What is Cyber Security?
The technique of protecting internet-connected systems such as computers,
servers, mobile devices, electronic systems, networks, and data from
malicious attacks is known as cybersecurity. We can divide cybersecurity
into two parts one is cyber, and the other is security. Cyber refers to the
technology that includes systems, networks, programs, and data. And
security is concerned with the protection of systems, networks, applications,
and information. In some cases, it is also called electronic information
security or information technology security.
Some other definitions of cybersecurity are:
"Cyber Security is the body of technologies, processes, and practices
designed to protect networks, devices, programs, and data from attack,
theft, damage, modification or unauthorized access."
"Cyber Security is the set of principles and practices designed to protect our
computing resources and online information against threats."
What is cybersecurity all about?
A successful cybersecurity approach has multiple layers of protection spread
across the computers, networks, programs, or data that one intends to keep
safe. In an organization, the people, processes, and technology must all
complement one another to create an effective defense from cyber attacks.
A unified threat management system can automate integrations across
select Cisco Security products and accelerate key security operations
functions: detection, investigation, and remediation.
People
Users must understand and comply with basic data security principles like
choosing strong passwords, being wary of attachments in email, and backing
up data. Learn more about basic cybersecurity principles with these Top 10
Cyber Tips.
Processes
Organizations must have a framework for how they deal with both
attempted and successful cyber attacks. One well-respected
framework can guide you. It explains how you can identify attacks,
protect systems, detect and respond to threats, and recover from
successful attacks. Learn about the the NIST cybersecurity
framework.
Technology
Technology is essential to giving organizations and individuals the computer
security tools needed to protect themselves from cyber attacks. Three main
entities must be protected: endpoint devices like computers, smart devices,
and routers; networks; and the cloud. Common technology used to protect
these entities include next-generation firewalls, DNS filtering, malware
protection, antivirus software, and email security solutions.
Why is cybersecurity important?
In today’s connected world, everyone benefits from advanced cyberdefense
programs. At an individual level, a cybersecurity attack can result in
everything from identity theft, to extortion attempts, to the loss of important
data like family photos. Everyone relies on critical infrastructure like power
plants, hospitals, and financial service companies. Securing these and other
organizations is essential to keeping our society functioning.
Everyone also benefits from the work of cyberthreat researchers, like the
team of 250 threat researchers at Talos, who investigate new and emerging
threats and cyber attack strategies. They reveal new vulnerabilities, educate
the public on the importance of cybersecurity, and strengthen open source
tools. Their work makes the Internet safer for everyone.
Types of Cyber Security
Every organization's assets are the combinations of a variety of different
systems. These systems have a strong cybersecurity posture that requires
coordinated efforts across all of its systems. Therefore, we can categorize
cybersecurity in the following sub-domains:
o Network Security: It involves implementing the hardware and
software to secure a computer network from unauthorized access,
intruders, attacks, disruption, and misuse. This security helps an
organization to protect its assets against external and internal threats.
o Application Security: It involves protecting the software and devices
from unwanted threats. This protection can be done by constantly
updating the apps to ensure they are secure from attacks. Successful
security begins in the design stage, writing source code, validation,
threat modeling, etc., before a program or device is deployed.
o Information or Data Security: It involves implementing a strong
data storage mechanism to maintain the integrity and privacy of data,
both in storage and in transit.
o Identity management: It deals with the procedure for determining
the level of access that each individual has within an organization.
o Operational Security: It involves processing and making decisions on
handling and securing data assets.
o Mobile Security: It involves securing the organizational and personal
data stored on mobile devices such as cell phones, computers, tablets,
and other similar devices against various malicious threats. These
threats are unauthorized access, device loss or theft, malware, etc.
o Cloud Security: It involves in protecting the information stored in the
digital environment or cloud architectures for the organization. It uses
various cloud service providers such as AWS, Azure, Google, etc., to
ensure security against multiple threats.
o Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning: It deals
with the processes, monitoring, alerts, and plans to how an
organization responds when any malicious activity is causing the loss
of operations or data. Its policies dictate resuming the lost operations
after any disaster happens to the same operating capacity as before
the event.
o User Education: It deals with the processes, monitoring, alerts, and
plans to how an organization responds when any malicious activity is
causing the loss of operations or data. Its policies dictate resuming the
lost operations after any disaster happens to the same operating
capacity as before the event.
Importance of Cyber Security
Today we live in a digital era where all aspects of our lives depend on the
network, computer and other electronic devices, and software applications.
All critical infrastructure such as the banking system, healthcare, financial
institutions, governments, and manufacturing industries use devices
connected to the Internet as a core part of their operations. Some of their
information, such as intellectual property, financial data, and personal data,
can be sensitive for unauthorized access or exposure that could
have negative consequences. This information gives intruders and threat
actors to infiltrate them for financial gain, extortion, political or social
motives, or just vandalism.
Cyber-attack is now an international concern that hacks the system, and
other security attacks could endanger the global economy. Therefore, it is
essential to have an excellent cybersecurity strategy to protect sensitive
information from high-profile security breaches. Furthermore, as the volume
of cyber-attacks grows, companies and organizations, especially those that
deal with information related to national security, health, or financial records,
need to use strong cybersecurity measures and processes to protect their
sensitive business and personal information.
Cyber Security Goals
Cyber Security's main objective is to ensure data protection. The
security community provides a triangle of three related principles to protect
the data from cyber-attacks. This principle is called the CIA triad. The CIA
model is designed to guide policies for an organization's information security
infrastructure. When any security breaches are found, one or more of these
principles has been violated.
We can break the CIA model into three parts: Confidentiality, Integrity,
and Availability. It is actually a security model that helps people to think
about various parts of IT security. Let us discuss each part in detail.
Confidentiality
Confidentiality is equivalent to privacy that avoids unauthorized access of
information. It involves ensuring the data is accessible by those who are
allowed to use it and blocking access to others. It prevents essential
information from reaching the wrong people. Data encryption is an
excellent example of ensuring confidentiality.
Integrity
This principle ensures that the data is authentic, accurate, and safeguarded
from unauthorized modification by threat actors or accidental user
modification. If any modifications occur, certain measures should be taken to
protect the sensitive data from corruption or loss and speedily recover from
such an event. In addition, it indicates to make the source of information
genuine.
Availability
This principle makes the information to be available and useful for its
authorized people always. It ensures that these accesses are not hindered by
system malfunction or cyber-attacks.
Types of Cyber Security Threats
A threat in cybersecurity is a malicious activity by an individual or
organization to corrupt or steal data, gain access to a network, or disrupts
digital life in general. The cyber community defines the following threats
available today:
Malware
Malware means malicious software, which is the most common cyber
attacking tool. It is used by the cybercriminal or hacker to disrupt or damage
a legitimate user's system. The following are the important types of malware
created by the hacker:
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o Virus: It is a malicious piece of code that spreads from one device to another.
It can clean files and spreads throughout a computer system, infecting files,
stoles information, or damage device.
o Spyware: It is a software that secretly records information about user
activities on their system. For example, spyware could capture credit card
details that can be used by the cybercriminals for unauthorized shopping,
money withdrawing, etc.
o Trojans: It is a type of malware or code that appears as legitimate software
or file to fool us into downloading and running. Its primary purpose is to
corrupt or steal data from our device or do other harmful activities on our
network.
o Ransomware: It's a piece of software that encrypts a user's files and data on
a device, rendering them unusable or erasing. Then, a monetary ransom is
demanded by malicious actors for decryption.
o Worms: It is a piece of software that spreads copies of itself from device to
device without human interaction. It does not require them to attach
themselves to any program to steal or damage the data.
o Adware: It is an advertising software used to spread malware and displays
advertisements on our device. It is an unwanted program that is installed
without the user's permission. The main objective of this program is to
generate revenue for its developer by showing the ads on their browser.
o Botnets: It is a collection of internet-connected malware-infected devices
that allow cybercriminals to control them. It enables cybercriminals to get
credentials leaks, unauthorized access, and data theft without the user's
permission.
Phishing
Phishing is a type of cybercrime in which a sender seems to come from a
genuine organization like PayPal, eBay, financial institutions, or friends
and co-workers. They contact a target or targets via email, phone, or text
message with a link to persuade them to click on that links. This link will
redirect them to fraudulent websites to provide sensitive data such as
personal information, banking and credit card information, social security
numbers, usernames, and passwords. Clicking on the link will also install
malware on the target devices that allow hackers to control devices
remotely.
Man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack
A man-in-the-middle attack is a type of cyber threat (a form of
eavesdropping attack) in which a cybercriminal intercepts a conversation
or data transfer between two individuals. Once the cybercriminal places
themselves in the middle of a two-party communication, they seem like
genuine participants and can get sensitive information and return different
responses. The main objective of this type of attack is to gain access to our
business or customer data. For example, a cybercriminal could intercept
data passing between the target device and the network on an unprotected
Wi-Fi network.
Distributed denial of service (DDoS)
It is a type of cyber threat or malicious attempt where cybercriminals disrupt
targeted servers, services, or network's regular traffic by fulfilling legitimate
requests to the target or its surrounding infrastructure with Internet traffic.
Here the requests come from several IP addresses that can make the system
unusable, overload their servers, slowing down significantly or temporarily
taking them offline, or preventing an organization from carrying out its vital
functions.
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Brute Force
A brute force attack is a cryptographic hack that uses a trial-and-error
method to guess all possible combinations until the correct information is
discovered. Cybercriminals usually use this attack to obtain personal
information about targeted passwords, login info, encryption keys, and
Personal Identification Numbers (PINS).
SQL Injection (SQLI)
SQL injection is a common attack that occurs when cybercriminals use
malicious SQL scripts for backend database manipulation to access sensitive
information. Once the attack is successful, the malicious actor can view,
change, or delete sensitive company data, user lists, or private customer
details stored in the SQL database.
Domain Name System (DNS) attack
A DNS attack is a type of cyberattack in which cyber criminals take
advantage of flaws in the Domain Name System to redirect site users to
malicious websites (DNS hijacking) and steal data from affected computers.
It is a severe cybersecurity risk because the DNS system is an essential
element of the internet infrastructure.
Latest Cyber Threats
The following are the latest cyber threats reported by the U.K., U.S., and
Australian governments:
Romance Scams
The U.S. government found this cyber threat in February 2020.
Cybercriminals used this threat through dating sites, chat rooms, and apps.
They attack people who are seeking a new partner and duping them into
giving away personal data.
Dridex Malware
It is a type of financial Trojan malware identifies by the U.S. in December
2019 that affects the public, government, infrastructure, and business
worldwide. It infects computers through phishing emails or existing malware
to steal sensitive information such as passwords, banking details, and
personal data for fraudulent transactions. The National Cyber Security Centre
of the United Kingdom encourages people to make sure their devices are
patched, anti-virus is turned on and up to date, and files are backed up to
protect sensitive data against this attack.
Emotet Malware
Emotet is a type of cyber-attack that steals sensitive data and also installs
other malware on our device. The Australian Cyber Security Centre warned
national organizations about this global cyber threat in 2019.
The following are the system that can be affected by security
breaches and attacks:
o Communication: Cyber attackers can use phone calls, emails, text
messages, and messaging apps for cyberattacks.
o Finance: This system deals with the risk of financial information like bank
and credit card detail. This information is naturally a primary target for cyber
attackers.
o Governments: The cybercriminal generally targets the government
institutions to get confidential public data or private citizen information.
o Transportation: In this system, cybercriminals generally target connected
cars, traffic control systems, and smart road infrastructure.
o Healthcare: A cybercriminal targets the healthcare system to get the
information stored at a local clinic to critical care systems at a national
hospital.
o Education: A cybercriminals target educational institutions to get their
confidential research data and information of students and employees.
Benefits of Cyber Security
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The following are the benefits of implementing and maintaining
cybersecurity:
o Cyberattacks and data breach protection for businesses.
o Data and network security are both protected.
o Unauthorized user access is avoided.
o After a breach, there is a faster recovery time.
o End-user and endpoint device protection.
o Regulatory adherence.
o Continuity of operations.
o Developers, partners, consumers, stakeholders, and workers have more faith
in the company's reputation and trust.
Cyber Safety Tips
Let us see how to protect ourselves when any cyberattacks happen. The
following are the popular cyber safety tips:
Conduct cybersecurity training and awareness: Every organization
must train their staffs on cybersecurity, company policies, and incident
reporting for a strong cybersecurity policy to be successful. If the staff does
unintentional or intentional malicious activities, it may fail the best technical
safeguards that result in an expensive security breach. Therefore, it is useful
to conduct security training and awareness for staff through seminars,
classes, and online courses that reduce security violations.
Update software and operating system: The most popular safety
measure is to update the software and O.S. to get the benefit of the latest
security patches.
Use anti-virus software: It is also useful to use the anti-virus software that
will detect and removes unwanted threats from your device. This software is
always updated to get the best level of protection.
Perform periodic security reviews: Every organization ensures periodic
security inspections of all software and networks to identify security risks
early in a secure environment. Some popular examples of security reviews
are application and network penetration testing, source code reviews,
architecture design reviews, and red team assessments. In addition,
organizations should prioritize and mitigate security vulnerabilities as quickly
as possible after they are discovered.
Use strong passwords: It is recommended to always use long and various
combinations of characters and symbols in the password. It makes the
passwords are not easily guessable.
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Do not open email attachments from unknown senders: The cyber
expert always advises not to open or click the email attachment getting from
unverified senders or unfamiliar websites because it could be infected with
malware.
Avoid using unsecured Wi-Fi networks in public places: It should also
be advised not to use insecure networks because they can leave you
vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks.
Backup data: Every organization must periodically take backup of their
data to ensure all sensitive data is not lost or recovered after a security
breach. In addition, backups can help maintain data integrity in cyber-attack
such as SQL injections, phishing, and ransomware.
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