Cybersecurity – Commonly referred to as Information Security

Ensures concealment, integrity, confidentiality, and availability of information on digital devices.

Delineating Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is all about securing digital devices, networks, and software from cyber-attacks or breaches that are caused by internal or external glitches. Information or data compilation is a crucial asset for any organization and the aim of cyberattacks is to access the sensitive information of particular organizations. Through cyberattack either the sensitive information is accessed, copied, altered, or deleted causing functionality issues for the organization being cyberattacked. Cybersecurity is encompassed with different tools, risk management approaches and standard procedures for averting the impact of cyberattacks.

Top reasons for Cyberattacks

Following are the most common reasons for cyberattacks based on which organizations are targeted:

• Revenge, blackmail or rivalry
• Objective to cause monetary loss 
• Hinder normal business operations
• Damage organizations reputation
• Data damage or loss impacting on sustainability (financial data, trade secrets or any other kind of intellectual property can damage organizations sustainability)

Cyberattacks and security challenges have been advancing progressively with rapid technological development. Cybersecurity is becoming challenging with the passage of time as the objective has shifted towards human-centric cybersecurity rather than cyber-threats.

Basic Architecture of Cyber Security

Cybersecurity is a construction of multiple layers/levels of fortifications that comprises computers, networks, software and different data of an organization that are required to be protected. The most important components for any organization are its users, its processes and its technology that need to be updated on a regular basis in order to sustain the impact of growing threats. All of these components work in accordance to have a strong shield against cyberattacks.

Pillars of Cyber-Security  

Users of any digital devices, need to understand and adopt the basic security principles, like choosing a strong password and being cautious with accessing the email attachments.

Basic Security Principles that must be considered for countering cyberattacks are the following:

• Passwords should be a combination of Alphabets (both upper and lower case), digits and special characters.
• Users need to be careful with the attachments in the email and make back up data.

Organizational Cybersecurity Procedures

Organizations need to pay special attention to formulating procedures for prevention and recovery from cyber-attacks. There are some cyber standards available by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and CISCO that are commonly used by organizations.

Technology

Organizations operate on digital devices, software, and networks. There are multiple tools and software that are used to inhibit cyber-attacks. Hacker’s commonly attacks smart devices, personal computer and routers linked with networks and cloud. These are commonly protected by firewalls, DNS filtering, malware protection, antiviruses, and email security services. 

The need for Cyber Security

Cyberattack is equally dangerous and damaging than any other crime. The most severe damage is identity theft, coercion, and data loss that can cause severe challenges for individuals or corporations being attacked. Today, businesses depend on digital data creation and usage that is transmitted over the network and shared through the web. The digital hubs are mainly vulnerable and exposed to cyber threats. 

Common Cyberattacks

Ransomware

Ransomware is malevolent software that attacks and blocks files, documents on a computer until the ransom money is paid. Paying the ransom is not a surety that there would not be any loss or damage. In some of the cases, the files get corrupted or destroyed through the attack of ransomware.

Malicious Software

Malicious Software is commonly referred to as a virus, spyware, key logger or Trojan. Malicious Softwares get unauthorized access to the devices and damages the device making them more vulnerable to the viruses. Digital devices can be safe from these types of software by taking some precautions like high email security, spam security, and strong network defense.

Phishing Attacks

Phishing attacks are a malicious activity to obtain confidential data like passwords, financial information through spam email messages and calls is considered as the most common cyberattack. Technology solutions are available to filter from spam / mischievous emails.

Advanced Persistent Threat

Cyber threat, when an unauthorized person gains access to the system or network and remain undetected and silent for a long period of time is called advanced persistent threats. The unauthorized person may just be monitoring, recording the activities or waiting for the time to obliterate.

Social Engineering

Similar to Phishing attacks Social Engineering is psychosomatic activities to obtain confidential information. It is commonly used by competitors to attain confidential information of the users and the purpose of the attack is either monetary benefits or gains of access to classified information. Social Engineering also works in combination with different types of malware and threats.

Different Categories of Cybersecurity

Network Security: Process of protecting data flow over the network by managing the in and out connections to prevent threats from intruding in the network.  

Data Loss Prevention: Actions to prevent data loss by monitoring static and dynamic data.

Cloud Security: Enabling cloud security services to protect data and operations.

IDS (Intrusion Detection System) + IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) and Business Continuity: Detect cyber threats and responses of organizations that concern with the organization’s policies regarding the recovery and operations in case of an attack. 

Identity and Access Management (IAM): It enforces authentication amenities to track and bound the employee’s digital activities to protect from mischievous objects. It also uses encryption to encode and decode data. Encrypted data is used for successful traveling of data over the network and avoid cyber-attack

Anti-Malware Solutions: These solutions examine digital devices from mysterious threats that are used to detect any uncertain activities and sites active on digital devices. 

Application Security: Security should be considered from the design stage of the application. It is necessary to identify the crucial elements in the application and design along with the security standards.