This month, we spoke with Wei Ren, who joins us to lead Incident Response in Pragma Singapore.

Prior to Pragma, you were a Digital Forensic Analyst with a national regulator. What was that like?
“Well, the majority of our work was focused on content regulation. We also assisted the police with crimes such as online scams, blackmail attempts, and social media viral posts. There were definitely many challenges, as the regulatory body covers the entire nation. We were also often also used as a reference point for international cooperation so there were many legal hoops to jump through.”

You’ve joined us during the COVID-19 pandemic. How’s the remote working arrangement in Pragma suiting you?
“It’s great! Remote work is definitely a new challenge for me, coming from an air-gapped system, but I like how easy it is to get things done when you’re just one click away from everything.”

What is the biggest trend you’ve noticed in digital forensics lately?
“We’ve seen a huge interest in cloud services nowadays. More and more, people are moving their IT infrastructure online for the cost savings and convenience. However, there is a significant tradeoff in security just from having your data online. With all the excitement to get on the cloud, lots of companies aren’t giving their data security a hard-enough look and hackers are definitely taking advantage of that.”

Do you have any nuggets of wisdom on cybersecurity?
“Common sense, a healthy dose of scepticism, and the right mentality towards security are the best protection money can’t buy. Security software obviously plays a huge part too, but in the end, a tool is only as good as the user behind it.
The vast majority of cases we see are usually because people have gotten careless and clicked on something they shouldn’t have or left an entry point open for convenience. Other times, the IT system grows with the company and the new machines just aren’t properly secured.”

About Pragma Incident Response

Pragma provides Incident Response services to organisations from diverse industries in over 135 countries globally. If you require immediate assistance, please email [email protected]