An Introduction To Basics Of Cyber Security For A Beginner

The risk of cyber threats and attacks have increased manifold with the use of the internet by millions of individuals and businesses. A lot of personal, financial and confidential data is created, stored and transferred nowadays digitally using the internet which is why cybersecurity is the most concerned matter by most people, especially by:

  • The business owners
  • The scientific research centers and 
  • Several other government offices and agencies, institutions and service controlled by the government.

No matter how much is tried to protect the data and information from theft, leakage, pilferage and attacks, the attackers now are smart enough to use more sophisticated techniques and tools to target almost any system, including that of:

  • Banks
  • Fed agencies
  • NASA and others.

Even the individuals and small and large organizations are not exempted from such risks. Therefore, all organizations, whether IT or non-IT, have now realized the importance of Cyber Security and have started to focus on the necessary steps to take to protect their data and information from such attacks. It is for this reasons that almost all website ask the users a lot of questions in order to verify the authenticity before that proceed further with any task.

Realization by the companies and individuals

The companies are out to adoptall possible remedial measures to deal with and ward of such cyber threats given the fact that the game for cyber threats and hackers are on the up. In fact, every organization, small or large, individual as well as the employees must follow proper steps to deal with these attacks. 

This will help them to make their systems that are often connected to the internet free from:

  • All vulnerabilities to prevent the attackers
  • All flaws big and small and 
  • Avoid any chances of breaches.

Gone are those days when your password was enough to protect your system and the data in it. Now, you will not even know till you get message on your mobile that every single penny from your bank account has been wiped out by someone while you were watching your favorite Oprah talk show on TV about cybercrime! Yes, the hackers do not even need your card, password or PIN for that.

Therefore, if you want to protect your personal as well as professional data, you must realize that Cyber Security is the most important thing now for ensuring data protection.

About Cyber Security

You should start from the basics to know more about Cyber Security. This is actually a process that involves different tools, programs and techniques to protecting sensitive data, computer networks and systems as well as software applications from cyber-attacks. 

Cyber-attack is a general term that is used for a wide variety of topics. However, the most common and popular ones are:

  • Exploitation of resources
  • Tampering the computer systems
  • Extracting data and accessing sensitive information stored within the systems on the sly
  • Unauthorized access to the systems targeted
  • Disrupting normal functioning of the organization and its processes
  • Using ransomware attacks for encrypting data and 
  • Extorting money from the victims.

Apart from these basic and popular hacks, the attacks now are becoming more sophisticated innovative. The attackers can now disrupt even the security systems of any organization, small or large, no matter how strongly it is encrypted or layered.

Therefore, Cyber Security is a very significant challenge for the security analysts of every business. It is elementary that they know the right ways to overcome this challenge and deal with these attacks in the most effective and efficient way. For more please visit  NationaldebtRelief.com

The types of threats

In order to understand the need for Cyber Security measures and the different practices, you will need to take a quick look at the different types of cyber threats and attacks.

  • Ransomware: This is actually a file encryption software program. It uses a unique and robust encryption algorithm. This helps the attackers to encrypt all the files that are there on the target system. There is a unique decryption key generated for each and saved in a remote server making these files inaccessible to the users by any application. Taking advantage of this the hackers demand a considerable ransom amount from the victims. However, there is no guarantee that you will be able to access those decryption code or even after paying the ransom.
  • Botnets attacks: Botnets, that were initially designed to carry out a particular task within a groupconnected within the same network are now being used by hackers to access the systems in the network and inject malicious code or malware. This disrupts the working and include spreading spam emails, DDoS or Distributed Denial of Service, and stealing confidential data.
  • Social engineering attacks: This is a common tactic used by cyber criminals to gain sensitive information of the users. It is done by tricking you with attractive ads and prizes. Once you enter your personal info and bank account details, these are cloned and used for identity and financial frauds.
  • Cryptocurrency hijacking: This is a new addition to cybercrime world that involves complex computing for mining virtual currency like such as Bitcoin and others. The program injects mining codes silently into the system to usethe CPU, GPU and power resources silently to mine cryptocurrency.
  • Phishing: This process involves sending spam emails with strong subject line by imitating to be a legitimate source. It includes attachments like job offers, invoices, and big offers. The primary objective of these mails is to steal sensitive data such as login credentials, bank account info and credit card numbers.

Now, there is also AI attacks, biometric attacks, and IoT attacks. In fact, there is no stopping for the attackers.

Key concept of Cyber Security

To conclude, you should know the key concept of Cyber Security, which itself is a broad term. It involves the CIA Triad which is:

  • Confidentiality
  • Integrity and 
  • Availability.

In order to ensure a foolproof cyber security, there should be multiple layers of security in computers, networks, hardware systems, software programs and the data. If all these components complement each other you will be able to prevent the toughest cyber threat and attacks.

Author Bio

Isabella Rossellini is a marketing and communication expert. She also serves as content developer with many years of experience. She has previously covered an extensive range of topics in her posts, including business and start-ups.