Cyber Series

The role of a Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR) Consultant is varied and broad, though it usually involves offering calm, expert advice to leadership teams, IT staff, and legal departments during one of the most stressful work experiences they’ve ever had.   

The role of a Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR) Consultant is varied and broad, though it usually involves offering calm, expert advice to leadership teams, IT staff, and legal departments during one of the most stressful work experiences they’ve ever had.   

Cadet Blizzard, Bleeding Bear, Callisto, and Greyscale may sound like racehorses, but they are in fact some of the names attributed to a cyber warfare group run by the 161st Specialist Training Centre (aka Unit 29155) of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence service. 

Google recently announced the disruption of a sophisticated hacking campaign conducted by the Iran-linked group APT42 (also known as Calanque or UNC788). This campaign targeted the personal email accounts of people connected to President Biden and former President Trump.  

The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has taken the rare step of publishing a provisional report and fine regarding the severe ransomware attack on Advanced Computer Software Group (Advanced), which compromised the NHS medical records of more than 80,000 people.  

Private equity (PE) firms face a unique challenge in overseeing cyber security for multiple portfolio companies, each with its own risk profile and security needs. As cyber threats continue to intensify, PE firms must develop strategies to protect their investments and maintain portfolio stability. 

Many PE firms are not maximising the potential of cyber security in the due diligence process.

James Thoburn, Director of Incident Response, Cyber Risk explains why it is so important to prepare to fail and sets out: 

• The necessity of rigorous testing and staged rollouts 
• Strategic patch and update management 
• The importance of robust backup and recovery plans and incident response readiness 
• Adherence to regulatory frameworks like #DORA and #NIS2 for enhanced resilience 

Valentina Martinez initially joined Thomas Murray as a data analyst. But she’s now with our Cyber Risk team, where her existing skills complement the team's capabilities.  

This week’s Cyber Series reviews what shook the tech world in July – and beyond the CrowdStrike/Microsoft outage there is plenty for Valentina Martinez and Stephen Green to cover, including: 

• The legal woes for AT&T after its massive data breach on 12 July; 
• The alarming news that several of the world’s most prominent hacktivist groups are banding together as the ‘Holy League’; 
• Trouble in the Magic Kingdom as threat actors break into Disney’s Slack channels; and 
• What you need to know about ClickFix, a social engineering tactic to deploy malware