Mon Sep 18th 2021, Manchester Innovation and Technology Academy concluded the activities of the Cyber Security conference under the patronage of the UK government - Department for International Trade –Innovation is Great UK, and Kindus for Cyber Security.
The conference was held online on 18th of September, via Academy’s online platform.
The main speakers at the webinar were: Richard De’Vere - Senior Social Engineering Consultant, Haroon Ahmed - Senior Information Security Consultant, Graeme Cassell - Senior Cyber Forensic Consultant and of course Dr. Wissam Steitie the Managing Director of Manchester innovation and technology academy (Maniatech Academy).
In the beginning, Dr. Wissam Steitie, managing director of Maniatech Academy, gave the opening speech, welcoming the attendees and stressing the importance of this webinar in: defining the concept of Cyber Security, discussing different topics such as: Hacking The Human, Protecting Against Suppliers , Ransomware and; Crypto Forensics . These topics were discussed thoroughly in two hours , explaining Cyber Security and stressing it’s importance nowadays for beginners who would like to know more about it , and even experts who would like to learn about these topics in details such as : Social Engineering, what is it ? and how Criminals use it to exploit people on a daily basis , also different processes of data gathering such as Obtaining Information , Dumpster Diving , Creating a Pretext , and how basic equipment can be used to complete a social engineering attack , sometimes even a mobile phone would be enough . at the end of his speech Richard De’Vere proposed some Solutions to Combat Social Engineering.
Then Haroon Ahmed gave his speech about Suppliers: Third party service providers, vendors, supply chain who can also propose a risk of for example: Stealing data by exploiting backdoor access in 3rd party data storage, or embedding malicious code in websites to steal your IP, Mr. Ahmed concluded his speech by giving real world examples such as: Hotel Chain – Marriot and US Retailer – Target, and then proposing ways to Reduce Your Supplier Risk.
The final speech was by Graeme Cassell, who explained the concept of Ransomware, and Why is Ransomware So Popular, it’s delivery methods such as Malicious Email Attachments, clicking malicious links, Visiting malicious websites, and File sharing from infected victims. Mr. Cassell concluded by providing a Ransomware Attack Case Study and Solutions to Combat Ransomware such as: Prevention/Protection, Response and Recovery.