Cybersecurity is the defense against cyberthreats for internet-connected devices, including data, software, and hardware. Both individuals and businesses employ this technique to guard against illegal access to data centers and other digital systems.
An organization’s or user’s systems and sensitive data can be effectively protected against malicious assaults that aim to access, modify, erase, destroy, or extort them by implementing a robust cybersecurity plan. Preventing attacks that try to disable or interfere with a system’s or device’s functionality is another important function of cybersecurity.
Why is cybersecurity important?
The relevance of cybersecurity keeps growing as a result of the modern enterprise’s growing number of users, devices, and programs as well as the expanding volume of data, most of it sensitive or private. The situation is exacerbated by the increasing number and expertise of cybercriminals and their methods of attack.
What are the elements of cybersecurity and how does it work?
There are various subfields within cybersecurity, and the coordination of these subfields inside an organization is essential to the success of a cybersecurity program. The following are included in these sections:
- Application security
- Information or data security
- Network security
- Disaster recovery/business continuity planning
- Operational security
- Cloud security
- Critical infrastructure security
- Physical security
- End-user education
It is a struggle for every organization to maintain cybersecurity in a threat landscape that is ever changing. It is no longer sufficient to use traditional reactive tactics, which focused resources on defending systems against the most serious known threats while leaving less serious threats undefended. An approach that is more proactive and adaptable is required to stay up to date with evolving security threats. There are several reputable cybersecurity advisory groups that provide counsel. To protect against known and unknown dangers, for instance, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) advises implementing real-time assessments and continuous monitoring as part of a risk assessment framework.
What are the benefits of cybersecurity?
The benefits of implementing and maintaining cybersecurity practices include:
- Business protection against cyberattacks and data breaches.
- Protection for data and networks.
- Prevention of unauthorized user access.
- Improved recovery time after a breach.
- Protection for end users and endpoint devices.
- Regulatory compliance.
- Business continuity.
- Improved confidence in the company’s reputation and trust for developers, partners, customers, stakeholders and employees.
What are the different types of cybersecurity threats?
Keeping up with new technologies, security trends and threat intelligence is a challenging task. It is necessary in order to protect information and other assets from cyberthreats, which take many forms. Types of cyberthreats include:
- Malware is a form of malicious software in which any file or program can be used to harm a computer user. Different types of malware include worms, viruses, Trojans and spyware.
- Ransomware is another type of malware that involves an attacker locking the victim’s computer system files — typically through encryption — and demanding a payment to decrypt and unlock them.
- Social engineering is an attack that relies on human interaction. It tricks users into breaking security procedures to gain sensitive information that is typically protected.
- Phishing is a form of social engineering where fraudulent email or text messages that resemble those from reputable or known sources are sent. Often random attacks, the intent of these messages is to steal sensitive data, such as credit card or login information.
- Spear phishing is a type of phishing that has an intended target user, organization or business.
- Insider threats are security breaches or losses caused by humans — for example, employees, contractors or customers. Insider threats can be malicious or negligent in nature.
- Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks are those in which multiple systems disrupt the traffic of a targeted system, such as a server, website or other network resource. By flooding the target with messages, connection requests or packets, the attackers can slow the system or crash it, preventing legitimate traffic from using it.
- Advanced persistent threats (APTs) are prolonged targeted attacks in which an attacker infiltrates a network and remains undetected for long periods of time with the aim to steal data.
- Man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks are eavesdropping attacks that involve an attacker intercepting and relaying messages between two parties who believe they are communicating with each other.
Other common attacks include botnets, drive-by-download attacks, exploit kits, malvertising, vishing, credential stuffing attacks, cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks, SQL injection attacks, business email compromise (BEC) and zero-day exploits.
How is automation used in cybersecurity?
Automation is becoming a crucial part of keeping businesses safe from the increasing quantity and complexity of cyberattacks. Three key areas where the application of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) can enhance cybersecurity are:
- Threat detection. AI platforms can analyze data and recognize known threats, as well as predict novel threats.
- Threat response. AI platforms also create and automatically enact security protections.
- Human augmentation. Security pros are often overloaded with alerts and repetitive tasks. AI can help eliminate alert fatigue by automatically triaging low-risk alarms and automating big data analysis and other repetitive tasks, freeing humans for more sophisticated tasks.
Other benefits of automation in cybersecurity include attack classification, malware classification, traffic analysis, compliance analysis and more.
