What Is Cybersecurity? Definition, Importance, Threats, and Best Practices
Cybersecurity involves the protection of people, devices, processes, and technologies from malicious attacks and unintentional damage.
Cybersecurity is defined as the measures taken to protect people, devices, processes, and technologies from malicious attacks and unintentional damage. This article explains cybersecurity in detail and lists the best practices for 2022.
Table of Contents
What Is Cybersecurity?
Cybersecurity involves various measures to protect people, devices, processes, and technologies from malicious attacks and unintentional damage.
There are multiple elements of cybersecurity, including network security, application security, data and storage security, cloud security, mobile security, identity management, and business continuity planning. These are implemented using identity and access management (IAM) solutions, security information and event management (SIEM) systems, and data security platforms.
A successful business cannot just run with expert professionals — it needs the right processes in place. These processes, more often than not, are implemented using technology. Customer relationship management (CRM) software, human resources software, and even basic collaboration software like GSuite are part of every business’ operations. Many physical devices are also involved in everyday operations, from printers to mobile devices. The recent uptick in the bring your own device (BYOD) culture and the pandemic-induced remote work culture have added to the diversity of devices involved.
With so many components, hackers and competing businesses know that at least one of them is vulnerable to a breach. Once hacked, a business’ system can reveal customer data, company data, and trade secrets. Besides malicious attempts such as these, natural disasters may also break operations. Therefore, companies need to focus on building a comprehensive system to secure each aspect of their operations. This is where cybersecurity plays an important role. It creates a comprehensive system that protects all technical infrastructure-related components of a business.
Cybersecurity is similar to a bar or a club that weaves together many measures to protect itself and its patrons. Bouncers are placed at the entries. They have strategically placed CCTV cameras to keep an eye out for suspicious behavior. They have comprehensive insurance policies to protect them against everything from thefts to lawsuits. They also have guidelines for their employees about when to evict an unruly customer, if it comes to that.
Today, no industry can survive without adequate cybersecurity measures in place. Education, government, retail, health, finance, social media, and entertainment are just a few of the many industry verticals that cyberattacks have impacted. Tesco, a British supermarket chain, faced a two-day outage due to an attempted cyberattack, leading to both its website and app being inaccessible to customers. This left many of its 6.6 million app users frustrated, causing them to cancel orders and take their business elsewhere.
Internet service provider Yahoo fell prey to three separate data breaches between 2013 and 2016, affecting up to three billion accounts. This prompted a class-action settlement of an estimated $117.5 million. Besides the obvious financial dent, Yahoo’s slow disclosure of these breaches to the public led to reputational damage.
According to a 2021 global forecast by Marketsandmarkets, the global cybersecurity market is projected to grow from $217.9 billion in 2021 to $345.4 billion by 2026, recording a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.7%. Cybersecurity has long been under the spotlight because of the rapid pace of technological growth. The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting digitalization of almost every aspect of life have accelerated the cybersecurity market even more than expected.
See More: What Is a Security Vulnerability? Definition, Types, and Best Practices for Prevention
Importance of Cybersecurity
As we saw with the examples of Tesco and Yahoo, the costs of a cyberattack aren’t just financial. There are various legal, regulatory, and brand reputation concerns to be addressed.
New regulatory laws such as HIPAA in the health industry and GDPR for data privacy mandate that organizations storing customer (or patient) data have certain security processes and technologies in place. For example, HIPAA mandates identity and access controls as well as encryption. Failing to comply with these mandates will result in hefty fines. It also opens up companies to lawsuits.
A well-implemented cybersecurity blanket allows companies to offer their most essential services even through outages and natural disasters. This inspires confidence and customer loyalty while ensuring cash inflows don’t get affected too much.
Besides, the attack surface that a company exposes to risks is dynamic. It is ever-increasing as everything from email to data servers move to the cloud within a company infrastructure. Users can access the system for a host of devices. There are now more chances of human error than ever before. The technological sophistication that helps an organization grow also allows hackers to strengthen their attacks. Newer vulnerabilities are being reported in both new and old hardware and software. Cybersecurity is therefore required to offset these wonderful yet risk-prone changes.
See More: What Is Threat Modeling? Definition, Process, Examples, and Best Practices
Biggest Cybersecurity Threats Today?
Cybersecurity threats take the shape of the technology used in the market at that point in time. In 2022, the biggest cybersecurity threats that organizations must look out for are:
1. Malware
Malware is created to steal or destroy information. It is one of the most common cyber threats. Malware is usually spread through legitimate-looking email attachments and download links.
Different types of malware include:
- Virus: Viruses are self-replicating programs that attach themselves to clean files, much like a human virus. The computer virus replicates itself by modifying legitimate programs and inserting its own code. The affected files are said to be ‘infected’. An example is the ILOVEYOU virus of 2000 that spread across 10 million PCs by looking like a harmless text file and is estimated to have resulted in $15 billion in damages.
- Trojans: Trojans are malware disguised to look like legitimate software. They do not replicate themselves and cause damage when the unsuspecting victim executes the Trojan An example is the Emotet Trojan, declared as one of the most sophisticated and dangerous malware by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2018.
- Spyware: Spyware is a malware program created with the sole aim of gathering information and sending it to another device or program that is accessible to the attacker. The most common spyware usually records all user activity in the device where it is installed. This leads to attackers figuring out sensitive information such as credit card information. Recently, Pegasus spyware made the news for being found on the devices of top politicians, business executives, journalists, and activists across the globe.
- Adware: Adware (advertising-supported malware) is unwanted software that displays advertisements on a device, sometimes an unmanageable amount. They’re usually installed on the device without user permission. While they aren’t as big a threat as Trojans and spyware, they negatively impact user experience and slow down the device, application, or browser. Avast’s mobile threat team identified adware as one of the greatest threats to Android devices in 2021.
- Worms: Worms are a more dangerous subset of viruses. While a virus needs to be installed, worms exploit security vulnerabilities. They rapidly self-replicate with zero human intervention. An example is the Mydoom worm of 2004, which caused an estimated $38 billion in damages.
2. Ransomware
Ransomware is a type of malware that infects a device and restricts access to the intended users using encryption. Attackers hold the device hostage until a ransom demand is met. If not, they threaten to publish sensitive information online or destroy the device and accessible resources. The main purpose of ransomware is to extort money. Sonicwall’s 2021 cyber threat report shows a 151% increase in ransomware attacks in the first half of 2021 compared to 2020. In fact, in March 2021, Taiwan-based PC manufacturer Acer faced a $50 million ransomware demand from a cybercrime group called REvil.
3. Social engineering
Social engineering is a security threat that tricks users into giving away sensitive information or user credentials. Attackers do so by posing as a legitimate IT admin on the phone or email and creating authentic-looking websites to spoof the original ones. One of the most common forms of social engineering is phishing. Phishing attacks target victims with valid-looking emails, phone calls, or text messages that appear to be from a legitimate company. Phishing attacks rely on untrained employees clicking on the malicious links and forms.
Let’s take the example of an email from a bank asking a user to change their account password, claiming a data hack. Clicking on the change password link in the phishing email takes the victim to a spoof page, where they proceed to give away the bank account credentials to the attackers. Sony Entertainment was hacked in 2014, causing leaks of massive amounts of data and private company data, including unreleased movies. This attack began with a phishing email sent to an employee connected to the company’s network.
4. Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks
A DDoS attack is when the attacker overwhelms the network or servers by bombarding them with traffic, leaving them unable to respond to legitimate service requests. The largest recorded DDoS attack was in February 2020 and targeted Amazon Web Services (AWS). AWS was hit with traffic of 2.3Tbps, or 20.6 million requests per second. The attack lasted eight hours, causing several AWS key offerings such as S3 to go down.
5. Man-in-the-middle attacks
A man-in-the-middle (MiTM) attack is exactly as it sounds—a malicious player intercepts communication between two devices or networks to steal valuable data. They do so by pretending to be the sender or receiver. This usually happens over unsecured Wi-Fi networks. In 2019, security researchers at Check Point revealed that a MiTM attack intercepted $1 million transferred by a Chinese VC firm to an Israeli startup. The startup never got the money.
6. Advanced persistent threats (APTs)
An APT is a long con. Intruders gain access to the target systems but stay undetected for an extended period. The idea of an advanced persistent threat is to steal business information and sensitive data without activating defensive countermeasures. The Australian Cybersecurity Centre released a high alert, warning Australian health sector organizations and pandemic-essential services of malicious APT groups.
7. Insider threats
‘Insiders’ in an organization range from current and former employees, business partners, to contractors. Anyone with access to the organization’s systems can be treated as an insider. Insider threats may be as basic as weak passwords that a hacker can easily guess. It can also be malicious actors looking to leak or sell proprietary information. Most insider threats can be contained by proper employee training.
An example of an insider-caused threat is the Microsoft leak of 2019. Microsoft employees misconfigured a new deployment, causing its customer support database to be publicly accessible. It contained 250 million entries accumulated over 14 years, with PII data of many customers. The California Consumer Privacy Act imposed a $750 fine for each individual harmed by the threat.
See More: Top 10 Malware Protection Software in 2021
Top 10 Best Practices for Cybersecurity in 2022
Cybersecurity is a large umbrella that covers various security components. It is easy to get overwhelmed and lose focus on the big picture. Here are the top ten best practices to follow to make cybersecurity efforts more effective.
Cybersecurity Best Practices for 2022
1. Develop and implement a cybersecurity plan
A cybersecurity plan must start with identifying all components of the infrastructure and users who have access to them. A cyber risk assessment must be carried out to determine how critical the components are to operations. Once the potential risks have been identified, all damage incurred due to these risks must be outlined. An efficient cybersecurity program considers all processes, technology, and people involved. It also encompasses disaster recovery and incident response plans.
2. Devise end-user protection
End-user protection is one of the most important aspects of cybersecurity. The easiest entry point is the end user, no matter how sophisticated the underlying infrastructure is.
All software and hardware used by end users must be scanned for malicious threats at regular intervals. Leaving this to the end users may result in negligence. This problem is usually circumvented by registering all devices to a central admin and automating updates to these devices.
3. Invest in real-time detection & monitoring
Trojans are malware built to change based on their execution environment. Attackers may consistently ping a server with brute-force-generated passwords to find a way in. Hackers can use stolen credentials to log into a system during unusual times from atypical geographical locations. These are just the starting points to bigger attacks, and hence, catching them immediately has significant payoffs. This is why a real-time malware detection system is required. Real-time detection systems can immediately alert security teams of suspicious behavior. They can also run behavioral analyses to check for potential threats.
4. Ensure different security components are compatible
As mentioned before, many elements come together to make a robust cybersecurity system. IAM, SIEM, and data security solutions must be able to work with each other. This is either done by web services exposed by each solution or by enabling logs to be readable by all of them. These solutions must be able to grow in tandem with the organization and with each other.
5. Ensure all security patches & updates have been applied
Losing track of the latest security patches and updates is easy with multiple security solutions, applications, platforms, and devices involved. These are essential to seal known vulnerabilities and must be done regularly. The more critical the resource being protected, the more frequent the update cycle needs to be. Update plans must be part of the initial cybersecurity plan.
6. Ensure regular risk assessments
Cloud infrastructure and agile methodology of working ensure a constant development cycle. This means new resources and applications are added to the system every day. With every significant addition, risk assessments need to be done. Risk assessments can be done at regular, scheduled intervals or during certain events, such as adding a new vendor service. Threat modeling is one way of ensuring this.
7. Automate wherever possible
Security updates, report generation, and data aggregation are things that can be automated with pre-set configurations. AI platforms can analyze and predict known threats by automating big data analysis. They can also respond to threats automatically.
8. Keep abreast of evolving security risks
With new technology evolves newer security risks. All third-party solutions must be checked based on how often they evaluate security risks, especially when hosted on a cloud environment. The same goes for in-house advancements as well.
9. Create a dedicated security team with appropriate stakeholders
To create and maintain a mature cybersecurity program, a dedicated team with appropriate expertise is required. This team must take input from all stakeholders, including BU heads, architects, DevOps teams, developers, and IT admins. The National Cyber Security Alliance recommends a top-down approach to cybersecurity, with corporate management leading the charge across business processes. By incorporating input from stakeholders at every level, more bases will be covered.
10. Provide end-user education
Even with the most advanced cybersecurity tech in place, the onus of security most often falls on the end user. Social engineering attacks manipulate human nature. Repetitive, uncomplicated passwords are a go-to for employees with access to multiple accounts and applications. In fact, humans may be the most unpredictable cybersecurity threat. Regular training sessions need to be held, giving employees the knowledge of identifying suspicious email attachments and what steps to take when they come across them. Password hygiene standards must be made clear. An educated employee base tends to improve security posture at every level.
See More: What Is Cyber Threat? Definition, Types, Hunting, Best Practices, and Examples
Takeaway
It is apparent that no matter the industry or size of a business, cybersecurity is an evolving, essential, and non-negotiable process that grows with any company. To ensure that cybersecurity efforts are heading in the right direction, most countries have governing bodies (National Cyber Security Centre for the U.K., NIST for the U.S., etc.), which issue cybersecurity guidelines. With the right guidelines, processes, and technology in place, businesses can focus better on their core services rather than worrying about their cybersecurity.
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