How can companies protect themselves against cyber attacks?

A former hacker has the answer.

Mustafa Al Bassam is now senior adviser at Secure Trading and a PhD student in the Information Security Research Group at University College London, working on peer-to-peer systems.

He co-founded the hacker group LulzSec in 2011, which was responsible for several high profile breaches.

The organisations targeted by the group over a 50-day hacking spree included Sony, Fox, News International, Nintendo and the CIA.

Mustafa was convicted as a 16-year-old, receiving a 20-month suspended sentence with 500 hours of unpaid community service work and a nearly two-year internet ban.

He joined us on The Last Word to talk about his experience, and how companies can prevent hacks and limit the damage if they occur.

Mustafa will also be speaking at the Secure Computing Forum in the RDS in Dublin tomorrow.

Listen to the interview in full by pressing the play button on this page.