Cyber Security for Independent Consultants, Contractors and Freelancers
/At the February meeting we were treated to a very entertaining and educational Skills Session delivered by Steve Frost & Colin Whalen on the topic of Cyber Security.
Following on from Colin’s introduction and overview , Steve delivered the main body of the presentation.
The key areas covered during the presentation included:
Risks and Threats
Top Tips to Mitigate and Defend
Trusted Resources
The Risks & Threats section highlighted the vulnerability of professionals who regularly work from home or out and about in the wider community.
Areas for awareness & concern included:
The ‘free’ wifi at a coffee shop or during a stopover at a hotel.
The charging points at shopping centres, train stations and airports.
Lost or stolen devices, (Phones, Laptops, etc), which could potential allow access to sensitive data.
Another noteworthy consideration was the fact that most people never get around to changing the default passwords on home wifi networks, smart devices and the whole ‘Internet of Things’, (IOT), that we often find ourselves surrounded by.
What are the security implications of this lack of action?
Are you part of a ‘Supply Chain Attack’?
Are you subject to ‘Social Engineering’?
Have you been ‘Phished’ or ‘Smished’?
Have you been ‘Pwned’?
The second area of discussion was how and what we need to Mitigate and Defend against.
Being vigilant and remembering not to automatically trust that any communication is genuine - even if it appears to come from a trusted source.
Steve provided the attendees with a handful of key strategic ‘best practice’ actions that we could all implement straight away. Once again, these actions were both relatively simple to get right or wrong. The common denominator in either a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ outcome was the human interacting with the communication.
Best practice actions to help Mitigate & Defend included:
Be Suspicious.
Keep your Software (OS and Apps) Clean and Current.
Manage your Passwords correctly.
Protect your Data.
Create a ‘security aware’ Client Relationship.
The Skills Session was very well received by Consult Yorkshire members, who unanimously agreed that this was a subject that was worthy of digging a little deeper into.
With this in mind, perhaps we could arrange a follow up Skills Session to be delivered later this year?
In the meantime, if you would like to learn more information regarding Cyber Security for Independent Consultants, Contractors and Freelancers, please contact Steve Frost on the following details:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-frost/
If you wish to do further research into this area - please see the Trusted Resources:
National Cyber Security Centre
Helping to make the UK the safest place to live and work online
