Security engineering
Bitcoin and blockchain
Thanks to my involvement in fintech, I’ve been around the edges of bitcoin and blockchain for a while Traditional money relies on a trusted third
September 17, 2021
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Blog
Join me as I undertake my Masters of Cyber Security
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Security engineering
Hash definitions and attacks
There’s a lot to remember about hashes, so I’m bringing the definitions into one place as a reference. Term Definition Avalanche effect Small changes in
September 15, 2021
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Security engineering
Block Modes
DES (Data Encryption Standard) and AES (Advance Encryption Standard) are both block ciphers. The message is broken into blocks and each block is encrypted and
September 15, 2021
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Security engineering
Error Types
What are type I and type II errors? They sound fancy but are quite simple to understand and are a good way to look at
September 14, 2021
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Security engineering
Hashes and Cryptographic Hashes
Encryption is the glamourous part of confidentiality, today we will look at hashes. We’ll cover regular and cryptographic hashes, a bit of history then we’ll
September 14, 2021
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Security engineering
The Telegraph Problem, MACS
Integrity of messages is a problem that is as old as messengers. In the old days, people would seal a message, they knew they couldn’t
September 13, 2021
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Security engineering
Risk
Risk is something we deal with all of the time, and humans are good at assessing some risks and bad at assessing others. But, we
September 13, 2021
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Security engineering
Symmetric Ciphers
A long post today, we’ll recap of classic ciphers, look at the history of modern symmetric ciphers. Finally we’ll look at entropy, a way of
September 13, 2021
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Security engineering
RSA Practice
Now that we covered asymmetric cryptography and and how RSA works, there’s nothing like working through equations to understand them. So let’s do some practice
September 3, 2021
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Security engineering
Asymmetric Cryptography
We learnt about the basics of cryptography when we learnt about ciphers and secrets. These involve symmetrical cryptography, meaning that the person doing the enciphering
September 3, 2021
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Security engineering
Merkle Puzzles
Merkle puzzles are the first publicly recorded example of asymmetric cryptography. It was devised by Ralph Merkle, he was trying to work out a way
September 2, 2021
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Security engineering
Security Engineering
The start of a new course this week – Intro to Security Engineering, where we look at applying engineering principles to security. Although cyber security
September 1, 2021
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Cybersecurity foundations
Learning from others
This week we were tasked with investigating how an engineering problem was solved in another discipline. For my engineering problem, I’ve chosen the dome of
September 1, 2021
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Cybersecurity foundations
Shift Security Left
Shifting Security Left is a paradigm that encourages a proactive, rather than reactive – approach to security. The term is in reference to the software
August 10, 2021
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Cybersecurity foundations
Zero Click Hack Exposed
An interesting and concerning security in the news this week. It has been alleged that Israelli Cyber Surveillance Company, NSO’s software has been used by
August 8, 2021
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Cybersecurity foundations
Data lakes
A data lake is a lot of data. Lots of pieces of useless information, all floating around made useful by proximity and manipulation. As security
August 2, 2021
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Data security & privacy
NSW government data breaches
I’ve noticed an ongoing pattern for the NSW government. They don’t appear to be able to keep data safe. It was reported on 1 September
August 2, 2021
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Cybersecurity foundations
State Surveillance
Not many people like the idea of state surveillance. But first we need to recognise that surveillance can have good and bad aspects – it
August 2, 2021
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Cybersecurity foundations
One time pad
A one time pad is what’s known as a perfect cipher. Without the key it is uncrackable and can’t be brute forced. The penny dropped
August 1, 2021
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Cybersecurity foundations
Identity Theft
Identity theft is a major problem. It occurs when criminals collect enough of your personal information to convince people that they are you. What sort
July 29, 2021
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Cybersecurity foundations
Website trackers
Data hungry website We all know that websites are tracking us all of the time, as I mentioned the data tracking economy when I explored
July 28, 2021
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Cybersecurity foundations
Password management
Considering what I have learnt this week (in this post), I’ve decided it’s time to cast a critical eye over my own password management practices.
July 25, 2021
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Security engineering
Australia names China as cyber attacker
There has been a fair bit of conjecture in the press about Chinese backed cyber attacks in recent times, but there has been no evidence
July 25, 2021
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Cybersecurity foundations
About passwords
How do people treat passwords? The Avast report about Americans and passwords makes for disturbing reading. https://press.avast.com/83-of-americans-are-using-weak-passwords Many Americans use personal information such as partner’s
July 24, 2021
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Cybersecurity foundations
Brute force and time
What is the longest it would take someone to brute force a password based on certain criteria? The worst case for the hacker? I’ve wondered
July 23, 2021
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Cybersecurity foundations
classical ciphers
This week we looked at classical ciphers. I enjoyed this, looking at the ingenious ways that clever people have come up with hiding messages in
July 21, 2021
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Cybersecurity foundations
Unshredding a document
This week we were challenged to physically destroy some data. I’ve chosen to unshred a document. Not a special document , just some junk mail
July 20, 2021
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Cybersecurity foundations
Secrets
The problems with secrets Secrets are interesting. People want to keep secrets, people want to find secrets, people want to share them. They are important
July 19, 2021
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Data security & privacy
Challenger 2 Tank details leaked on game forum
Classified details of the UK Challenger 2 Tank were leaked on a game forum for the game War Thunder. What was Happened The AESP (Army
July 19, 2021
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Data security & privacy
UK warship and military plans found at bus stop
A pile of classified UK documents were found in a “in a soggy heap behind a bus stop in Kent” on 22 June 2021. The
July 19, 2021
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Cybersecurity foundations
Spot the Insider
For an activity this we were tasked with finding an example of an insider attack. An insider attack could be carried out by a true
July 14, 2021
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Cybersecurity foundations
Directors liable for cyber attacks
According to The Age, the government is considering making company directors liable for cyber attacks. With cyber crime costing Australia around $3.5 billion a year,
July 14, 2021
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Cybersecurity foundations
State sponsored cyber attacks on the rise
According to The ABC, State-sponsored cyber operations have doubled in the last two years. This is a scary statistic, we hear about the next war
July 5, 2021
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Cybersecurity foundations
WA Police loopholing check in data
While learning about patterns in security, a recent news story came to mind when scope creep was mentioned -specifically systems and data being created or
July 5, 2021
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Cybersecurity foundations
Why you should lockdown Facebook
I decided to look at the data Facebook holds about me. I was surprised how easy it was to get my information from Facebook and
July 3, 2021
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Cybersecurity foundations
The Essential Eight
Introduction Want to know how to protect yourself and limit the damage caused by a cyber attack? The Essential Eight was released by the Australian
July 2, 2021
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Cybersecurity foundations
Intro
Welcome to my cyber security blog! A quick introduction before we start. I’m Luke Hally, I’ve had a varied career in digital: making websites for
June 29, 2021
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