Defence — writing by Peter Bassill
Defence · page 3 of 3
Controls, hardening and how-tos: the unglamorous work that holds. 43 articles
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Carrying the pager: a list, not a manifesto
Things you can only learn by being woken up by them. Plain language. No revelations promised.
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Setting Up WireGuard VPN on Ubuntu
WireGuard is the VPN that replaced everything else on my network. Server setup, client configuration, DNS leak prevention, and kill switches.
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Carrying the pager, revisited
A reflection on a year of mature incident-response practice — what carrying the on-call pager has taught me about the shape of leadership, the cost of not training your successor, and what the work actually looks like at three in the morning.
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Setting Up Pi-hole for Home DNS Filtering
Pi-hole turns a spare machine into a network-wide ad and tracker filter. Every device benefits without any of them needing individual configuration.
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Configuring UFW Firewall Rules on Ubuntu
UFW is the sane front-end to iptables. This tutorial covers default-deny policies, service rules, rate limiting, logging, and the Docker gotcha that breaks all of it.
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Installing GoPhish on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and Configuring DNS for Phishing Simulation
Deploy GoPhish with Postfix on Ubuntu, configure SPF, DKIM, DMARC, CAA and SRV records for your sending domains, and import campaign templates.
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Backups: the only thing that recovers you from ransomware
The 3-2-1 rule, what to back up, why testing your backups is more important than having them, and the specific changes that protect backups from modern ransomware.
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Single-vendor concentration: the CrowdStrike lesson applied to AI
Post 6 of the AI series. The July 2024 CrowdStrike outage was not an AI incident, but it tells us a great deal about where the AI-in-security market is heading. Why single-vendor concentration of intelligent agents is a structural risk worth modelling now.
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Your network: Wi-Fi, routers, and home workers
Your router is your only firewall. Here is how to configure it properly, secure your Wi-Fi, set up a guest network, and look after the staff who work from coffee shops and kitchen tables.
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Patching: the unglamorous lifesaver
Why software updates matter, what actually needs updating, and how to make patching manageable for a small business without dedicated IT staff. The vegetables of cyber security.
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Locking the front door: passwords and access
Password managers, multi-factor authentication, the principle of least privilege, and the leaver checklist. The single highest-value hour you will spend on cyber security all year.
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Cyber security for the small business: where to start
An honest start to a year-long series. What cyber security actually is, why small businesses are targeted, and the five things every small business has that attackers want.
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The home network you live on
Part 2 of 18. Your home Wi-Fi router is the only thing between everything connected in your house and the rest of the internet. What boards should ask their household to look at this weekend.