This learner has completed ID verification. Find out more.
Sean Richardson
Hi this will be the fourth course I have done on Future Learn which includes: Introduction to Cyber Security, and CISCO Cyber Ops Associate. I have educational knowledge in Small Talk, JAVA & Pascal.
Location United Kingdom
Activity
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
With the growing use of IT around the world and the introduction of ' Internet of Things', (IoT) brings into play a huge target area for all Threat Actors sat out there waiting to identify and exploit these weaknesses. It is essential a robust information management system is put in place. ISO 27001 is an international framework that provides the tools to...
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
My name is Sean Richardson I currently work inan IM support role. I have an HNC in Computing, a Cert Comp Matha (Open) from the OU and a CISCO Cyber Ops Associte. This course will be beneficial for future employment in the Cyber Security field.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
I thought this would be a good topic to broaden my overall knowledge in how to protect companies from from Cyber Security Threats.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
The commentary in the video highlight the levels of threat that exist; be it Phishing to get login details or Social Media with unknown extremely good looking individuals trying to get closer to ascertain your secrets or a phone call from a fake bank trying to get you to transfer money with the objective sending to a false account.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
Ethical Hacking is the pivotal for systems to undergo penetration testing and provides an ideal tool to find a weakness is is found and exploited by a Threat Actor.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
I'm looking forward to this course.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
With all the headlines that have been in the news papers over the last few years; in particular the Ransomeware attack on the NHS, I realised that the threat posed to countries across the world was a serious issue. Observing the data transfer for cyber attacks I realised the threat was worse than I perceived. All the websites had DDOS attacks although the...
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
Issues with hardware could effect connectivity to the Domain Name Server (DNS) . In essence the DNS allows us to use human friendly domain names to create easy to understand web addresses such as www.futurelearn.com it then resolves this to find the associated IP address.
In terms of issues resulting from an attack, hackers could use a Distributed Denial of... -
Sean Richardson made a comment
I only have experience of One Note but generally use that for work. Using it as a learning log will be beneficial for revision purposes and keeping track of the topics that have been covered. I'm not aware of the other tools mentioned but will investigate the others to get a better understanding of there functionality.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
In my opinion I think Cyber Attacks are inevitable. My reasons for this are that the Hackers appear to be one step ahead of the companies that provide protective software and hardware, and additionally the fact that most computers users do not have sufficient awareness of the threat. This is evident from the number of people that fall fowl and clink on links...
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
Hi everyone,
I'm Sean, I live in North Yorkshire UK and I'm looking to further my knowledge in Network and Cyber security. I've started a little late but will try and catch up.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
Hi everyone,
I'm Sean, I live in North Yorkshire UK and I'm looking to further my knowledge in Network and Cyber security. I've started a little late but will try and catch up.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
Hi All,
By way of introduction, I'm Sean Richardson from the UK. Although starting the course late I have a real interest in Cyber Security and want to learn the methods used to orchestrate attacks and more importantly how we as individuals can defend ourselves and our employers. -
Sean Richardson made a comment
After going through the survey I believe the company I work for is up to speed if not ahead of the game through the policies and practices in place.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
In my opinion a good Cyber Security plan requires a combination of all aspects including:
Good training to ensure employees are aware of items such as phishing - following that hyperlink to claim a prize or to check on your bank account for an alleged fraud may not be the best cause of action.
Ensuring the companies software is kept up to date with the...
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
The information I found most valuable over the last week or so - being late adding to the comments, was that of covering the process's a hacker uses to achieve there objectives.
In terms of information used whilst I'm at work varies according to sensitivity and is classified accordingly which dictates how it is handled and what systems are used to process...
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
It's imperative a routine is in place to monitor these files to know who has accessed them and when.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
This was an interesting week with lots to consider,in particular the ease at which a hacker can conduct an attack with the tools demonstrated on the videos.
What would I do differently: Test my vulnerabilities on a regular basis.
I already ensure I keep my OS and Anti-virus software up to date, use strong passwords and password my documents. -
Sean Richardson made a comment
What is apparent from the two videos is the fact that vulnerabilities can be easily identified and utilised to attack computers. By gaining a greater understanding of how these can be used to exploit vulnerable computers will allow users to formulate plans for a better defence.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
This was a good insight in to how easy it is for hackers to get and potentially exploit systems and as Simon said a good way to investigate our own weakness's.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
I tend to check for the latest updates in terms of OS and Antivirus software for all my families computers to reduce the chance of a cyber attack at home.
In terms of recent cyber attacks, in particular the ransomware attack on the NHS the blame was attributed to most of the trusts using obsolete systems with over 90% of computers reportedly using Windows...
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
This is an interesting question, it is imperative that all computer users keep there IT up to date with the latest Security patches for the OS and antivirus software.
Although as mentioned in the article it is dependent on the time frame of the release, with it indicating seven days. -
Hi Simon, I think you have introduced some good points which need to be considered especially with advent of smart meters telling power supply companies the usage of electricity and gas.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
There are numerous cyber security threats that SMEs need to be aware of, these include:
Ransomware, this is were criminals can hold companies to ransom by locking out computers and offering to release them on payment of a fee. This was used against the UK NHS with hackers exploiting vulnerabilities with OS.
Phishing: as mentioned in an earlier post this is a... -
Mukunda, I agree with you assessment
-
I don't think it was a was a denial of service attack because generally it's where the hackers aim is to keep the network server busy by sending an excessive amount of messages to prevent access to the system by authorised individuals.
-
Hi, just wondering why you think it is a denial of service attack?
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
The aim of this hack was not a denial of service attack but clearly for the theft of information regarding the clients of Mossack Fonseca enabling them to release the information to the press and ultimately the the wider global community.
-
Hi Arlene, I've just read you post looks like we used the same website should have read your before posting mine
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
Panama Papers Impact
The impact of the hacking of ‘Mossac Fonseca’ and subsequent release of the ‘Panama Papers’ has been felt across the world. It resulted in the offices of ‘Mossac Fonseca’ being raided and inquires being setup in over 79 countries with individual taxpayers and companies who had dealings with the law firm being investigated. With Europol...
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
Hi All,
I'm Sean from the UK. I'm studying this course to increase my knowledge of Cyber Security in particular both existing and future threats and the best defence against them.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
Hi Everyone,
I'm Sean and currently reside in Whitby. I enrolled on this course to refresh my Java programming skills.
I have completed the Module M257-Putting Java to work with the OU but haven't really touched it since and thought it would good to learn how to program apps. I built my own computer which is based on an Intel I5 processor, Gigabyte MB with... -
Sean Richardson made a comment
I like other members of the course would like to compare the data between rich countries to that of perceived less well off. To achieve that I would need to know data regarding a countries wealth and how much it spends on health care.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
Hi I'm Sean and I'm just starting this course after completing Cyber Security. I have programing knowledge of Smalltalk and Java having completed M206 and M257 with the Open University I also have used Pascal when completing a HNC in computers.
-
I believe the initial claim was made by trade unions, I wasn't aware of the registers report but as it states BA believe it was due to a power outage
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
I'm the same as Desmond my main failing was using the same password for more than one account which I'm in the process of changing.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
To reduce the risk of an attack I keep my software up to date with the option to update Microsoft software automatically turned on and I check for updates to Norton Internet Security. In addition for documents containing sensitive data I use password protection I particular my bank statements. With all my documents, pictures, videos being backed up using...
-
Sean Richardson replied to Deborah Burgess
Deborah I use edge too, in the advanced options it provides you an option to block 3rd party cookies,.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
The only additional thing that Lewis saves that I don't is passwords and account details.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
Lot of company's seem to contract out IT elements of there business which has detrimental effects, a more recent one that springs mind is the issues BA experienced which was claimed to be because of outsourcing.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
As mentioned at the start of the course Cyber Security is definitely the new front with all these high profile attacks do you think the global community is sufficiently prepared for the next attack?
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
I utilise a provision provided by Norton Internet Security to back the files identified in week 1 backing up my data when I Scan for updates
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
I utilise the Back Up facility provided by Norton Internet Security for all the files identified in week 1, at the moment I save it to a secure server with them although I'm considering changing it to a second hard drive on my computer.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
The use of credit reference agencies is a really good way to monitor any requests for loans and credit cards in addition they provide a service that monitors the www and looks for footprints of the emails you provide and will notify you if anything is discovered.
-
Nicolas, follow the link below to see what I found for the US.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
I chose to research the laws for Estonia having worked in the country for a short period.
The Cyber Laws legislation they have in place are: Digital Signatures Act, Databases Act, Electronic Communications Act, Information Society Services Act, Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure and the Personal Data Protection Act. -
Sean Richardson replied to Sean Richardson
Colin, that's an interesting read in the article I reviewed it had Pure VPN as being the best overall with Nord VPN being best for privacy.
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/test-centre/internet/best-vpn-services-of-2017-3657732/
-
Sean Richardson replied to Sean Richardson
Thanks Colin, I think the article sums it up.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
According to an article by the BBC Gary McKinnon is back working in IT having set up his own company Search Engine Optimisation.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
My experience data theft was similar Norma-Jade and others, with my credit card details being used to make purchases in a online store in Las Vegas, fortunately I spotted this incursion and reported it to the card issuer who conducted an investigation prior to retuning the amount stolen from my account. I was lucky to spot the issue at an early stage and...
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
These statistics are quite alarming, Carlos mentioned the possibility of data being stolen from government websites and it being outside our control to defend ourselves. My train of thought is that it is not only government websites but Banks and online shops could also be prone to insider attacks with personal data being stolen for ransom ware be it aimed at...
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
When I was working in Estonia I used a VPN to connect to my Amazon UK account which allowed me to watch purchased videos whilst away. I used an app for google chrome which enabled me to pretend that I was in the UK by connecting to a UK server. Having investigated the apps available now the number seems to have increased from the time I was away. A VPN can be...
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
Generally my son uses the printer connected to my computer to print off his home, a home network is great for this giving him access via my computer so I adapt my Firewall's configuration appropriately to achieve this.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
I use Norton Internet Security and adapted the settings to those reflected in the previous unit.
-
Sean Richardson replied to B Simpson
I wonder what internet connectivity they have on a nuclear sub?
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
I have Norton Internet Security installed, so will attempt to configure it as required.
-
Sean Richardson replied to Owen Crossby
Hi Richard,
I have a similar set up with BT, I believe the public BT FON are on different channels. -
Sean Richardson made a comment
I went onto www.amazon.co.uk using the Microsoft Edge browser, this displayed a padlock on the initial homepage, this was a nice surprise because I was expecting to see one when I went into the account area of the site.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
An interesting solution that provides a decent level of security to support what is now major revenue getter for numerous business's across the globe.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
The version of mailvelope I used was slightly different to that on the presentation, but I found the location to add the signature at the start. The process involved seemed straight forward following the video / transcript, if I had not had this as a guide I would of done the typical bloke thing and attempted it with out reading any instructions.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
One of the items identified was to protect personal documents, one of these being a spread sheet I use to keep a record of my financial transactions. In MS Office 2010 Excel provides an option to protect by using the option to 'Encrypt with Password' which I use. If I needed to email it the Outlook provides an option to encrypt an email but you must have a...
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
I would not look to use a public network for accessing my bank account or undertaking shopping, although there is security afforded to both as discussed earlier in the course there is nothing I can see that can't wait until I get home.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
For the Morning Herald I had the following results, for the USA it went from the East coast across to the West coast of the US, for Europe it remained in Switzerland and for the Asia Pacific Area it went from the East coast of the US across to Australia and back to the US.
I also tried www.bt.co.uk which gave me the following routing, USA it went fromthe West... -
Sean Richardson replied to Blath P
No they are locked out you can't access data, there are ways to do it, from the BIOS or editing the USBSTOR in the windows registry changing the value to 4 will disable or 3 to enable.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
I've never realised the routing of internet conectivity was so varied, an eye opener!
-
Sean Richardson replied to Stefan Knight
Stefan your absolutely right! I updated my parents from Windows Vista to Windows 7 about a year ago but this course has highlighted need to keep software up to date and I will now need to ensure they've moved to Windows 10 when I next visit.
-
Sean Richardson replied to Sarah Zalesakova
I also have Windows set up for manual updates, although I use Norton Internet Security rather than Windows Defender.
-
Sean Richardson replied to vikramjit singh
Viframjit, I adapt a similar approach running the Live Updates and generally do a scan after the updates.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
An application that I use that has not yet been mentioned is that of the NetBeans IDE, this requires you to check for updates from the help menu.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
An interesting section which gives me a possible reason why my AV software qurantines a possible virus and lets me decide how to progress rather than automatically removing it.
-
Sean Richardson replied to John Madden
Out of curiosity what did you choose? I tend to stick with Norton when asked such questions by Windows Defender.
-
Sean Richardson replied to Pat T
Pat Norton is expensive but worth the investment and has Desmond says most UK banks offer free Antivirus software with there accounts which may be worth considering
-
Sean Richardson replied to Anibal Moises Rosas Silva
Anibal did you loose any money or where quick enough to identify the issue? I wasn't but fortunately the bank managed to recover the amount lost.
-
Sean Richardson replied to Courage Yekeku
Courage, how do you think you computer became infected?
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
I was a victim of a phishing scam which resulted in me purchasing items from a food store in Las Vegas. Fortunately I check my credit card statement thoroughly and identified the fraud quite early on and having not visited the US in over ten years it was a quite easy to find. The bank investigated the fraud thoroughly with me having to pass all the details to...
-
Sean Richardson replied to Blath P
Not sure how they do it but the Cyber police come visiting if a USB device has been input into a computer terminal so you cant recharge your phones at work. Out of curiosity I'll ask at work and let you know.
-
I believe that this could be because your details have been sold and brought by unscrupulous users.
-
Sean Richardson replied to Blath P
Jennifer I do, all USB ports are locked out
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
This is interesting, from the descriptions above the only thing I consider to be the weakest link in the chain is the Human interaction. When we receive an email informing us of possible unscrupulous transactions on our bank account, the first reaction is to check but to the unaware they make use of the convenient hyperlink provided in the email. In addition...
-
Me too, Paypal, Barclays, HSBC, RBofS and loads pretending to be from Apple even though I've never had an account with them!
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
DNS Hijacking
Although I'm aware of the principal of this concept I have never heard it being referred to as DNS Hijacking. In essence a DNS translates a human friendly textual website address into a computer friendly IP address to direct the browser to the location of the website. DNS Hijacking is the process where the hackers get the computer to ignore the... -
Sean Richardson replied to James Baker
Hi James,
Excel and Word can utilise Macros and VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) which is a hackers dream for adding code to facilitate malware. -
My bank currently requires you to identify who you are my providing a membership number, account details or bank card number. You are then required to confirm your ID using a hardware security token in the form of a Pin Sentry card reader, this requires you to enter you card into the reader and then to enter you pin number which produces a code for you to use...
-
Doug, I'm sure both Microsoft and Google use email alternate addresses to send codes too.
-
For my bank the code is generated using hardware provided by the bank and my bank code although I do have the option of using my mobile instead.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
Initially I scored 14 for the password based on the name of the village in which I live, after modifications involving changing it to a statement and using upper and lower case character, numbers and symbols I managed to achieve a score of 164.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
I tend to use different passwords consisting of both upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols based on a subject I can remember easily.
-
Stefan, after reading your comments regarding online banking as it stands it does afford the confidentiality being you are the only person able to access, change and review the accounts whenever you want depending on server downtime. However I mentioned in my review of online banking I do need to consider possible cyber criminals phishing to gain logon details...
-
Hi James, I've received similar emails from alleged banks, Apple and Paypal seems a common mechanism for cyber criminals to use which someone must reply for them to continue using it.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
Online Banking – I currently use online banking mainly to monitor my account and check to ensure there are no transactions that I can’t account for but in the past, I’ve also used it to apply for loans online and on one occasion to make an electronic transfer of funds. The security issues regarding its use are of concern, the system my bank uses appears to be...
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
This course has been an eye opener, even though I'm protected with a good antivirus and firewall it has become apparent that we still need to informed on what the latest threats are because they are not all put in the public eye like WannaCry. I thought the website was particularly informative and will be reviewing it on a regular basis coupled with the...
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
The recent ransomware attack known as WannaCry is an excellent example of Cyber criminals using Denial of Service attacks on Governments and Business’s across the globe with to sole aim of financial gain by denying access to essential computer files necessary for them to go about their daily business.
The alleged UK based hacktivist ‘Lauri Love’ was said to...
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
In my opinion Stuxnet utilised a Botnet form of malware to exploit weaknesses in the Microsoft Operating System. In terms of the CIA acronym it enabled integrity to be lost by hackers being able to alter the spin rates of the Siemens Motors to achieve the objective of damaging the centrifuge’s to slowdown the Iranian enrichment process.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
Reading these examples of cyber attacks is disconcerting and goes to reiterate my first post with cyber being used by criminals to commit fraud and by governments / military and demonstrates that it is indeed the new frontline.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
A common form of this that I have noticed is when receiving emails from senders pretending to be banks, paypal and Apple for example all waiting for you to click on the link to enter your log on details for them to access your accounts!
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
Sony is not the only company to be it by cyber attacks, I seem to recall www.mobile.co.uk being hit by an incident regarding customers data.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
Hi all, I'm a bit late starting due to work commitments. Anyway, after reviewing the information provided it is evident that the threat posed to all countries is real.
The figures provided in the BIS Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2014 only cover the organisations surveyed so the actual figures could be much higher in addition the details for attacks on home... -
Hi Michelle, this seem to be a common occurrence it has happened to my mother on numerous occasions but fortunately she has never fallen for it. The worrying thing though is someone must fall foul of the practice for them to keep trying.
-
Sean Richardson made a comment
I am interested in increasing my awareness of Cyber Security to benefit my working knowledge for both home and work.