Tom Hartley

Dr Tom Hartley

Fake it till you make it

Part 1: Deep fake Imagine seeing a video of a well-known CEO making outrageous statements, only to find out later it wasn’t real at all. That’s the power — and danger — of deep fake AI. This technology uses artificial intelligence to create highly convincing fake images, videos, and audio clips. It’s like Photoshop on steroids. While the technology itself...

Unearthing the SharePoint Goldmine: How Microsoft Copilot Supercharges Data Discovery

A few years back, my friend Johnathan, who was working as a Principal Solution Architect for AWS, visited EIT to spend some time with our students. He told me about this new thing called Alexa for Business. What he told me was futuristic ... imagine a CEO in a board meeting orally asking Alexa for financial projections based on data...

The Parkerian Hexad: Elevating Information Security Beyond the CIA Triad

While you may or may not be aware of the CIA Triad, it is a well-known set of fundamental principles of information security – Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability. It clearly defines the relationship between information and security. Confidentiality: Often considered the most fundamental principle of the CIA Triad, this involves protecting information from unauthorised access. It ensures that sensitive data...

Say Goodbye to Passwords: Welcome the Age of Passkeys!

2024 marks the beginning of a new era, bidding farewell to an old friend – the humble password – and embracing passkeys as the innovative gatekeeper of our digital security. Say goodbye to the days of cumbersome passwords and welcome a secure, convenient, and seamless login experience. For years, passwords have played a vital role in safeguarding our digital identities...

Artificial Intelligence – user beware Privacy and security are crucial

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as one of the most transformative and revolutionary technologies in recent history. From its humble beginnings to its widespread applications today, AI has garnered significant attention for its potential benefits as well as the inherent threats it poses. Discussions and experiments in technology date back to 1946, when Alan Turing initiated the study of computer-based...

Learning from Disaster: What we should take away from Cyclone Gabrielle

Over the course of the last several years, we have seen three major events that forced us to reassess our business continuity and disaster recovery planning. The Christchurch earthquake of 2011 initiated a shift towards cloud technology in preparation for office access becoming more unpredictable. 2020’s COVID-19 pandemic solidified remote working and online collaboration as an essential part of modern...

Plan to Make 2023 Your Safest Year Yet

2022 has seen two notable cybersecurity incidents: the significant data breach of the Pinnacle Midlands Health Network and the white-hat hacking of the Christchurch Hot Pools. While the Christchurch breach was downplayed as having been conducted by an “ethical hacker” intentionally identifying security vulnerabilities, the important takeaway in both cases is that a security hole in the systems was...

Cybersecurity Governance – the four cores to know

In past articles, we have looked at the four cores of managing cybersecurity – securing your people, your communications, your data, and your technology. This is achieved through awareness training, best-practice policies and procedures, and selective technologies. These are the foundational components that every business is expected to implement for security. Oversight of these policies and procedures however, falls to...

Getting the Basics Right

Every business, regardless of industry or size, is vulnerable to cybersecurity attack- that’s just a fact; your business is not immune. As of the writing of this article, there’s an uptick in attacks across New Zealand in both the retail and manufacturing sectors, businesses that normally would be considered low on the radar, and that will only increase in these and other unexpected segments during the year....

Making Security awareness a habit

Looking forward to 2022, we can expect another period of dealing with the invisible and deadly COVID-19 virus. Three years in, it has changed how we live, work and interact with others nationally and globally. We have trained ourselves to keep to our one-metre distance in public places, wash our hands thoroughly, and use sanitisers. We wear masks and use...