UNDERSTANDING CYBER SECURITY NEEDS FOR 2021
Given the ever-changing world, we live in is more clear than ever when you look at the technology sector and the fact that new software is coming out daily across various sectors that includes government, finance, military, retail, education, hospitals, energy, etc. just to name a few.
As more and more information is moving to digital and accessible through wireless communication networks and across the internet. All this sensitive information is valuable in the wrong hands such as evil criminals and that is why it is very important to protect that data by using strong cybersecurity processes and measures.
The importance of a good cybersecurity system and policy has been made more evident with the recent high-profile security breaches of such large name companies such as Yahoo, Equifax, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
These companies fell victim to cybercriminals and lost a ton of very sensitive user information, this caused damage beyond repair to their reputation and there was a deal of financial loss as well.
As the cyber crimes trend suggests, the rate of an online attack shows no sign of slowing down any time soon. Companies, both large and small, are targeted daily by criminals who want to obtain sensitive information or cause disruption of your services.
Application Security
Application security – refers to the implementation of various defenses that are software-based and used by an organization to protect against a wide range of online threats.
It requires the design of a secure application architect, and includes writing secure code, implementing secure data, input validation, threat modeling, etc. to minimize the chance of any modification or unauthorized access of the resource.
Identity Management, and Data Security
Identity management is the process of using frameworks, activities, and processes, to enable the authorization and authentication of individuals to access information within an organization’s system based on access levels.
Data security is the implementation of strong data storage mechanisms that are designed to ensure the security of all data in transit and at its resting spot.
Network Security
Network security refers to the implementation of both software and hardware mechanisms that are designed to protect the network and infrastructure from any unauthorized access, disruptions, and any misuse.
Network security helps protect the assets of an organization assets internal and external threats.
Mobile Security
Mobile security involves the protection of any organization and or personal information that is stored on a mobile device such as a cell phone, tablet, and or laptop from various threats such as unauthorized access, device theft or loss, malware, etc.
Cloud Security
Cloud security involves the designing of secure cloud architectures and applications for an organization using various cloud service providers such as Google, AWS, Rackspace, Azure, etc. An effective environment and architecture configuration will help ensure protection against a variety of online threats.
Disaster recovery and continuity planning (DR&CP)
DR&CP involves the processes, monitoring, alerts, and the drafted plans that help an organization better prepare for maintaining business-critical systems before, during, and after a disaster of any kind. This plan also helps in resuming any lost operations and systems after an incident.
User Education
Educating staff members regarding the above cybersecurity topics is essential to have a better understanding of industry best practices such as organizational policies and procedures as well as the monitoring and reporting of malicious activities.
What is a cyber-attack?
A cyber-attack is best known as a deliberate attempt by any internal or external attack or threat designed to exploit and compromise the integrity, confidentiality, and or availability of a targeted organization or individual(s) network.
Cyber-attackers will use any illegal tools, methods, and approaches to gain unauthorized access, cause disruption or damage to networks, computers, devices, databases, and or system applications.
Cyber-attacks can happen in many different ways, the following list shows some of the ones that attackers and criminals use to exploit your software:
- Malware
- Ransomware
- Injection attacks (e.g., cross-site scripting, SQL injection, command injection)
- Man-in-the-Middle attacks and Session management
- Phishing
- Denial of service
- Privilege escalations
- Unpatched/Vulnerable software
- Remote code execution
- Brute force
Cyber-attack vs security breach, what is the difference?
A cyber-attack and a security breach may sound the same but are two different things. First, a cyber-attack is an attempt to compromise a systems security to gain access. The attacker will try to exploit the integrity, confidentiality, or availability of the network or software by using many kinds of cyber-attacks as outlined above.
A security breach on the other hand is a bit different, it is defined as an event or incident in which a cyber-attack has compromised the network and gained unauthorized access to the sensitive information, on the network, or disrupts the services.
Attackers will consistently try to gain access to their target with a wide range of cyber-attacks launched against their target with the end goal of acquiring a security breach.
Security breaches are a significant part of a cybersecurity strategy; which is composed of business continuity and Incidence Response plans. These plans help an organization when it comes to how they deal with cases of a cyber-attack.
Business Continuity Plans defines how critical business systems stay online and recover from being struck by a security incident.
Incidence Response Plans defines how a company responds to a security breach as well as how to limit the impact and facilitating the recovery of there IT and Business systems.
This ever-changing technological landscape creates some challenges when it comes to implementing an effective cybersecurity strategy.
As new and updated versions of computer software are being released each year you need to be aware of the updates and make they get implement as some have new security features you might want to take advantage of, but in doing this, it also introduces new issues and could open you up to vulnerabilities that can lead to a cyber-attack.
IT infrastructure evolves as well, today many companies are migrating their on-premises networks to the cloud, and again, this introduces a whole new set of implementation and design issues that creates a new category of vulnerabilities.
So many companies are unaware of all the risks associated with their IT infrastructure and fail to think about implementing a cybersecurity plan until it’s too late.
Cybersecurity in Denver is on the rise with so many tech companies making their way to the mile high city. So when it comes to cybersecurity in the metro Denver area the clear leader in protecting your online data.