What is Cybersecurity? With digitalization across the industry, where every private and government sector relies on computerized systems for managing their daily operations, the risk of exposing sensitive data has also increased.
The internet has never been a safe place, and now with every business investing in digital transformation, cyberattacks continue to rise like never before.
As a result, both businesses and consumers are on high alert and paying attention to their privacy and data security. Besides, different governments are placing security measures and regulations to protect consumers.
And Cybersecurity plays a crucial role to overcome these cyber threats. Although many of us have heard about cyber security, very few of us understand what it entails.
What is Cybersecurity? Everything You Need to Know
Cybersecurity refers to the practice of protecting internet-connected systems, like servers, software, mobile devices, networks, and data, that contain sensitive information from cyberattacks.
Read: Top 10 IoT Security Threats and Solutions
Cybersecurity or IT security measures are designed to protect against threats from both inside and outside of the organization. Put simply, cybersecurity is used by organizations and enterprises for protecting computer systems and data centers from unauthorized access.
Some of the main domains that cybersecurity measures should address are as follows:
Network Security: Security practices to protect network-accessible resources and prevent unauthorized access.
Cloud Security: Encrypting cloud data in storage, transfer, and processing to support regulatory compliance, business requirements, and customer privacy.
Application Security: Implementing security practices at the time of application design and development while keeping user authentication and data handling in mind.
Critical Infrastructure Security: It is a US security program that ensures the security of interconnected systems, assets, and networks that are necessary for public safety, national security, and economic safety.
End-User Security: Implementing multi-layered, end-to-end security solutions such as web security, email security, firewalls, and endpoint security for end-user safety.
Disaster Recovery: The process of maintaining an organization’s infrastructure and systems so that they can be restored in the event of power outages, natural disasters, or cyberattacks with minimal disruptions.
Information security: Enforcing General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) in the application program to secure unauthorized exposure of sensitive data.
Storage Security: It is the process of securing data storage ecosystems along with the stored data by offering strong data resilience via encrypting and isolating data copies to avoid cyber attacks.
Mobile Security: These are the cybersecurity measures that protect sensitive data stored on mobile devices like smartphones, laptops, wearables, voice assistants, etc.
Common Cyber Threats
While cybersecurity professionals aim to keep up with security threats, cyber hackers and attackers are always on the lookout for new ways to evade cybersecurity measures to exploit approaching vulnerabilities.
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So it’s important to know about some of the most common threats that businesses go through. These cyber threats are:
Phishing
Phishing is one of the social engineering attacks where cyber attackers aim to steal your identity or money by using psychological manipulation to trick you into revealing your sensitive or Personal Identifiable Information.
In simple terms, they will send you an email or message pretending to be a legitimate company and asking for information like login credentials, bank account details, or credit card data.
Malware
It refers to malicious software programs (viruses, Trojans, worms, spyware, ransomware, botnets, and Adware) that are intended to cause harm or disruption to the computer networks, system, server, etc to gain unauthorized access to the information.
Typically, malware is spread and installed on the user’s computer via genuine-looking downloads or email attachments.
SQL Injection
It is a form of cyber attack where malicious SQL code is injected into an application to give hackers control over its database and gain access to sensitive information stored there.
Man-in-the-Middle
It is an eavesdropping cyberattack in which a cyberattacker secretly sends and alters communications between two individuals to gain private information while they believe they are communicating with one another.
Brute Force
This attack involves the use of a trial and error method to guess every possible password combination to crack login credentials, passwords, and encryption keys.
DNS Attacks
Denial-of-Service attacks that target the availability of network resources and make them temporarily unavailable, disrupting host services. It prevents the computer network or system from functioning properly and fulfilling user requests.
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)
It is a form of cyber threat where the attacker disrupts the traffic of the targeted server by overwhelming it by sending a flood of internet traffic at once.
Cryptojacking
In cyberjacking, attackers hijack the computer system for mining cryptocurrencies against the will of the user.
Social Engineering
It is a psychological manipulation technique used by cybercriminals to trick people into making security mistakes leading to revealing their confidential data. Pretexting, Phishing, Tailgating, and CEO fraud are some of the popular examples of social engineering threats.
Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs)
Here a group of intruders hack a system and remain undetected for a long time to keep tabs on business activities and steal sensitive information. They do so by avoiding defensive cybersecurity measures to activate on time.
Cybersecurity Best Practices
To overcome the cyber threats mentioned above, it is necessary to enforce strong cybersecurity measures. They will not only minimize the risk of cyber attacks but will also secure critical information systems.
Read: Security in Web Application Development
Some of the best practices for cyber security are:
Zero Trust Security
It is the cybersecurity measure that requires every user whether inside or outside the enterprise to authorize, authenticate, and validate security configurations for accessing data or applications. Zero Trust Security system follows the never trust, always verify principle.
Preventing lateral movement, adding strong authentication methods, and leveraging network segmentations are some of the ways used in Zero Trust Security to protect system environments.
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
It is a cybersecurity method that collects and analyzes security events data to detect any sort of suspicious activity and triggers a preventive response. SIEM methods now use advanced technologies for better detection like artificial intelligence and behavioral analysis.
Data Security Platform
It is a security solution that combines traditional security tools to protect data across multiple environments, offer real-time visibility, and continuous monitoring of data vulnerabilities to alert to avoid corruption, data theft, or unauthorized access.
Identity and Access Management (IAM)
Another essential cybersecurity best practice is Identity and Access Management (IAM). It defines the roles of each user and sets access privileges accordingly.
IAM streamlines the control and connects users with the required resources. Multi-factor authentication, single-sign-on, and lifecycle management are a few IAM methodologies that are used by businesses to minimize cyber threats.
Conclusion
So that was all about cybersecurity, and we hope you find the article interesting and helpful for your business. Also if you want to develop a secured web app for your business then get in touch with our experts, share your requirements, and hire experienced developers at a pocket-friendly cost with ease.
FAQs
What is cybersecurity in simple words?
Cybersecurity is the practice of protecting sensitive information from cyberattacks on internet-connected systems.
What are the types of cybersecurity?
Cybersecurity is divided into network security, cloud security, application security, critical infrastructure security, end-user security, disaster recovery, information security, mobile security, and infrastructure security.
What are the skills for cybersecurity?
Network security Control, Coding, Network and System Administration, Virtual Machines and Operating System Knowledge, Risk analysis, Security Audit, and Incident Handling are some of the major skills required for a cybersecurity professional.