Friday 22 January 2021

Keep your Mac awake (disable lid and idle sleep) (how to)

A lot of people were using a convenient little application called InsomniaX to disable temporarily the sleep feature on MacOS that is activated due to inactivity after a few minutes or when you close your laptop's lid (screen). 

However, a security vulnerability was identified in the software and after that point in time it is considered a legacy software as it is no longer actively being developed. 

There are alternatives depending on what you want to do. The easiest way to keep the mac from going to sleep is to use a terminal window with the built-in command: caffeinate

However, this does not help when you change focus from that particular terminal window or need to temporarily close your laptop's lid without going into sleep mode. 

Friday 15 January 2021

EXPO 2020 Dubai - Connecting Minds, Creating the Future

EXPO 2020 Dubai (www.expo2020dubai.com) is a MEGA-event that was built from the ground up! 


Expo 2020 (Arabic: إكسبو 2020‎) is a World Expo to be hosted by Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. 

Expo 2020 was scheduled to open its doors in Oct/2020, but due to the pandemic it was postponed to 2021 (will be running for 6 months, from 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022) while keeping its original brand name as "EXPO 2020 Dubai".

(See the wikipedia page for more information)
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If you are already resident in the UAE you can seize a unique opportunity to volunteer for EXPO 2020. The Expo 2020 Volunteers Programme, like most of the world’s mega events, is at the heart of the first World Expo that will take place in MEASA (Middle East, Africa and South Asia) region.

Follow Expo 2020 on Twitter (@EXPO2020Dubai) to get the latest update and stay abreast of what is happening #PavilionsPremier #ExpoPavilionsPremiere #Expo2020 #Dubai #UAE

Thursday 27 August 2020

UAE IA Standards: Measuring Cyber Security Maturity

The UAE has become an emerging technology hub in a fast-evolving interconnected digital world while cyber-threats at a global scale are becoming far more complex, and increasingly inevitable.

The UAE has significant resources and is continuously raising the bar when it comes to innovation. At the same time, smart technologies, automation and technological advances make the region a particularly attractive target to threat actors. Effective cybersecurity strategies are moving from a standalone defensive approach to mandatory security programs representing the competitive advantage among whole organisations.

The UAE's federal body released the UAE Information Assurance (UAE IA) Standards on 25th June 2014, as part of the Cyber Security Framework, to manage the country's cyberspace.

Since the release of the UAE IA standard, the UAE and the globe, has seen a nearly exponential growth of cybersecurity landscape. The lates statistics from various sources depict an exponential growth of the cyber landscape while at the same time, offer trustworthy and actionable recommendations for thought-leaders and decision-makers.

Wednesday 5 August 2020

Be aware of fraudsters taking advantage of the devastating incident in Beirut

As we have seen in the past, any major breaking news and large events draw the attention of cyber criminals, as they try to take advantage of such situations. It is devastating what happened in Beirut, and many countries have already sent help. 

As a cyber security professional, I would like to seize the opportunity and bring into people’s attention that malicious groups and fraudsters most probably will try to take advantage of the situation in order to profit from it. During such times there is a rise in different types of malicious communications such as, emails pretending to be from legitimate charities, spear phishing messages through all types of social media, even actual phone calls. 

This is a call to everyone to be vigilant, and especially to the security community to come together with a common message, to raise awareness. 

Please do your diligence if you want to help. Do not send money to charities that “pop-up” the last minute without any tangible evidence that these are legitimate. Do not trust links posted on social media about online donations. If you want to send financial aid, do that only through official channels (such as, official government sites)

Whatever the reason in such difficult times, be always aware that there are malicious groups out there that they only care about taking advantage of such situations. Please keep in mind that every dollar given unintentionally to fraudsters, is a dollar that will be missed by the people who are affected from this unprecedented incident. 

Wednesday 1 July 2020

SHe CISO - May 2020, Mentoring Call - CISO Talk

It was a really great to be invited to the SHe CISO mentoring call this May.  Lyn Webb and myself had the opportunity to have a chat with Chani Simms and Didar Gelici around Cybersecuiry challenges. 
In this call I had an opportunity to give a brief inside to my 3xM approach when it comes to dealing with challenges in the cybersecurity culture of organisations. 

The 3xM approach is composed of Mentality > Mindset > Maturity and how these interconnect with each other, in order to compliment each other, in a continuous cycle. Stay tuned for an upcoming talk that will attempt to set some foundations on how leading roles in cybersecurity have a responsibility to evolve towards a holistic 360 approach across all verticals of an organisation (digital ecosystem).