YCSC First Meeting of 2020

Pentest People were the proud hosts of the first YCSC (Yorkshire Cyber Security Cluster) meeting of 2020. The event had a brilliant turnout with many different faces from the industry. The Agenda consisted of 3 talks covering some key areas in the cybersecurity industry:

Alex Archondakis – Pentest People: ‘Spear Phishing and Cyber Best Practices’
Jason Newell – VirtualDCS & Nimbox: ‘The role of DR in preventing Ransomware attacks’
Catherine Knibbs – CyberTrauma: ‘Human Behaviour in a Digital World’

Alex’s talk taught us the threats we face from spear phishing and the multitude of attack methods hackers can use to get access to your accounts. Then carrying on to show the group how to stay secure and cyber best practices to avoid falling into the traps brought forward by these phishing methods.

Second up to speak was Jason Newell from VirtualDCS & Nimbox speaking about the ways in which you set up company policies can help put a stop to ransomware attacks to your business. Company procedures are often very basic and lack the real knowledge that employees can abide in order to avoid falling for phishing scams, infecting networks with malware or viruses and ultimately keeping the company safe.

Finally, Catherine Knibbs gave a very unique talk on cyberpsychology. Explaining her beliefs on why we do the things we do online or through digital media/devices. Catherine believes that at birth and during our infant life we have a comfort zone of between 30cm and 90cm, the same zone that we hold our mobile devices, use laptops/computers, etc. Which is why certain individuals feel they can say and do things they normally wouldn’t in day-to-day life. She then followed on with her views on teaching children the risks and best practices of the cyber world through education and how it needs to be improved.

Overall all 3 speakers gave extremely knowledgable and well-thought talks, with the audience holding a very productive Q&A at the end of the event. The YCSC holds events every month, if you’re interested then, please visit their website: ycsc.org.uk