With increasingly global access to technology, cybersecurity is slowly becoming a major challenge these days. Every single business, individual, and government entity that is digitally connected in any way is now exposed to cyber attackers trying to access confidential data or cause damage.
Given the upfront threat, we felt it was necessary to spread awareness about cybersecurity among our readers. We shall talk about the various aspects of cybersecurity through a dedicated series; today, let’s take a bird’ eye view of the entire concept. Hope you find it interesting.
What is Cybersecurity?
You would never want unauthorized people to access your data. But in the real world, that is not the case. Annually, almost 66% of businesses report cybercrime in some way or the other. Hence, cybersecurity is what protects your precious information stored digitally.
Cybersecurity protects your internet-connected systems such as hardware, software, and data. It also aims to prevent attacks that can disrupt your system’s operations. Most cyberattacks are aimed at accessing, changing, or destroying sensitive information. This information can be used to blackmail and extort money from the targeted businesses or individuals or arm-twist government institutions. Thus, cybersecurity protects the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of any computer system.
Why is cybersecurity critical?
Cyber-attackers are analogous to parasites that enter the human body and live off its nutrients, thus damaging it. Similarly, cyber-attackers want to live off the information they extort from the host network and impair the functioning of the business.
The primary purpose of cybersecurity is to protect all organizational assets and data from external and internal threats. With today’s rapidly evolving technology, all information is present in a digital format and is accessible through wired or wireless means. Every sector, including finance, healthcare, military, etc., has sensitive information of potentially significant benefits to wrong-doers. Thus, it is crucial to protect your data through solid cybersecurity measures.
What are the primary cybersecurity threats?
- Insider threats:
Ignorant users and professionals pose a significant threat to any organization. Insider threats do not refer to professionals breaking into confidential information but employees who do not know how to protect themselves. Thus, it is essential to invest in employee cybersecurity education and training.
- Malware:
Malware injections are small segments of code placed into an organization’s cloud service. Often, hackers try to steal, delete, or encrypt this data. The best solution is to invest in tools that defend against such attacks that threaten business systems and files.
- Distributed Denial of Service Attacks:
These attacks include the disrupting of online services by overwhelming them with traffic. Due to such traffic, your website becomes unavailable to your team. This practice is often used to distract your employee’s attention and cause other malicious activities.
- Phishing:Â
Such attacks are used to steal user data and login credentials. Once successfully done, it becomes possible for the hacker to gain entry and access sensitive information and even introduce malware into your system.
- Ransomware:
Ransomware includes blocking access to a computer system or data by encrypting it until the victim pays off the hacker. Thus, this attack has your information being taken, hostage.
The flip side of technological development is that even the hackers and cybercriminals have gotten better at their job as technology has enabled them to cause harm better. Thus, it is essential that each of us – business or individual – puts a cybersecurity system to protect our interests. The threats mentioned above must be limited, controlled, and eradicated.
At Rucha Yantra, we take cybersecurity very seriously and aim to spread awareness to the larger public. We shall take a detailed look into the various domains of cybersecurity in the next blog with this aim. Thank you!
