (UK)

A “highly sophisticated” cyberattack disrupted Co-op’s IT systems, leading to customer data theft, contactless payment failures, and empty shelves in Scottish stores. The breach also affected other major retailers like Marks & Spencer and Harrods, with investigations pointing towards hacker groups such as Scattered Spider and Lapsus$. 

  • Lockbit Ransomware Group Breach

The notorious ransomware gang Lockbit was itself hacked, resulting in leaked communications that revealed aggressive targeting of small businesses for extortion. This breach has temporarily disrupted Lockbits operations and exposed their tactics.

  • Berkeley Research Group (BRG) Data Breach

A cyberattack on BRG compromised sensitive data related to Catholic Church sex-abuse cases. The attacker used impersonation tactics via Microsoft Teams to deploy Chaos ransomware, leading to concerns over the exposure of victims’ identities.

 Emerging Cyber Threat Trends for SMEs

  • AI-Powered Phishing and Deepfake Attacks

Cybercriminals are leveraging AI to craft convincing phishing emails and deepfake audio impersonations of executives, deceiving employees into authorising fraudulent transactions.

  • Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS)

The availability of RaaS platforms has lowered the barrier for launching ransomware attacks, making SMEs prime targets due to their valuable data and often limited security infrastructure.

  • Supply Chain Vulnerabilities

Attackers exploit weaknesses in third-party vendors to infiltrate SMEs’ systems, as seen in incidents involving compromised software packages on platforms like NPM.

  • Business Email Compromise (BEC)

Scammers use AI to mimic emails from corporate partners and managers, leading to fraudulent financial transactions. In Australia, BEC attacks have increased by 7% year-on-year, with SMEs being particularly vulnerable.

Proactive Measures for SMEs

To mitigate these threats, SMEs should consider the following actions:

  • Implement Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

Enhance account security by requiring multiple verification methods.

  • Regular Employee Training

Your staff are your first line of defence and need to be educated on recognising phishing attempts and social engineering tactics.

  • Secure Supply Chains

Vet third-party vendors for cybersecurity compliance and monitor for unusual activities.   Are you in a supply chain for a major company?  Are you facilitating a back door into their systems?

  • Invest in AI powered security tools

Utilise advanced solutions capable of detecting and responding to sophisticated threats.  H2 has a couple of suggestion here that are affordable to SMEs.

  • Protective Monitoring

How do you know that your expensive solutions are protecting you?  Do you know if you’ve suffered a stealth attack where the attacker has built a back door into your systems?  Do you know if you’re hard-earned cash is being siphoned off?  How vulnerable are you to an attack? A monitoring solution for SMEs is now available at an affordable price.

  • Data Loss Prevention

Are you sure you know exactly where all your data is?  Are you sure that documents attached to emails aren’t still sitting on your email server?  Do you know if other documents have been downloaded from your cloud storage whilst your staff work from home, and then uploaded but a copy is still sitting on their laptop?  Data proliferation over time is almost a given.  Can you encrypt your sensitive data so that even if it’s stolen, it’s useless to the thief?  An affordable solution now exists.

  • Develop an Incident response and business continuity plan

No matter how well you protect yourself, you still need to prepare for potential breaches with a clear strategy to minimise impact and recover operations swiftly.

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FEAR, UNCERTAINTY AND DOUBT

Or as it’s known amongst cyber security sales teams, FUD.  It’s a tried and tested method of trying to hook new sales and is often used by sales teams at, shall we say, a slightly lower level than the top end enterprise sales teams who, like me, don’t like it and stay shy of it.

OK, so now I’ve established my ethical credentials, how do I let my clients and potential clients, know what the threats are and how vulnerable to them, they are.  There’s a fine line between FUD and education.  People don’t need to be scared into doing things, they need to be educated into it and they have every right to know what the threat landscape looks like, and how vulnerable they are to it.

What’s the Threat in 2025?

It is expected that in 2025, organisations can expect to face a variety of cyber threats, including AI-powered attacks (see https://hah2.co.uk/?s=Artificial+Intelligence), ransomware with complex extortion tactics (https://hah2.co.uk/?s=Ransomware), supply chain attacks (https://hah2.co.uk/?s=Supply+Chain), vulnerabilities in IoT and 5G networks, and the rise of deepfake technology. Cybercriminals are leveraging AI to automate attacks, develop advanced malware, and bypass traditional security measures. Additionally, ransomware attacks are becoming more sophisticated, with some now stealing data alongside encryption, increasing the pressure on victims to pay. Supply chain vulnerabilities are also a major concern, as attackers can target third-party vendors to gain access to larger networks. The increasing number of IoT devices (see https://hah2.co.uk/?s=IOT) many of which lack robust security, also presents a significant challenge, as they can be easily exploited for attacks that disrupt critical infrastructure. Deepfake technology is also becoming more accessible, making it easier for attackers to create realistic fake content for various malicious purposes. 

How Does This Impact SMEs?

So where do SMEs sit in this space?  There is still the perception amongst them that they are too small to be worth attacking, that the rewards for the cybercriminals aren’t enough and they won’t bother.  Well, let’s debunk that.  SMEs are seen as low hanging fruit.  They will have much smaller budgets than the bigger players, they will almost certainly outsource their IT and as I’ve said often, you can outsource your IT, but not your responsibility.  There is a dearth of cyber security expertise, not just within the SMEs themselves, but also amongst the IT outsourcers they use.

In 2025, it is anticipated that SMEs will face evolving cyber threats, including AI-powered phishing, ransomware, and supply chain vulnerabilities, along with insider threats and IoT exploits. AI is going to have a very real impact on the attacks designed against SMEs.  Why?  Because AI provides automation, and automation is the key to making real money when attacking SMEs.  Think it through.  If a criminal organisation can attack hundreds, if not thousands of targets using one automated attack, with an expectation of say 50% success, with extremely little effort using AI, then that’s good business for them.  AI-driven attacks are predicted to be a top concern, with sophisticated phishing campaigns and deepfake fraud attempts on the rise. Ransomware continues to pose a significant risk, especially for SMEs with limited cybersecurity resources. 

Supply Chain Security

Supply chain vulnerabilities are also a growing concern, as hackers can exploit connections with external vendors to breach multiple businesses.  This latter should be a very real concern for any SME that is in the supply chain of a major organisation.  Just imagine the consequences for that SME if their customer is attacked, losing money and reputation, and can pinpoint the attack as coming via the SME.  How would that impact the SME?  Well, the financial and reputational consequences would probably kill their business.

Ramsac, in their 2025 SME threat report, tells us that a mid-sized UK logistics company fell victim to a ransomware attack in June 2023. They infiltrated the company’s network and left a note on screens: “If you’re reading this, it means the internal infrastructure of your company is fully or partially dead.” The attackers had encrypted the firm’s files and threatened to leak confidential data, essentially holding the business hostage.  They also reported that a large retail breach occurred when attackers compromised a small HVAC subcontractor (with far weaker IT security) and used those credentials to penetrate the larger corporate network. That attack led to the theft of millions of customer card details and tens of millions of dollars in damages – all traced back to a third-party SME vendor being hacked via a phishing email.

In Summary

We published a piece recently about cyber security and the SME and rather than repeat it here, we’ll simply give you the link – https://hah2.co.uk/cyber-security-and-the-sme/.  It reiterates some of my hobby horses, chief amongst them being cyber awareness training.  I’ve said before, but it bears repeating, that your staff are your first line of defence and are either your greatest asset, or your greatest risk.  The actions you take as an owner/director/manager, will decide which.

SMEs are facing increased pressures on their resources and the temptation to park cyber security until times are better, increases alongside those pressures, but avoid complacency, let’s discuss what you might be able to do procedurally and at low cost. If you have invested in tech, is it the right tech and is it doing what you think it’s doing? That’s never a given.

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Cyber Security and The SME

What are we facing?

The world is in somewhat of a flux at the moment and SMEs are being battered from all sides it seems.  First, we have the increase in the minimum wage, which impacts SMEs, generally, more than the corporate sized businesses, and then the increase in NI.  What we didn’t need was tariffs, although how much of an impact that will have on SMEs won’t be known for some time yet.  The EU is the world’s largest single market area and is the largest economy in the world, whether some people agree or not.  Many may attribute that market size to large organisations and multi-national companies. While these are important contributors to the overall EU economy, the Small Medium Enterprise (SME) businesses form the backbone of that economy.  This is also true of the UK where the DTI estimates that SMEs make up nearly 95% of the UKs GDP.   A huge percentage and one that might surprise you.

According to the Cyber Security Breaches Survey (gov.uk), half of SMEs in the UK had experienced some form of cyber-attack in 2024, with email phishing, spear-phishing, and social engineering continue to trend as the most common and reliable means of illegally accessing a network.

NinjaOne produced are report which says that there were 7.78 million Cyber Attacks on UK Businesses in 2024. More than 400,000 cases of fraud and computer misuse were recorded. 50% of UK businesses experienced a cyber-attack.

The economic effects of the measures hitting SMEs discussed above, are already having an effect in that many SMEs are putting enhancing their protections against cyber-attacks, on the back burner.  Those we speak to acknowledge the problem but are reluctant to spend money on anything that isn’t their core business.  And we get that, we really do.  After all we are an SME ourselves.

What are the potential impacts of a cyber-attack on your business?

A successful cyber-attack can wreak havoc on your business. Damaging your financial stability, customer trust, and reputation while inviting legal issues. The fallout includes:

  • Loss of corporate, financial, and personal data
  • Disruption to trading and potential fines from ICO
  • Repair costs for affected systems
  • Imagine building customer trust and an impeccable reputation over years, only to see it shatter in hours due to a cyber-attack.
  • The consequences, loss of customers and decreased sales and profits

The fear of legal repercussions is real too. Deploying inadequate security measures can lead to fines, regulatory sanctions and even legal action.

So, what can you do to better protect your business?

Despite today’s digital landscape, cyber security remains a non-negotiable aspect of business success. The threats are real, and SMEs are not immune. In fact, they’re often the most vulnerable to cyber-attacks.

Solutions need not be complicated or expensive, yet many SME owners still act reactively, not proactively, to cyber threats.  The result? Huge costs to put things right and a massive hit on the company’s reputation and trust with their customers.

An underlying issue common to all SMEs is management awareness and commitment, which in turn drives budget, allocation of resources and effective implementation of the cybersecurity practices. Six categories of major challenges for SMEs have been identified:

  • Low cybersecurity awareness of the personnel.
  • Inadequate protection of critical and sensitive information.
  • Lack of budget.
  • Lack of ICT cybersecurity specialists.
  • Lack of suitable cybersecurity guidelines specific to SMEs.
  • Low management support.

Risk Management

Now I know that many will say that this is a technical matter and that we have a company under contract that looks after our IT infrastructure and therefore we can safely leave it to them.  Wrong.  Ask them some simple questions: 

  • Have they fully identified your security assets?  Security assets are not just   hardware and software, in fact those are often the least of your worries.  It’s the data, where it is and how it’s protected that is important.
  • Have they done a risk assessment on those assets.
  • Have they recommended or implemented controls to manage the risk down to your acceptable residual risk level.  That is assuming they have spoken to you about what that acceptable risk is. 

It’s very important that business owners grasp the difference between the technical requirements of their networks, and the business requirement. 

You carry out risk management on a daily basis as you go about your business.  Cyber security is no different and a simple risk management process can save you money by targeting your limited spend where it really needs to go, not where you may think it needs to go.  Here is a link to a short video on that risk management process, which should help you see that it’s not onerous and need not be costly.

https://bit.ly/3FdZ6x0

Cyber Awareness Training

Some of you who are amongst my regular readers, will be quite aware of my mantra in regard to Cyber Awareness Training for staff and managers.  A big misconception is that because cyber security can be an issue connected to technical measures, it lies squarely within the realm of IT.  Wrong.  Cyber security needs to be part of the culture of the organisation, second nature to all.  Staff need a basic awareness and how their attitude and actions can have a damaging effect on the business.  A report for ENISA, the EU security agency, suggests that 84% of Cyber attacks rely on some form of social engineering, and that the number of phishing attacks within the EU continues to grow.  This is echoed in the UK.

Budgets

Budgets remain a problem.  Many SMEs are low margin organisations, heavily reliant on cash flow, and therefore reluctant to spend on things that are not connected to their core business.  But they must get used to asking themselves, ‘Is IT part of my core business?’, and ‘how long could I continue to operate my business if I lost my IT systems?’.  Cyber security needs to be factored into budgets. Cyber security is an iterative process, it isn’t something that needs to be done once and then forgotten about.  The criminals are constantly evolving, and defences must evolve with them.

Cyber Expertise

Cyber security expertise is something that isn’t cheap and easy to obtain.  Many IT companies will talk about their expertise in this area but if you delve into that, it is generally focused on products, mainly firewalls and anti-malware.  Cyber security expertise goes much much deeper than that and is as much procedural as it is technical.  It starts with risk management, understanding the risks you face, which in turn is derived from threat and vulnerability analysis, matched to your cyber security assets.  Those latter are not necessarily hardware and software but can be much wider ranging than that.  Typically, the type of person who can legitimately call themselves experts in this field, can command salaries north of £80K.  I doubt there are many SMEs prepared to pay that, or indeed, many of the smaller IT companies.

Security Standards

It can also be advantageous to follow a standard.  By far the most comprehensive is the International Standard for Cyber Security, ISO27000 series.  However, this might be seen as a little heavy for many SMEs, although at the higher end, they may want to follow it, rather than seek certification.  At the lower end the UK Cyber Essentials scheme, mandated for anyone wishing to do business with the public sector, is very suitable, inexpensive, and obtainable.

Cloud Services

More and more SMEs are now moving to a cloud environment.  Be it MS365, Amazon Web Services, Digital Ocean, amongst others.  I usually recommend that SMEs take this approach as it can solve a lot of problems, particular with home working still very much in vogue.  However, it is not the panacea that most think it is and still has some security issues, usually but not always at the user end, that need to be addressed.

About H2

Here at H2 we use our long experience of providing cyber security solutions to the large enterprises, to craft solutions for the SME community, having first identified the issues that the business faces.  We take an approach that looks at things from the business point of view, managing risk and coming up with cost effective solutions which can be brought in in a phased way, for a subscription price.  No large bills to damage that all important cash flow.

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Cyber Resilience – What Does It Entail?

The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill

Following the fallout last year, from the CloudStrike sensor failure that led to significant outages worldwide, we wrote a piece questioning whether we are truly addressing Cyber challenges. Subsequently, the UK introduced The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, which was debated in Parliament in 2025. This legislation seeks to enhance the UK’s cyber defences and bolster resilience across essential services, infrastructure, and digital offerings. It will revise current cyber security regulations, including the NIS Regulations, and broaden the scope of protected digital services and supply chains.

The primary goal of this bill is to safeguard the UK’s digital economy, positioning it as one of the most secure in the world while protecting services, supply chains, and citizens. Additionally, it aims to enhance our cyber resilience and stimulate growth and prosperity. With an expanded scope, it encompasses a wider array of essential digital services beyond those currently covered by the NIS regulations and builds upon them. The bill includes mandatory reporting requirements and emphasises the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure (CNI).


Ministerial Policy Statement


You can read more about it here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cyber-security-and-resilience-bill-policy-statement/cyber-security-and-resilience-bill-policy-statement.

Relationship with EU Regulations


Although the UK’s Cyber Security and Resilience Bill is tailored for the UK, it draws inspiration from the EU’s Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) and the NIS2 Directive. The CRA emphasises cybersecurity for products with digital elements, whereas the UK’s legislation focuses on fostering overall resilience within its digital ecosystem. Furthermore, it aims to align with principles found in the NIS2 Directive adopted by the EU in 2024.

How will SMEs navigate this?

In the cybersecurity sector, there has long been a divide between product vendors and those of us focused on services. After three decades in this industry, I’ve repeatedly observed that product sales often prevail. Why? Because selling services is more challenging with a longer sales cycle compared to quicker product sales. People prefer to see a quick if not immediate return, on their investment; they like tangible products doing their job even if they don’t fully grasp how they function or whether they’re suited for their needs.

Risk Management

A risk managed approach remains vital. This principle hasn’t changed over my 30 years in the field. However, this bill makes it even more critical due to potential penalties for non-compliance. The focus should be on People, Process, and then Technology. I often reference Bruce Schneier, a Harvard scientist and thought leader in cybersecurity. He states, “If you think technology can solve your security problems, then you don’t understand the problems and you don’t understand the technology.” Essentially, understanding your risks begins with identifying your cyber assets, not just hardware or software but your data and your ability to maintain system access for staff and customers when needed.

Once you recognise your assets, you must identify potential threats to them and assess how vulnerable you are to those threats. Threats combined with vulnerabilities equal risk, the risk to your business if things go awry.

Having completed this assessment you can assign a risk score to each asset aiming to manage that risk down to an acceptable level, known as risk appetite. This will vary from business to business or even asset to asset; for instance, you wouldn’t assign the same risk level to a revenue-generating system as you would to an admin-only system lacking personal data.

This may sound daunting and costly; hence many businesses avoid it or only partially implement it. However, without a comprehensive assessment, it’s challenging to ensure that you are allocating your limited budget toward appropriate protections in key areas. You need to determine potential damage from failures and explore ways to mitigate that damage. While consulting a lawyer after a crisis is one option, wouldn’t it be wiser to prevent or reduce issues before they escalate?

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HONEYPOTS

I seriously doubt if any of my clients would find a honeypot of any use, if only because they take a lot of time, effort and expense, but I thought I’d do a piece on them because they do exist and might be of interest, if only to understand what’s out there.

What is a Honeypot, in terms of cyber security that is?  Well, we’re not talking about a seductive member of the opposite sex, using their wiles to wheedle info out of you.  In this instance honeypots are cybersecurity tools designed to look like an attractive target, that act as decoys to attract and study cyberattacks. They mimic real systems or resources, but are isolated and monitored, allowing security teams to observe and analyse attacker behaviour without risking real data or systems. This information helps organisations improve their defences against malicious activity.  They can also be used to attract an attacker to the honeypot and away from your actual crown jewels.  Although this latter has fallen out of favour in recent years.

How Do They Work?

The honeypot is configured with vulnerabilities that are designed to lure attackers, leading them to believe they have successfully accessed a real system.  Meanwhile the security team monitors the honeypots activity to track the attackers’ movements, tools, and techniques.  Once the information is gathered it is used to understand attacker motivations, vulnerabilities in the organisation’s systems, and emerging threats.  The knowledge gained helps organisations strengthen their defences, identify potential blind spots, and improve their overall cybersecurity strategy.

Types of Honeypots

  • Low-interaction honeypots – These are simple, basic decoys that provide limited interaction with attackers, allowing them to study the attacker’s initial steps.
  • High-interaction honeypots – These are more complex, providing a more realistic experience for attackers, allowing for detailed analysis of their behaviour and techniques.
  • Research honeypots – These are used specifically for studying and analysing attacker behaviour, often in a sandbox environment.
  • Production honeypots – These are deployed in live networks to monitor and deflect real-world attacks.

A simple low interaction Honeypot

Benefits

I started this piece by saying I doubt if any of my clients would set up a honeypot.  They are expensive and resource heavy, but there are benefits:

  • Deflecting attacks – Honeypots can divert attackers away from valuable production systems, protecting critical assets.
  • Threat intelligence – They provide valuable information about attacker tactics, techniques, and procedures, helping organisations prepare for future threats.
  • Vulnerability assessment – By observing attacker behaviour, organisations can identify potential weaknesses in their security infrastructure.
  • Improved security posture – The knowledge gained from honeypots helps organisations strengthen their security defences and improve their overall security posture.

Who is likely to use a Honeypot?

Primarily honeypots are used by cybersecurity researchers and government agencies to monitor the latest threats and cybercriminal activities and methods, to improve defences.  This is especially true of companies that produce threat intelligence for their customers, and threat reports.

However, they might also be used by businesses to identify and analyse attacks targeting their production networks, helping them understand attack methods and improve their security posture. They can be used to distract attackers from critical assets and provide an early warning system for potential attacks. 

What is a Honeynet?

Research organisations might also utilise a honeynet.  A honeynet is a decoy network that contains one or more honeypots. It looks like a real network and contains multiple systems but is hosted on one or only a few servers, each representing one environment. For example, a Windows honeypot machine, a Mac honeypot machine and a Linux honeypot machine.

I hope you have found this brief introduction to honeypots interesting, if not particularly pertinent to you.  We do like to educate and spread the word in regard to cyber security.

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Cyber Security is a Business Issue

I know that I tend to include the statement in the title, in many articles and posts that I produce, but I haven’t really expanded on it and explained in more detail why I say that this is a business issue and one that owners and boards need to fully embrace if they are to stay safe.

We still see many ‘tick in the box’ exercises happening when we talk to SMEs, particularly when they have encountered an issue and tell us that they have taken precautions which, when examined, aren’t doing what the company thought, or perhaps hoped, they were doing.  Compliance and auditable solutions need to underpin what precautions you are taking.  If you can’t check and make sure that everything is up to scratch, and do it easily and often, then you have wasted your money. 

Far too much money is spent on one size fits all solutions and those that are reactive to one off threats, which produces a firefighter mentality that is at odds with the holistic preventive protection that is required to combat the current and emerging threat landscape.

This is not just a technical issue

A great quote which I use a lot comes from Bruce Schneier, an American scientist and

information security thought leader.  He says:

If you think technology can solve your security problems, then you don’t understand the problems and you don’t understand the technology.

And there’s a lot of truth in that statement, particularly when it comes to SMEs, simply because they don’t understand the technology, and leave it to the IT management company that looks after their network, who mainly focus on technology, because that’s their comfort zone and selling licenses is a big part of their business.  And neither the SME nor the IT Management company have a handle on the emerging threat landscape.

Another good quote comes from the Chair of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.  He says, ‘If boards do not give cybersecurity and cyber resilience sufficient priority, this creates a foreseeable risk of harm to the company and thereby exposes the directors to potential enforcement action by [insert here your regions governance requirements] based on the directors not acting with reasonable care and diligence.’

Cyber security needs to be flexible and adaptable to the changing threats as they occur, because once they have become prevalent, it’s often too late to play catchup.  This means a holistic strategy that encompasses technology but also process, personnel, compliance and audit.  Don’t be complacent.  If you stand still, you will as they say, come a cropper.

Keep saying – PEOPLE, PROCESS and TECHNOLOGY – in that order.

Is there a Misleading Message Coming from the Technology Industry?

Perhaps, because there is a considerable amount of what we call FUD, fear, uncertainty and doubt, doing the rounds constantly. It concentrates people on thinking about specifics, instead of looking at the bigger picture.  Whilst there is no doubt that phishing, ransomware, and other scams have certainly concentrated the mind somewhat, and these attacks are most definitely not confined to the large enterprise businesses, but have been attacking, with a lot of success, the small to medium business market, this causes vendors to try and exploit the issues around that and push their technology solutions and of course, SMEs rarely, if ever, have the expertise to judge whether or not a particular product will actually give them the protection they need.  We now must add into the mix AI and its capacity for increasing cyber-attacks at all levels, making the production of malicious code so much easier and making it available to those perhaps less skilled than heretofore.

Another problem is that the advertising tends to give the impression that Cyber security is something new when in fact it’s just an evolution of the physical security issues that existed when information was all on paper.  Think of it like that and you’ll realise that it’s been around for a very long time and that what you are trying to protect is information of all kinds.  It’s information that makes your business work efficiently.  The very word Cyber brings with it the illusion that it’s something modern and/or futuristic, when in fact that word is essentially meaningless and the old description of Information Security or Infosec, is far more accurate and descriptive.  Cyber is a blatant attempt to push the technological aspect of information security.

Risk Management

I’m going to slip in a link to a short video on risk management as it pertains to Cyber (yes, I’m using that word because it’s sadly become de facto).  This video describes the process at a high level.

https://bit.ly/3FdZ6x0

Technology can be an essential part of your protection, but it must be targeted in the right way, which not only means you have the right piece of kit doing the right thing, but that you are targeting your IT spend to support your business goals and give a maximum return on investment (ROI).  It should also be married to good policies and processes that are enforceable and auditable and fully understood by your work force.  To do this you have to understand exactly what your risks, vulnerabilities and threats are to ensure that your solution to those risks, vulnerabilities, and threats, is targeted for maximum effect and ROI and that the technology is supporting the policies and processes, all of which is underpinned with good security awareness training.

It’s also necessary to have some way of measuring the effectiveness of your solutions through a monitoring or auditing solution.  Such solutions for SMEs have long been considered too expensive to even consider but that is no longer the case and affordable solutions are now on the market.

We must all grasp that these risks are owned by the board, and if you don’t have a formal board, then the management team.  This needs to be understood fully by those at the top.  They team need to understand what level of risk is acceptable and agree what risks they are prepared to tolerate to achieve the business aims.   They need to ensure that supporting policies are produced, implemented, understood by employees, and regularly reviewed and updated.  At H2 we tend to produce an information security and data protection handbook which can run into many pages.  Producing these policies is not as easy as it sounds.

You may also wish to look at some recognised standards by which you can regulate your risk management.  One such is the international standard for information security, ISO 27000 series but perhaps the most appropriate for SMEs is the Cyber Essentials Scheme which will help you demonstrate an appropriate level of information security and risk management within your company.

Once you have a risk management framework in place, owned from the top, then you can identify your information assets and assess the risk to your business should those assets be compromised in some way.  Then and only then can you adequately assess what processes and technologies you need to mitigate the risks identified for each asset thus targeting your spend for maximum effectiveness.

Sadly, that’s not the end.  User education is probably the most important element of all for SMEs.  Ensuring that your staff are aware of the policies and why they exist.  Protect yourself against scams which sadly, form the biggest danger to SMEs rather than hacks.  Scams can be very low tech or high tech using malware, but however they come in, your staff need to be aware of them.

Cyber Awareness Training General Security Issues Identity and Access Management Ransomware, Phishing and other Malware Risk Analysis and Security Strategy Working Practices

Social Engineering

I frequently share insights on the significance of Cyber Awareness Training and its critical role in helping organisations defend against cybercrime. Cyber awareness training is a vital aspect of contemporary security strategies for everyone. It provides employees with the essential knowledge and skills needed to identify, respond to, and reduce cyber threats. This training is particularly effective in combating social engineering.

While many people are now familiar with the term social engineering, they may not fully understand its meaning. In the context of cybersecurity, social engineering involves manipulating, influencing, or deceiving individuals to gain unauthorised access to IT systems or to steal personal and financial information. It employs psychological tricks to lead users into making security errors or divulging sensitive data. The most prevalent form of social engineering is phishing.

Social engineering heavily relies on the six Principles of Influence identified by Robert Cialdini, a behavioral psychologist and author of “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.” These six principles are: Reciprocity, Commitment and Consistency, Social Proof, Authority, Liking, and Scarcity. Simply put, what these criminals seek is information, login credentials, passwords, names, phone numbers, and more. They are profiling your organisation to identify vulnerabilities, such as who manages accounts payable or whether you have an IT support company under contract that they could impersonate. In addition to phishing, they utilise various forms including vishing (voice phishing), smishing (SMS phishing), and simply calling to ask questions.

A rising threat that criminals are increasingly adopting is help desk social engineering tactics. In these schemes, attackers call an organisation’s IT help desk while posing as a legitimate employee, trying to convince the help desk agent to reset passwords or multi-factor authentication (MFA) for a specific account.

In recent years, this technique has been used to access single sign-on (SSO) accounts and cloud-based application suites. Multiple criminals adopted this approach in 2024, targeting academic and healthcare institutions; in these cases, attackers utilised compromised identities to extract data from cloud-based software as a service (SaaS) applications or alter employee payroll information.

IT help desks typically require employees requesting password and MFA resets to provide their full name, date of birth, employee ID, and manager’s name or answer a pre-set security question. However, cybercriminals attempting to socially engineer help desk personnel often answer these questions accurately. Much of this information is not confidential and can be found in public resources and social media sites. The dark web frequently harbours data that should remain private. At H2, we continuously scan the dark web for our clients to uncover any exposed information.

Often, help desk social engineering calls occur outside of regular working hours. This tactic allows criminals to maintain access to compromised accounts for longer periods before the legitimate account owner detects any suspicious activity. Attackers using this method may register their own devices for MFA to secure ongoing access to compromised accounts. They also frequently delete emails from compromised mailboxes related to suspicious account activities or configure mail transport rules to redirect relevant emails away from the main inbox.

Over the past year, several criminals have openly sought callers on popular forums. Advertisements typically call for English-speaking individuals familiar with RMM tools and experienced in conducting remote sessions. Some criminals are also exploring effective ways to spoof phone numbers or encrypt calls, ensuring caller IDs appear more credible. This trend suggests that phone-related social engineering will pose a significant threat in 2025 as demand for these capabilities increases.

So how can we combat this? I began with cyber awareness training, and I’ll conclude with it as well. When your staff, regardless of their technical expertise, understand what social engineering is and its intentions, they are much more likely to recognise it when it occurs. Simple practices such as asking unknown callers to call back using a verified number instead of one provided by the caller can make a difference. If you receive an email from a senior manager or board member that seems suspicious, open a new email thread for confirmation rather than replying directly, this helps avoid potential spoofing by scammers masquerading as legitimate sources. And of course, never click on links!

Cyber awareness training doesn’t need to be costly; it can be delivered face-to-face, online, or through automated means. At H2, we offer all these options! Regardless of your choice, please consider this training an essential component of your strategy.

General Security Issues Risk Analysis and Security Strategy Security The Dangers of WiFi

The Internet of Things

There’s a lot being said in various quarters about the Internet of Things (IOT) but whenever it comes up in conversation with senior people in the SME world, even those businesses that are in the medium bracket, with significant numbers of employees, it raises a titter or two.

So, what is it and why would that be?  According to Wikipedia IOT describes devices with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other communication networks. The IOT encompasses electronics, communication, and computer science engineering and encompasses a vast array of devices — from household appliances to industrial equipment — all connected online. These devices often lack robust security features, making them susceptible to attacks. Common vulnerabilities include insecure firmware, weak authentication protocols and unsecured network services. For example, IOT devices can be compromised to create botnets that launch massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. As the IOT continues to grow, securing these devices becomes increasingly critical, necessitating the development of new security strategies that encompass IOT.

IOT in a nutshell then, does not just refer to everyday household items that have a processor and remote capability, but also systems within your business.  For instance, if you can turn on your lights, start a cooker going, turn on the kettle etc, all from your phone on your way home, you can do the same on your way into work.  And of course, we have Siri, and Alexa amongst other systems, all interconnected in some way in your home, and increasingly, in your office, and to the internet. 

Whenever it’s discussed all the usual lighthearted comments about being hacked by your kettle, or held to ransom by your toaster, come out in the conversation.  And there is some amusement to be had.   But there is a serious side to this.  

Increasingly now we are seeing smart appliances in the workplace, that could be used to jump onto the more serious elements of a network, we are already at a place where some functions, perceived as routine, even mundane, can already be used to jump onto other network devices.  For instance, most have security cameras and alarm systems.  Many of these are IP based and are connected via the LAN.  OK, but many also are remotely maintained by a variety of suppliers.  I have found it not uncommon for these suppliers to arrange for their own backdoor into the system to maintain these systems, often without the client knowing how that is done.  This provides a very neat circuit around the router and firewall and, when most SME networks are flat, access onward to all parts of the network.  A flat network refers to a network that is unsegmented ie all devices are attached to a single WIFI or wired network with no further network protection once through the gateway.

This of course is not the only example, but it shows how poor security architecture, often times by local network providers, can have a quite seriously detrimental effect.  So, what I am saying is that as many more devices become ‘smart’ and interconnected via the LAN, security architecture becomes just as important for the SME as it does for the larger enterprise.  The problem is that the awareness and support within the SME community and their suppliers, tends to be lacking.

These days we have to add in the move towards remote working, either full or part time, and the increasing use of AI, which adds many other threats to your systems, and I have explored these in other blogs, which you can view on my website, https://hah2.co.uk/news/.  How many of your staff, using their home WIFI to connect to your company systems, also have IOT devices connected to the same WIFI router that they are using to connect to you?  How are you managing that risk?  Or are you?

Cyber Awareness Training General Security Issues Risk Analysis and Security Strategy Security

Societal Perception of Cyber Security

Cyber Security continues to be, all too often, treated as an IT issue.  Now this is a drum that cyber security professionals have been banging for a long long time.  Cybersecurity is NOT and IT issue, it is very much a business issue.  But we do struggle to get that across, particularly in the SME market who continue to view it as purely technical in nature.

Now, whilst I’m not always enthusiastic about the stats and reports that are published, simply because they tend to be industry publications with the authors often having an axe to grind but they can make some very good points.  Let’s look at some key challenges being encountered:

  • Cybersecurity spending appears to be slowing (although that depends on who you speak to), while boards are starting to push back and ask what they have achieved after years of heavy cybersecurity spend.
  • Boards and senior executives are asking the wrong questions about cybersecurity, leading to poor investment decisions.
  • Many current approaches to improve cybersecurity are falling short of providing appropriate and defensible levels of protection.

SMEs are invariably focused on cost, which means optimising their spend to ensure that they get the biggest bang for their buck, to coin a phrase.  However, time and again we see that they have spent, sometimes considerable, sums on technology without actually understanding what risks that technology is there to mitigate, therefore having no real idea if it is doing what they have been told its doing.  The amount of money they are spending is of course relative.  To a small business the sum invested might be a minor consideration to a much larger business.  So, it becomes crucial that the mitigations put in place are appropriate to the risks they are there to mitigate. 

This comes down to another drum we like to beat, that of risk management.  Below is a link to a short video which explains the risk management process as it appertains to cyber security.  Look at it with the view that it can be a matter of scale, and the smaller businesses may not need to go through the whole process but will need to go through much of it.

The risk management process

Note the I use the term mitigate rather than prevent.  That’s simply because eradication of risk is simply not possible if you are going to continue to do business.  The best you are going to achieve is to mitigate that risk to the lowest level achievable without getting in the way of business.

Let’s consider the following challenges and impacts:

ChallengeImpact
Societal perception of cybersecurity is that it is a technical problem, best handled by technical people, although that tends to be amongst the SME community.  There is evidence though that that is changing slowly.Societal perception is dominated by fear, uncertainty and doubt. It results in poor engagement with between management and suppliers, unproductive exchanges and unrealistic expectations. Ultimately, it leads to bad decisions and bad investments in cybersecurity.

Organisations are focused on the wrong questions about cybersecurity.  The question of what do I need to buy to secure my data is asked rather than what do I need to secure and what is the priority.
Unproductive questions are indicative of poor understanding, and drive attention away from an improving that understanding and therefore drive better investments.
Current investments and approaches designed to address known limitations are not productive.Many SMEs focused on technology and have a poor understanding of cyber risk management.  This is often compounded by an equally poor understanding within the IT management company’s they often outsource to.  This leads to a combination of poorly scoped solutions and all too often failed execution and unrealistic expectations.
Real failures are not getting enough attention to productively change behaviour.Compliance with any regulation does not equal appropriate levels of protection.

Now, whilst some of these impacts may not be a 100% fit for many SMEs, particularly at the smaller end of the bracket, they are close enough to be taken very seriously indeed.  Poor decisions are being taken every day in regard to the purchase of hardware and software to protect against cyber threats, without having carried out any kind of risk assessment to actually understand what risks they are trying to mitigate.  End result, an investment in technology that on its own, will not prevent many of the cyber threats that abound today, coupled with a false sense of security.

A competent cyber security professional will approach the problem from the point of view of People, Process and Technology, understanding that many mitigations require a combination of 2 or 3 of those to provide an adequate response to the threat.  For many SMEs, one of the biggest and quickest wins they can achieve is cyber awareness training for their staff.  If their staff are aware of the issues, they have a much greater chance of recognising a scam, a phishing attack, an attempt at social engineering etc.  And oftentimes such things can be mitigated by sound policies and processes.  All of this prior to even considering spending money on technology. However, the very first thing that should be considered is to undertake a risk management process to identify the threats and vulnerabilities inherent in the business, thus enabling the risks to be identified and working out what mitigations are needed to drive the risks down to an acceptable level.  SMEs almost never do this and it is a fundamental mistake.

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