Cybersecurity as real as Gravity

The 10 Most Influential CISOs of the Year 2022

In a day and age where everything is online and at the click of your fingers (literally), Cybersecurity has become one of the key concerns. Safe to say the rules laid down by Cybersecurity experts are as real as the laws of Gravity.

Did you know in January 2019 alone, 1.76 billion records have already been leaked as per reported. Giants such as Facebook, Adobe and Sony have also fallen prey to terrible Cybersecurity failures.

In today’s world, where everything runs through the use of computers and internet, cybersecurity has also become a reality that needs serious thought. From pictures to confidential information related to finances, a security breach can lead to hazardous consequences. In order to understand the necessity of cybersecurity we must first understand the threats that can be made against the computer system classified into the following vulnerabilities i.e., – Backdoor, Denial-of-service attacks, direct access attacks, Eavesdropping, Phishing, Spoofing etc.

In simpler terms these threats can lead to loss of the confidentiality, integrity or manipulation of the data. In order to understand better, say you are a common man who is intimately linked with social media and is having a Google account and an account on all social media platforms. Basically, a lot of information is shared publicly; now for a person like you if a person gets hold of your account by cybersecurity breach, then a lot of vital information is on stake. In order to reduce such threats as a wise user we must first ensure that we reduce the window of vulnerabilities. So, what are vulnerabilities?

Vulnerabilities are potential weak points in a Cybersecurity system. Therefore, to reduce vulnerabilities we can use two factor authentications, which is a method for mitigating unauthorized access to a system or sensitive information. It requires something you have memorized to access said information: a password or PIN, and something physical like a card, dongle, cell phone, or other piece of hardware. This increases your Cybersecurity as an illicit person needs both of these to gain access.

Another important thing to keep in mind is backing up of all the important data as if gained unauthorized access to and permanently deleted can be a huge loss thus, save the data in more than one location such as CD, Drive, etc.

Let’s look into the related terms, Threat is a likelihood of a given attack and Impact is consequences of an attack. Risk is the combined measure of vulnerability, threat and impact. Thus, we must reduce the risk of cybersecurity threats. So, what are the systems at risk?

As we can see there are a lot of systems at stake thus we must take proper  countermeasures i.e, an action, device, procedure, or technique that reduces a threat, a vulnerability, or an attack by eliminating or preventing it, by minimizing the harm it can cause, or by discovering and reporting it so that corrective action can be taken. Includes –

Security by design – It means that the software has been designed from the ground up to be secure.

Cybersecurity can be attained by the use of the three processes: threat prevention, detection, and response.

NOTE- in case you have a website ensure regular update on a monthly basis as it reduces the risk of such threats, if the website isn’t updated for long say 6 months, then risk of security breach is higher. Thus, stay updated.