Understanding Basics and Fundamentals of Cybersecurity

Introduction 

Today's interconnected world makes every computer more susceptible to cyber attacks. Whether you are attracted to this relatively new world of cybersecurity as a professional or you are just interested in protecting yourself online, you must have a solid understanding of cybersecurity in order to protect yourself against security threats.

So without any delay, let's go ahead and take a look at topics that we will be talking about in this post. So guys, we will begin by having a brief discussion and what is the need for cybersecurity. Then we will take a look at what cybersecurity actually is and then discuss its fundamental concepts. And finally, we will see how cybersecurity is ensured with the help of real world scenario. So I hope agenda is clear to you guys. Before we get started, i am advising you to read our previous post on "Introduction and General Overview of Cybersecurity for Beginners" in order to fully understand this post, because is like we are just building and corroborating on it.

What's the need for cybersecurity 

It's the backbone of global economy. Our devices which are connected through this internet and other networks open up a world of possibilities and friend of us. For example, we can access information we need without having to keep it on our devices permanent. We can easily communicate with others who are on the other side of the world without any glitches these connected devices form the network that help us to run our lives. 

But these connections also leave our devices vulnerable to damage and our information vulnerable to theft. For example cyber criminals are in business of stealing sensitive data like contact numbers, credit card information, bank account details, that they sell to third parties for profit. And there are malicious hackers with personal enmity hack into systems to expose the host vulnerabilities the activities inspired by their political and social activism hack systems opposed to their ideology and mindset. 

So guys making use of these vulnerabilities that are present in internets architecture people are trying to initiate attack in the cyberspace. We call them cyber attacks. 

Now, let's take a look at few popular cyber attacks that have terrorized the world. 

First, we will start with malware, if you have ever seen an antivirus alert pop up on your screen, or if you have mistakenly clicked on malicious email attachment, then you have had a close call with malware, malware basically is a term which is used to describe malicious software including spyware, viruses,  worms, different kind of Trojans that are injected into your computer to corrupt it.

  After malware, then there is something called pishing in a fishing attack an attacker may send you an email that appears to be from someone you trust, like it could be a boss or a company that you do business with, in this email, you will find an attachment to open or a link asking for you to click on and as soon as you do that you're giving way for attacker to exploit your computer. 

And then there is man in the middle attack. It is also known as Eve's dropping attack here attacker inserts himself as a third party into a two-party transaction. Once that attacker interrupts the traffic he can easily filter manipulate and steal your data without you knowing anything about it. 

Moving on we have denial of service attack, here attack of a lots of website with more traffic than it can handle this will make it impossible for the website to respond to legitimate visitors who are trying to access it.

 And then, there is mal-advertising, it is the use of online advertising to spread malware. It typically involves injecting malicious advertisements into legitimate online advertising networks and web pages 

And finally there is ransomware, ransomware basically is a type of malware that prevents users from accessing their system or personal files. If the user want to regain access then you'll have to pay the ransom that the attacker is demanding and today most of the time ransomware criminals ordered that payment be sent by a cryptocurrency or credit card. 

So guys, these are just few major type of cyber attacks that are there. There are others out there that are traumatizing the cyberspace, cyber crime is a global problem that has been dominating the news cycle. It poses a threat to individual security and even bigger threat to large international or companies organizations banks and government. 

But the good thing is that even with this flawed internet, there are simple things that we can do to protect ourselves from these attacks. This is where cybersecurity comes into picture.

In simple terms cybersecurity is defined as techniques and practices designed to protect your data. And then I say data. I mean digital data that is stored transmitted and used on an information system. After all, this is what criminal wants right the data the network servers computers and other online gadget are just mechanisms to get this data. 

Basic Computer Security 

Enjoying cybersecurity requests the coordination of efforts throughout an information and this includes: 

Application security, application security mainly focuses on keeping software and devices free from cyber threats. 

Then there is information security which is basically protecting the integrity and privacy of data. So you're protecting organizations from possible data breaches. 

Then there is network security which is a practice of securing a computer network from intruders, whether it could be targeted attackers or simple malware. 

Moving on there is operational security which includes all the processes for handling and protecting data assets, the permissions which users usually have when they're accessing a network and the procedures that determine how and where data must be stored and shared all and fall under this category. 

And then, there is disaster recovery and business continuity. They define how an organization response to a cybersecurity incident or any other event that causes the loss of operation and data.

 And finally the most important thing is user education. It addresses the most unpredictable cybersecurity factor, which is people teaching users to delete suspicious email attachment not plug in unidentified USB drivers and various other important lessons is very vital for the security of any organization that there is.

Fundamentals of Cybersecurity - CIA Triad 

So guys earlier. I said that cyber security is set of techniques and practices employed to protect data. But what are we actually protecting data here from? We are protecting data from unauthorized access unauthorized modification and unauthorized deletion. These three terms are similar to what we know as CIA triad and cybersecurity CIA basically stands for confidentiality, integrity and availability. 

Now, let's explore the CIA triad. So confidentiality is exactly what it sounds like keeping your information sacred. It is the protection of information from unauthorized people and processes.

Let's consider a simple example. Would you like the thought of your private health information or financial information falling into some strangers hands? Definitely not right. Similarly, no business owner likes the thought of a business information being disclosed to competitors. Information is a valuable asset. 

Integrity is when the information that is stored in a system is very accurate and highly reliable integrity is protection of information from intentional or accidental unauthorized modification. For example, if a hacker were to break into a banking website and changes balance from $1 to $1 million integrity of site is now lost. 

The final component of CIA triad is availability. Availability is assurance that systems and data are accessible by authorized users whenever they need it. So if it cannot access the data whenever we need it, we are definitely not secure. 

What kind of attacks can be made on the CIA triad in real world

So guys now, you know, what CIA triad basically needs now, let's take a look at what kind of attacks can be made on the CIA triad in real world and how we can within them. 

Let's begin with confidentiality attacks and confidentiality include cracking poorly encrypted data and employee knowingly or unknowingly, putting sensitive data on removable media such as SD cards when drives and giving it to unauthorized parties. And then there is doxing which is basically leaking private information about an individual or an organization. The best way to keep your information secret is to make sure that there is strict access control, that is only people who are allowed to access data can access it. And another way is to encrypt any data that's being transmitted from one position or one place to another.

Now integrity, attacks on integrity include penetrating a web server in order to embed malware into web pages to corrupt the system or maliciously accessing the financial server in order to falsify financial records or hacker turning your machine into a zombie computer so that he can control your computer without you knowing about it. The best way to uphold the integrity is to use cryptography and then ensure intrusion detection. 

Well, if you're wondering what intrusion detection it, it's the act of detecting when hackers can carry out actions that might compromise the integrity of the system. 

And finally threats, you should be aware of when thinking about availability is denial of service attack or distributed denial of service attack. We already talked about it earlier. 

Basically denial of service attack is one where enemy will flood your computer and internet connection with traffic so that the legitimate users can't access any information that there is on your website, and there are other attacks as well. For example ransomware attack which encrypt data on targeted computers so that the authorized parties cannot use it, and then deliberately disrupting a server rooms power supply so that the servers go offline. 

Now a few ways you could protect yourself from these attacks are by using antivirus software or you could install spyware detection and spyware removal software as well and you could start using a firewall. 

So guys, the CIA triad as very fundamental concept and security, confidentiality, integrity, and availability all have to work together to keep your information secure. But don't think for one minute that these are the only factors to be considered while talking about security. 

Other Three Pillars of Security 

Now, let's talk about other three pillars of security. To begin with, the most important concept, people and individual, it could be me or it could be you, play a very important role when it comes to security. Every employee needs to be aware of their role in preventing and reducing this ever-ending cyber attacks. The specialized technical cyber security staff need to stay fully updated with later skills and qualifications to mitigate and response to cyber attack easily. So people play a very important role when it comes to security. 

Moving on, we have processes. Processes are crucial in defining how the organization's activities, roles, and documentation can be used to mitigate the risk of organization's information and data. Cyber threats keep changing quickly.

So processes need to be continually reviewed and updated to be able to adapt with them. 

And finally, we have technology, it plays a very important role. Technology can be deployed to prevent or reduce the impact of cyber risk, depending on your risk assessment and what you deem an acceptable level of risk. 

How Cybersecurity is Ensured

Now that we are aware of what cyber security is and its fundamentals, let's take a look at real-world scenario to understand how cyber security is enjoyed. 

Meet Clendy. She owns a successful hotel and a spa because everyone needs an escape from this stressful life once in a while, right? Now, being the owner of successful spa means that our clients are trusting her with their personal information. And she uses different kind of technical systems to book appointments, make payments, and keep track of her financial accounts. On top of that, to keep it all safe, she has an elaborate IT security system protecting everything.

But unfortunately, it's not secure enough. Clendy's business is targeted by hackers who are determined to break and hold the business information hostage. Because of this, Clendy's business has come to a complete halt. She can't make appointments, can't process payments, and a client's personal information is exposed. And on top of that, hackers are asking her for a heavy ransom. So what would you do if you are in Clendy's position? 

Well, Clendy doesn't want to pay hackers. So she decides to hire instant response team from a very popular security company. This instant response team mission basically is to prevent serious loss of profits, enjoy public confidence, and protect information assets for business like Clendy's. 

But how does this IRP team actually achieve it? So as a first step, IRP team will identify the source of security breach. Then, IRP team orchestrates trying of events that ultimately prevents from encountering a serious security disaster. They detect logs and access control and contain the threat pod so that Clendy's company can avoid further damage. 

After the attack is contained, the team identifies the data that has been stolen or compromised during the incident. After that, the team prioritizes recovery to protect Clendy's business from further attacks.

Now Clendy's customers can continue their spa day without any hassles. In the past, security breach of this nature would have required Clendy to contact several agencies and third parties to solve the problem. In the worst case, Clendy might have had to pay hackers the amount they demanded for. But IRP platform organized all of these people, processes, and technology to identify and contain the problem in very limited amount of time. 

Conclusion 

So guys, today we have reached the position in which cybercrime is so sophisticated it seems almost impossible to prevent. The emphasis is now on how an organization responds once it has been breached.

While we can't prevent every incident that there is, we can easily control how we manage the aftermath so that we're prepared and practiced in the process of response. 

So this is it guys, we have reached the end of the session. I hope the session was informative and now you know your role as an individual in enjoying cybersecurity in this world. Well, if you have any doubts or any topics that you want to discuss based on cybersecurity, please do post them in the comment section below and we'll get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you guys, meet you in the next post with another interesting topic. Thank you.

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