Brian Honan Addressed the ICS Privacy Forum
The Irish Computer Society’s Privacy Forum is a platform to enable IT professionals to learn about the latest best practises in data protection and privacy.  Our Principal Consultant, Brian Honan, addressed the forum on October the 16th on the topic of managing a data breach in your organisation.  Brian's presentation is available from the ICS website here.

Irish CERT Goes Live
Those of you who are long time readers of this newsletter know that one of the projects BH Consulting has pursued over the past number of years is the establishment of a Computer Emergency Response Team for Ireland. We are happy to say that in November the Irish Reporting & Information Security Service (IRISS) was launched. IRISS is a not for profit company that aims to assist businesses, organisations and individuals to better protect their computer and network systems from threats posed by Internet attacks, hackers and computer viruses. The Irish Reporting & Information Security Service (IRISS) provides a range of free services to Irish businesses and consumers in relation to information security issues to help counter the security threats posed to Irish businesses and the Irish Internet space.  These services include;

• Alerts and warnings for new threats such as viruses, vulnerabilities and critical updates
• Alerts and warnings on new threats specific to Ireland
• Research into security threats and trends specific to Ireland.
• Sanitised notifications about active attack(s) occurring in other organisations such as Phishing attacks specific to Irish organisations.
• Providing best practise guides in securing networks and computers

The above range of services are built on the WARP (Warning Advice & Reporting Point) model.  The service is provided free of charge to the Irish Internet community by a dedicated core of volunteers drawn from Ireland’s top experts in the field of information security to whom we are very grateful.  We would also like to extend a thanks to those who have helped sponsor the initiative and without whom this would not be possible. in particular we would like to thank The SANS Institute for their support and guidance.

Remember the services provided by IRISS are free and will help you better protect your organisation’s network infrastructure and ultimately that of the Irish Internet space so don’t hesitate to sign up and take advantage of the facilities.

Brian Honan Has the Last Word.
Microsoft released an Out Of Cycle Patch for a critical vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer on December 17th.  The Microsoft Security Advisory 961051 contains details on the patch.  Many media outlets were recommending that people migrate to a different browser.  Brian Honan was interviewed on the Last Word Show on Today FM by Matt Cooper. A podcast of the show is available here, with Brian's interview approximately 5 minutes from the beginning.

Brian was also interviewed by the Irish Times on this issue.

The 4th Annual Privacy & Data Protection Ireland 2009 Seminar
The 4th Annual Privacy & Data Protection Ireland 2009 seminar is due to be held on the 18th and 19th of February 2009. Brian Honan will be giving and Interactive case study on Identity Theft using his experience in stealing Marie Boran’s, from the SiliconRepublic.com, identity which she wrote up and we discussed on our Security Watch Blog about earlier.  There are a number of other interesting talks lined up for the event so it should be an interesting seminar. Booking forms and more information is available at the seminar’s website.  Note if you book before January 2nd 2009 you can avail of the pre-press discounted rate.

Brian Honan to Chair the 5th NITES Seminar
The 5th National IT & eSecurity Summit (NITES) 2009 is scheduled for the 24th of February 2009.  Our Principal Consultant Brian Honan will be chairing the event.  Brian will also be taking part in a debate on whether or not Ireland should have mandatory data breach disclosure laws.  More details on the seminar are available here.

Identity Theft: A Real World Example
Marie Boran from the Siliconrepublic.com challenged Brian Honan to steal her identity by using only information publicly available on the Internet.  Brian was not allowed to break any laws, could only use information gleaned from online sources and could not contact or collaborate with any of her friends or colleagues. By the end of the exercise Brian had gleaned enough information to steal Marie's identity.  Marie has provided a write up of the challenge on The SiliconRepublic.com.