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Cybersecurity is the defense of hardware, software, and data from unauthorized persons, also known as bad actors. This kind of security is applied by users such as individuals or businesses to protect their servers and computerized systems from malware, phishing, and other cyber threats.
The Threats
The objective to implement cybersecurity is to supply the user with a proper security posture that will help him/her predict, prevent, and respond to cyber-attacks. The aim of bad actors is varied and includes theft of data, identities, money, etc, and theft of IT assets. Bad actors are smart, skilled, and often get paid well to extract and hack important information and data. They are extremely persistent hackers using their stealth controlling systems until their target is reached. This situation is known as an advanced persistent threat (APT).
APT can come from data that is stored by attackers on devices, like mobiles, computers, tablets, servers. This threatening data is installed for malicious use namely extracting critical information about individuals and businesses, stealing money from personal or company accounts, etc. Malware is colloquially spoken of in different terminologies as viruses, spyware, worms, trojan. Blocking these bad actors and their devious threats involves effective cybersecurity.
How to Protect
Cybersecurity is ever-changing. It is always being updated to face the fast-changing threats that evolve together with new technologies. Although we read about cyber-attacks on large companies, we must not think that attackers would not be interested in small businesses or single users. Even these small entities and single users should have cybersecurity firewalls in their devices and servers that will protect their systems from threats and attacks.
Staff and management of a company, whether large or small, should be trained; the staff will need to learn how to use and apply the necessary tools to protect the systems. Since technology is continuously changing and evolving, so will the cybersecurity tool, thus to protect data on the virtual world one must be updated with the latest security tools.
Current Scenarios
A very recent scenario that happened on the 7th of May in England which was published by BBC News, entitled “ Coronavirus: Scam sites selling masks and fake cures taken down” The article highlighted how the National Cyber Security Centre of the UK (NSCS) received over 10k reports that scammers were sending emails worldwide selling face masks, COVID-19 tests, and vaccines. The reports arrived in a day and this triggered a national alarm in the country.
Other emails even cloned the English government websites that were asking for payment information from readers such that these claim their refunds.
The Chief of the NSCS stated that it was also thanks to the help of the public that over 300 websites were shut down. The NSCS set up The Suspicious Email Reporting Service two weeks before the deal with the reports that were starting to arrive.
On April 13th US News published an article relating to how cyber-attacks were on the increase. And states how hackers are taking advantage of the Corona Virus pandemic to attack the Pentagon because most of the employees at the Defense Department are communicating only through online tools.
We all recall the Yahoo! data theft that affected over three billion users. This was a sensational attack on the user’s details that affected an immense number of people and computer systems. It will always be known as this company’s largest security and network breach.
During this cyber- attack, hackers got access to numerous passwords, dates of birth, personal details, account details, identification numbers that were protected, encrypted by a security system that was easy to crack. Also giving them access to government servers and accounts. This incident brings out the vulnerability of our data in the cyber world.
A Future Perspective
It is no news that the internet is an integral part of our lives. We do everything through the internet, from online reading, cooking, dancing to shopping, chatting, meeting friends, new or old. If all this was tangible not just virtual, in a home, we would have the strongest alarm and security system installed in every room. We would do everything in our power to protect our belongings. This is what cybersecurity is. It blocks thieves from entering our virtual but private life.
What is happening in the present should lead us to have a glimpse of the future. We should learn from what we are doing to improve and strengthen the future of cybersecurity. One can anticipate that since the number of online users is always on the increase, the number of cyber investigators will grow too, thus self-alertness such as securing personal data like identification data, account data, passwords, is always necessary, along with stringent laws to curb these cyber crimes.