Peter Bassill — latest writing on cyber security
Latest articles · page 11 of 13
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Malware and the layered defence
Antivirus is necessary but not sufficient. The defence-in-depth approach that actually catches malware — and how it joins up with everything else we have done this year.
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Hotels, conferences, and public Wi-Fi
Part 15 of 18, third and last of the travel posts. The day-to-day mechanics — the hotel network, the conference Wi-Fi, the airport lounge, the coffee shop on the way to the meeting. The small kit and habits that compound over a year of travel.
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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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Open-source models and the on-prem option
Post 5 of the AI series. Llama 3, Mistral, Mixtral. The serious open-source LLM era arrived in 2024. What it means for security teams who do not want to send data to a hyperscaler, and how the on-prem path reads against EmilyAI's single-tin posture.
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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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The hexagonal lesson: vendor agnosticism as structure
Post 4 of the AI series. Most security AI products are anchored to one vendor's platform. EmilyAI was built in 2018 with a hexagonal architecture that decouples the analyst from the SIEM matrix. Six years on, the choice is paying back in a way I did not anticipate.
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Clean devices and selective sync
Part 14 of 18, second of three travel posts. The clean travel laptop and phone, what to put on them, what to leave at home, and how to remain effective without exposing the whole work footprint.
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Email is the front door: spotting phishing and stopping BEC
Over 90% of breaches begin with email. How to spot phishing, build a reporting culture, configure SPF/DKIM/DMARC, and prevent the single most expensive small business fraud: business email compromise.
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International travel and jurisdictional risk
Part 13 of 18, first of three travel posts. What actually changes when you cross a border — customs powers over devices, foreign-state interest, the practical implications of which countries you are visiting. Without the paranoid framing.
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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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The Copilot-for-security wave: what they actually do
Post 3 of the AI series. Microsoft Security Copilot, CrowdStrike Charlotte, SentinelOne Purple, Google Sec-PaLM — the wave of LLM-powered security assistants. What they actually do well, what they do less well, and how the framing reads against EmilyAI.
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Operation Cronos: what disruption actually achieves
A month on from the NCA-led takedown of LockBit's infrastructure, the affiliate group is already back online and claiming new victims. What Operation Cronos achieved is real and worth defending — but it is not the dismantlement the headlines suggested.
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What a cyber attack actually costs a small business
The financial number is the smallest part. Operational disruption, reputational damage, and regulatory consequences are the costs that compound. Plus the positive case for getting this right.
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Deterministic inference: the property the market is losing
Post 2 of the AI series. Same input, same output, every time. A property that used to be table stakes in production systems and that LLM-based security tooling has quietly let go of. Why it matters and how EmilyAI is built to preserve it.
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Board portals and document handling
Part 12 of 18. Diligent, BoardEffect, Nasdaq Boards, the email-attachment habit, and the moments in board-paper handling when sensitive material is most likely to leak. The practical posture for non-executive directors.