As part of the assistance carried out by the Lancashire Cyber Foundry a number of digital resources have been created that can be accessed for free including technical articles, a podcast, and a YouTube channel.
The Lancashire Cyber Foundry is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund
The Lancashire Cyber Foundry team has created a collection of technical articles designed to inform businesses on the cyber landscape, general informatics articles, and other upcoming technical trends. You can view a brief blurb of the articles by clicking the title below. If you are interested in that topic the full article can be downloaded by clicking the link.
Password protection is quite frequently the last and only layer of defence between criminals and our personal data. Whilst passwords can be very secure, there are always issues regarding online password leaks, hacking, email phishing and more. If there is only one layer of protection for our personal data, all it takes is one slip up to have potentially major repercussions. This is why having at least one more level of security is always a good idea. Enter 2-Factor Authentication (2FA).
Cloud computing is a way of using technology where instead of having to buy, own, and maintain physical data centres and servers, all these things can be accessed over the internet on remote servers. These servers are maintained by what are known as cloud providers. The most popular ones are Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. These providers also provide the ability to use the cloud to store data, run applications and even host websites.
The future of documentation is electronic signatures. During the last year, many companies have moved their wet ink signature processes to digital. This has created a huge market for electronic signature software, but which is best? This article takes 3 leading signature software products and compares them against each other.
Blockchain has become a very well-known buzzword in the business world but quite often there is not an accompanying explanation of what it is. People are scrambling to include blockchain in their business operations without fully understanding what it is or how it may benefit the business. This article is here to explain what blockchain is in a digestible manner and how it may be useful to include blockchain in your business.
At the time of writing this article (Feb 2021), businesses are starting to discuss what returning to work looks like. With cyber-attacks on SMEs up by nearly 40% since we started working from home, now is a great time for your business to consider cyber security when you return.
Ransomware is a growing concern for many large businesses. We've all seen news stories where large businesses have been frozen out of their data because someone is holding it hostage. Although there are different strains of ransomware they all work on the same principle. A malicious person accesses your data, encrypts it and then refuses to decrypt it until you've paid a ransom. Sometimes they honour this and sometimes they don't.
At first glance, gaming and robotics are thought of as 2 unrelated fields. However, they have much more in common than the public would think. In this article, we will focus on how developments in gaming have been valuable towards the robotics field, especially from the point of view of simulations.
Quantum computers have appeared in science fiction novels and films for years but what actually is it and why are so many tech giants talking about it now? Modern computing technology has come far from the first computer and now quantum computers are no longer science fiction. What does this mean for modern technology and more importantly security?
QR codes, or Quick Response codes, have become ever-present in our daily lives as they make for a rapid and effective method of transmitting information, be it banking systems or menus at restaurants. According to anti-phishing software TitanHQ, over 34% of smartphone users scan a QR code once a week and nearly 84% have scanned a QR code at least once.
Monitoring software is software that alerts you to different issues or variables within your development stack. Through the use of different tools, it gives you real-time information so you to understand your system better and intervene with changes when necessary. There are lots of different ways you can monitor your software, but this report will focus on only two types of monitoring: Availability Monitoring and Error Monitoring. For an SME with a limited budget, these are the most critical to implement.
Not only is 5G (fifth generation) a new faster network, but it has the potential to radically change the internet and the way we interact with it. Through its greater use of the radio spectrum, it will enable more Internet of Things devices to access the internet at the same time and communicate with each other with minimal delay. Experts predict that a connected world with smart home technology, smart cities with driverless cars, and industry automation will be the start of the 5G technological revolution. So, what could your business do with 5G technology?
Optimisation is a very useful field in Data Science that has helped in executing sophisticated tasks that would not have been possible without such techniques and concepts. From a mathematical perspective, Optimisation is the act and process of finding the best combination of variables that would give the best solution to a specific problem. It is often separated into maximisation and minimisation.
Augmented reality allows users to superimpose digital information onto the physical world. As the name suggests, it adds something to the reality already around us. A very popular game, Pokemon GO, is a great example of how AR works. Contrary to AR, Virtual reality creates a realistic simulated environment which is independent of the physical reality around us. By wearing a VR headset, users get into an immersive experience of a virtual world.
For many people 2020 was one of the worst years in recent history however, it emphasised the importance of technology in the new age of working from home and limited in-person interaction. This article discusses some predictions for what will happen to technology and cyber security in the years to come.
Most businesses use Excel in the course of their day-to-day work; many companies would even say that productivity would drastically decrease if they were unable to use it. Most people have a good understanding of how to use Excel, but it is a powerful tool with much more depth than people know. Here are 5 lesser-known Excel tips and tricks to help supercharge your business.
This article looks at the benefits of investing in cyber security, and how leading and embedding cyber security credentials within your marketing communications can, not only, help protect your business, but sell it. Credentials to your business are an investment and will take time and thought to achieve. Don't hide them, lead with them. We urge you to think about your cyber security credentials from a marketing perspective right from the start, to celebrate your success, integrate them into your marketing communications, and let them work for you to promote your business.
Deepfakes are a form of synthetic media generated by using artificial intelligence/machine learning algorithms. They can manipulate original content, typically a person's face or body, with the intention of giving the impression that the person may have said or done something they haven't. Hence, it has the potential to be used maliciously to damage a person's reputation, for blackmail, or to spread false information.
The mobile market is expanding rapidly and has become the driving power of Internet usage over the recent decade. Nowadays, more people browse the web with their mobile phones than on other devices. Therefore, every business must consider developing a mobile app to reach customers or even automate work within the company.
The National Cyber Security Centre's (NCSC) Cyber Essentials scheme is a government-backed certification that is designed to help you protect your organisation. This is through mitigating the potential risks of the most common cyber threats, by ensuring the implementation of fundamental cyber security controls and protection methods.
ChatGPT is a large language model developed by OpenAI. ChatGPT is capable of generating human-like text responses to a variety of user inputs. The language model has been trained on large amounts of data and uses sophisticated algorithms to understand and generate natural language responses.
Download Can Chatbots Become Human-Like?
Prototyping is a huge part of any product design journey. It can be considered pre-emptive testing before lots of time, money and resources are used. However, prototyping is not just one thing. There are lots of different styles of prototyping. Although there are a lot of different styles of prototypes, they can be categorised within two axes: Fidelity and Feature Depth. Fidelity is how close to the final product your prototype is and Feature depth is how focused your prototyping is.
Before you even think about taking a hammer to the hard drive or taking it to your local recycling point, there are some steps you should take to ensure that you not only protect the environment when disposing of an old computer, but also yourself.
When people think of a hacker, often they picture someone in a dark room with their hood up frantically typing on a keyboard, but often the most dangerous hackers are the ones who operate under everyone's noses. Social Engineering, or human hacking, is one of the most common ways people have data and information stolen. Social engineering is "the use of deception to manipulate individuals into divulging confidential or personal information that may be used for fraudulent purposes." As security software keeps improving many hackers have realised that the weakest link in the security chain is the person already behind the security system.
2020 saw the smart home market value hit £70bn and by 2025 it's predicted to reach £110bn. The market is both diverse and competitive with an ever-growing range of smart products available from industry giants such as Amazon and Google. The Smart Connected Home Ecosystem is here to stay. Although there's no shortage of utility and novelty, many people are starting to ask the question of how safe are they
in a business environment?
Companies often say they want to be more innovative and yet many are not sure where to start. This article aims to give you some tools and questions to be more innovative as a company.
We are currently amidst a "gold rush" in the development of generative Artificial Intelligence, which is a piece of technology that can create never-before-seen content off user input. Most recently, OpenAI and they're revolutionary ChatGPT generative Al-powered chatbot has been all over technology journals. With such exciting pieces of technology being developed, an interesting idea is how such technology can be leveraged to generate better, and more interesting content for the web.
Artificial Intelligence (Al) indicates the advanced functions performed by machines or robots that would have been normally possible only by the intelligence of the human mind. Al is becoming more prevalent in daily life, from the initiation of self-driving cars to the evolution of smart assistants like Siri and Alexa. But how can it be used in project management?
With over 1. 7 billion adults worldwide being classified as under-banked (World Bank, 2018), many small businesses in developing countries face limitations in accessing traditional payment services, hindering the ability to trade. The rise of stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency attached to a stable asset, could offer a simple, cost-effective and reliable alternative to traditional payment services. In this article, the potential of stablecoins and blockchain technology to enable the financial inclusion of small businesses will be explored.
Everyone has a connection to public Wi-Fi; it is free and open and has no authentication required to use. This could be in a cafe, in the airport, or on a journey into the city centre. However, many people are afraid of connecting to such networks considering the warnings that claim that it is an effortless way to be hacked. Ultimately, making a lot of people ask the question: Is it ever safe to join the public Wi-Fi?
It's no secret that during 2020 small and medium-sized businesses have bought more IT equipment for homeworking. But with the number of cyber-attacks having increased by 40% since 2019, many are asking how best to secure this new equipment. This article looks at 5 simple things you can do when you buy new IT equipment to make sure you're more secure.
Google introduced the self-driving car project in 2009. In 2018 Google and an autonomous driving technology company called Alphabet came together to form Waymo. They partnered with Jaguar to launch self-driving cars by 2020.
Public/private key pairs are used for public-key cryptography, also known as asymmetric cryptography. In comparison to its less modern counterpart-symmetric cryptography-asymmetric cryptography uses two distinct keys for encryption and decryption. Asymmetric cryptography is the current industry standard for encryption due to its nature of requiring two keys, and because it requires a 2048-bit or longer key size, which means cracking the encryption is highly infeasible. For a 2048-bit key, there would be 22048 possible combinations, which would take modern computers around 300 trillion years to crack.
Chatbots are software programs that use Artificial Intelligence (Al) to simulate human conversation, used for a variety of purposes such as customer service, entertainment and sharing information. They have become a valuable tool that businesses use to improve customer service and streamline processes. They have the potential to save time and allow companies to focus on more important tasks.
The first thing that may come to mind when considering artificial intelligence may be the idea of machines that are just as intelligent as humans or maybe nearly indistinguishable from human minds. Artificial intelligence does include such study, as well as the more philosophical ideas of what the implications of a “thinking machine” would be, AI also encompasses a much broader area of development. Artificial intelligence includes software such as rules-based systems, predictive analytics and pattern recognition.
Social media is a powerful communications tool which offers distinct and unique marketing benefits. Every major organisation in the world uses social media. You don’t need to be a marketing expert to use social media effectively, whatever resources you have, with social media, a little can go a long way.
Security testing is an essential security measure and is counted as one of the best security practices applied to applications because of its focus on application security. If the application is tested before it is made live then a lot of risks are mitigated however, it isn't a one-and-done activity. Companies must always be vigilant and continue to test their applications.
The first lecture I ever received as a Computer Science undergraduate was about the importance of backing up data. It is essential for everyone but particularly important for small businesses. Small businesses often don’t have the infrastructure of larger companies and as such backing up is often seen as a hassle. Here’s an easy small business guide to backing up your data.
3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is becoming more mainstream with 3D printers more commercially available. The cost of 3D printers has plummeted. At the time of writing, there are 3D printers as cheap as £70. The accuracy of 3D printing has improved and continues to get better. The machines are more user-friendly, and it’s easier to design 3D models thanks to free software programs.
The three main frontrunners in the video conferencing arms race are Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet. You’d be forgiven for thinking that “they’re all the same, right?” This is broadly true, and they share a lot of the same core functionality but they differ around security.
Social media is a powerful communication tool. It can be tricky to get the mix of personal and professional right, and it can be overwhelming- Who to follow? How often to engage? What platform to focus on? What to say?
The Demystifying Cyber podcast by Lancashire Cyber Foundry aims to unpack the latest developments in cyber security. In each episode, we're joined by special guests to provide listeners with practical insight and increased awareness of all things cyber.
In this episode we sat down with Paul Vlissidis, Technical Director at NCC Group, Author of 'How To Survive The Internet' and Head of Cyber for Channel 4's hit series 'Hunted'. Paul has been actively involved within cyber for many years and has contributed to the sector in several ways. We discuss the implications of technical language in cyber, how cyber could be more diverse in its widest sense and also his experiences of hunting down fugitives.
In this episode, we sat down with Dave Tait, Detective Sergeant for Lancashire Constabulary's Cyber Crime Unit. Dave has recently taken up the role of Detective Sergeant and shares his experiences as well as insights into the work carried out by the Cyber Crime Unit. We discuss his background to date and how he got involved with cyber crime. Alongside this, we also explore different types of cyber crime and delve into the investigation process, as well as the role of the Cyber Crime Unit in raising awareness.
In this episode we sat down with Marie Hamilton, who is the current Greater Manchester Region Lead for Microsoft. Marie is a real force for good and an advocate for social mobility, where she is actively involved in supporting young people with their future career choices. In the episode we discuss the importance of digital upskilling, overcoming barriers to upward mobility and careers in tech.
The Lancashire Cyber Foundry have a YouTube channel where animations and recordings of events have been posted. Below you will be able to see our two latest videos.
The Lancashire Cyber Foundry is passionate about helping businesses to realise their digital potential. We have worked with eligible organisations to support them in placing ‘Cyber Innovation’ at the heart of their strategy. We have achieved this through a combination of ‘Secure Digitalisation’ workshops and practical digital consultancy. This video demonstrates the impact we have made in the Lancashire Region.
