What is Cybersecurity? Everything You Need to Know

Date: 30 April 2021

What exactly is cybersecurity and why does cyber security matter to every person and company?  We start by providing an easy to read answer in this blog, the first on many on this topic of cyber and information security.

Cybersecurity broadly refers to the practice of leveraging technologies, processes and good IT habits to protect an organisation's computers, networks, devices and sensitive data from cyber-attacks. Today, cybersecurity awareness and resilience can no longer be an after-thought for businesses. In fact, cybersecurity has largely evolved from being an IT problem to a business problem for today's digital organisations. 

More than 30,000 websites are hacked each day globally and over 64% of companies worldwide have experienced one or more cyber-attacks. Even on secure networks, it is estimated that at least 75 records go missing every second. If you are in business and your business requires the use of a computer and the internet in any way, it is extremely likely that you will experience a cyber-attack at some point or the other.

In this blog, we will cover certain basic educational concepts around cybersecurity that everyone should know about:

1. Types of Cybersecurity
2. Types of Cyber-Attacks

So, what can you really do to protect yourself and your organisation from cyber threats and data breaches?  While hiring experienced cybersecurity professionals and investing in high-quality cybersecurity management tools and training definitely sounds logical, understanding the basics of cybersecurity and how to implement them in your business is one of the easiest ways to be prepared and keep yourself safe.

Types of Cybersecurity 

 It is important to understand the different types of cybersecurity so that you can know in which areas your business is exposed and which vulnerabilities you need to patch. 

The most common types of cybersecurity businesses may need to focus on include:

• Network security: Network security helps protect all of your internal networks from intruders by securing your organisation’s critical infrastructure.
• Application security: This type of security protocol will use software and hardware to help defend against threats that show up during the development stage of an application. It may include encryption, firewalls, and antivirus.
• Information security: Information security is extremely vital to most businesses today as it protects physical and digital data.
• Cloud security: Many companies rely on the cloud to store their data. Cloud security solutions helps to keep all the data in the cloud safe.
• Data loss prevention: Losing data is detrimental to any company. Prevention can help avoid these problems and can even allow for the recovery of the information.
• End-user education: If the business understands that any of the other options are only as strong as the weakest link, it will usually invest in this critical type of security. It will provide  adequate security awareness training to personnel to help them understand the importance of cybersecurity.

Types of Cyber-Attacks 

Today, it is no longer a question of “if” the business will be attacked. It’s more about “when” the business is under attack. Therefore, it makes sense to understand all possible cyber-attacks that could compromise your network. Also, keep in mind that the more confidential information you store on the system, the more likely an attack will occur. There are three categories of attacks that can take place including attacks on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. 

With attacks on confidentiality, your personal information, such as banking information, will be under threat. Your information could be sold or traded to make the other person money. With attacks on integrity, the sabotage of a company is involved. These are better known as leaks. The cybercriminal will access sensitive information and then leak it to harm the company’s reputation. With attacks on availability, the cyber-attack will block legitimate users from their data until they pay a ransom. The criminal usually does not back off once the payment is made, causing a host of problems.

Some of the main types of cyberattacks a business may encounter include:

• Social engineering: An attack that manipulates people to give away information.
• Malware: Malicious software is installed on the system which then steals information or causes damage.
• Ransomware attack: The software that takes control of a computer and asks the owner for money to gain access again.
• Advanced Persistent Threats: These happen when an unauthorised user gets onto a network without detection and stays there to steal data.

With time, security threats will become more advanced, making it important for companies to stay up to date with cybersecurity awareness and security management systems.

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