Scott McCrady

2 months ago | solcyber.com | Paul Ducklin |Scott McCrady

The trouble with namesIn 🔗 Part 1, we looked into two issues: how individual threats such as brand new malware strains get named, and how the terminology for various classes of cyberattack come about. Sometimes, threat names for malware – itself a very handy and self-descriptive name, neatly compressing the concept of malicious software into one word – provide at least some useful information about the threat itself.

Sep 24, 2024 | solcyber.com | Paul Ducklin |Scott McCrady

How do you share encryption keys securely, even with people you’ve never met, when all you have is an insecure network to send and receive data? For decades, received wisdom said it couldn’t be done. Join us for the fascinating story of how researchers in the UK and the US independently confronted and solved this vital problem…Share a secret to share a secretWe write about encryption fairly regularly on the SolCyber blog, given how important it is in our online lives.

Jun 6, 2024 | solcyber.com | Paul Ducklin |Charles P. Ho |Scott McCrady

A balanced view of TorOver the last two weeks, we published a two-parter about Virtual Private Networks, or VPNs, a network technology that lots of us rely on both for work and for personal browsing. A reader sent in the following email [lightly edited for clarity]:I found your VPN articles very helpful because you explained the good and the bad without being judgmental about it.

May 28, 2024 | solcyber.com | Paul Ducklin |Scott McCrady

Just how much security does a VPN give you? What could go wrong with the security you think you’re enjoying, and what potential problems do you need to be aware of? VPN facts revisitedLast week, in Part 1 of this article, we covered several salient facts about virtual private networks, or VPNs:A VPN is a toolkit for creating a software-based virtual connection between two physically separate computers or networks.

Jan 31, 2024 | solcyber.com | Paul Ducklin |Hwei Oh |Scott McCrady

So many breaches! Such dramatic graphs! So much malware! Such huge numbers! Do cybersecurity ‘Number Games’ force us to confront the scale of contemporary cybercriminality, or merely lure us into shrugging off our own cybercrime experiences as inconsequential and unimportant? No one quite knows where the famous saying ‘A picture is worth 1000 words’ comes from, or who first worked out that the multiplier was exactly 1000, and not, say, 874, or 1024.