A typical crisis meeting scenario: The Management and myself as an external consultant or information security officer sitting in a conference room: Our processes are being slowed down by too many security requirements. Employees are complaining. ‘Your’ IT security is becoming a risk to our business. Read more

It was the early 2000s and I was sitting there with a massive brick from Microsoft Press.1 The proud price back then: 129 Deutsche Mark. I flipped through it and felt a déjà vu: I knew these pages! Not in terms of content, but the layout, the structure, the examples, even the icons in the side notes: These were the lost manuals of the 1990s! Read more

Security through obscurity1 is not working. This is not an allegation, it is a proven fact. Today’s proof has a particularly large impact on worldwide Microsoft Windows installations. The Windows Security Centre (WSC) API2 has been made to accept any program as an anti-virus solution. The WSC works as follows: If a manufacturer of an AV security solution wants to install his snakeoil, he/she first has to be able to switch off the anti-tempering mechanisms so that it is not identified as malware. Read more

Why is the ransomware business model so successful? How do criminals manage to steal data, encrypt it and often also destroy data backups? According to a representative survey conducted by BITKOM over the past 12 months, 60% of companies in Germany have been affected1. A brief excursion into this topic, my work and how I was able to help a company save EUR 17,000. Read more