Category: Blog

The Russian invasion of the Ukraine raises a few cybersecurity questions

By Doug Newdick, on

Cybersecurity Impacts of the Recent Invasion

Primarily the story about the Russian invasion of the Ukraine is one of great human tragedy. Nothing I write here is supposed to take away from the fact that the main story is about the suffering of the Ukrainian people.

Even at the other end of the world here in Aotearoa New Zealand, however, there will be impacts. Though they may just be echoes of the fury in Europe. It’s no secret that cyber attacks are part of Russian military strategy, nor that New Zealand organisations have been the victims of Russian cybercriminals. So what effects – if any – will the war in the Ukraine have on cyber security here?

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Warning – Geeky Insurance Debate

By Doug Newdick, on

Recently I’d been helping a customer negotiate their cyber security insurance – which turned out to be trickier than I expected. This got me thinking about the role that insurance played in cyber security. Then – coincidentally – I was reading a book on security (Paul Martin’s great “The Rules of Security”) and came across this sentence: “Insurance is sometimes described as a means of transferring risk, but it is really more of a mechanism for softening the financial impact of a loss.” (p 73). It got me wondering – at Axenic have we been thinking about insurance all wrong? Read More

2021’s Cyber Security Events: A New Zealand Perspective

By Doug Newdick, on

A few years ago there was an ad campaign for New Zealand making fun of the fact that we are often left off maps. When looking at cyber security news it often feels like we are missed off the map too. There were plenty of international round-ups of cyber security events for 2021, but few mentioned what happened here in Aotearoa New Zealand. To redress the balance, here’s our list of New Zealand’s publicly reported cyber security events from 2021:

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The Grass Looks Greener from Here: Cyber Security Should Be Like Health and Safety

By Doug Newdick, on

All the experts agree – cyber security should be an organisation-wide concern.  And yet, in my experience too many organisations, and too many people in those organisations think that cyber security is solely the concern of (a) the security team, or (b) the IT/digital team. In case you need convincing my favourite response is that if there is a cyber-attack (or incident) then it is not the IT team’s job that is at risk, but part of the organisation (if the HR system is compromised it is the HR team who won’t be able to work, not the IT or security teams). Who knows what the impact is of an attack? It’s not IT, that’s for sure. And who is best placed to balance off the needs of the organisation with the cyber risks? It’s not security: if you left it up to me, I’d turn everything off! That’s the only way to be sure (and I get no benefit from it being on, so…)

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2022 for Face to Face conferences, maybe?

By Michael, on

All going well, by this stage in November we would have been sitting back reflecting on another wonderful Kawaiicon event.  As in previous years, the whole Axenic team was looking forward to attending it.  However, Kawaiicon 2021 was unfortunately postponed until mid 2022. Just like many events this year, the organisers had to make the tough call of postponing for public health reasons.

In lieu of that, we thought we would pull together a shortlist of some virtual conference material that you can check out instead – it should help feed your cybersecurity knowledge hunger!

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July 2021 Newsletter – Axenic Cybersecurity Commentary

By Tim Rosenbrook, on

Hot off the virtual press is our latest monthly cybersecurity update. Our popular round-up of some of the cybersecurity-related events over the past month that caught our eye.  This edition includes our thoughts on the recent Kaseya hack, an emerging job sector for Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) Negotiators and what not to post in online forums when you have access to classified information.  Read up on all this and more in the latest newsletter here.