The world is now operating virtually and entire work is dependent on technology. Gone are those days where an antivirus and a firewall can protect the system and data. The need for safeguarding the data that is shared electronically has increased manifold.
The risk of cyber attacks has increased drastically. But what is a cyber attack?
Cyber attack:
Cyber attack is a deliberate attempt by an organisation or individual to breach the systems of an individual or another organisation, disrupting their normal activities. Those who cyber attack the other individual / organisation are known as cyber criminals or hackers.
Why Cyber attacks happen?
- To steal confidentiality
This can be for looting money from you by stealing your personal details, bank details, credit card information and sometimes for impersonating you for malicious purposes by stealing your identification cards.
- For defamation
Cyber attacks happen with the sole purpose of bringing a company down or bringing an individual down by mistrust. Often sensitive details are released, thereby sabotaging the integrity.
- For money
This is a type of modern day blackmailing. By having your sensitive data, these criminals will ask for ransom by threatening.
What are the different types of cyber attacks?
There are many different types of cyber security threats that come in all different sizes and shapes to breach the computer network. Some of them are:
- Malware: This is the most common type of cyber attack. It is basically a software and it can be a virus or spyware or worm or ransomware. Malware is mostly ingested by clicking the wrong link that comes in malicious emails or by downloading a wrong file from the internet. Malware can copy all of your sensitive information stored in your network as well as your computer and can even block you from accessing your softwares.
- Denial Of Service Attack: Denial of service (DoS) or Distributed Denial Of Service (DDoS) attacks, is a type of cyber attack where the hacker exhausts all your network bandwidth and resources in such a way that no one including yourself will have access or control over your system.
- Phishing: Phishing is done through email or messaging communication. The hackers use fake emails that are a replica of reputed companies to get your sensitive information. This is also a common type of cyber attack to get hold of credit card information, passwords etc.
- Man – In – The Middle Attack: MITM or Man in the middle attack, happens when the hacker gets themselves into a two way communication between network or individuals and steals the data.
- Password Attack: When a weak password is chosen, that can be easily guessed, hackers take advantage of that and can breach into the system.
- SQL Injection: Servers that are run on SQL (Structured query language) are affected by this.
Just like the security people in the physical world, controlling crime, with the increase in cyber threats, there is a need for cybersecurity. Reports say there are more than 4000 cyber crimes in a day reported in the USA, post covid which is 400% higher than how it was pre-covid.
So, What is cyber security?
Cyber security is a set of processes, guidelines and solutions that are in place to secure and protect the systems and networks in a business from external cyber attacks.
Cyber Security Basic Checklist:
Before implementing cybersecurity measures, there are some basic things that can be ensured to keep a company or business secure.
- Password: Keeping a strong password is one of the basic things to ensure the security is always in place.
- Application Security: Most of the breaches occur through apis and it is important to have best web application security in place.
- Network Security: Next place where security breaches occur is through the network channels.
- Awareness Training: Time and again giving staff training to spread awareness about cyber crime and the ways how the system may be breached will help in minimising the cyber crimes.
Career progression Of Business Analyst:
Career progression of Business Analyst is as follows: IT business analyst, Data Analyst, Senior Analyst, Project Manager.
Domains of cybersecurity
There are various domains of cybersecurity. They are
Security & Risk Management: Whose responsibility will be to oversee the overall security of the systems, manage the risks and to provide security training and best practices to the employees.
Identity and Access Management: Identity and access management, IAM in short deals with user login credentials, the authorisations for them in the company and deal with all the authentication related information.
Asset Security: Asset security mainly deals with asset allocation, asset information & security. Data security and privacy are handled in this domain.
Communication & Network Security: Organisations communication and network policies are handled in this domain of cybersecurity. Designing network architecture, securing network components and communication channels are part of this domain.
Security Engineering: Finding and resolving security vulnerabilities, cryptography, securing engineering process, using secure design principles, security modelling are covered in this domain of cybersecurity.
Security Operations: Whenever there is a security breach, business continuity and fall back plans mainly depend on security operations. Incident management, disaster recovery, resource protection, error logging and monitoring and investigation of breaches are handled by security operations.
Software Development Security: This domain deals with the security measures and controls that are enforced in the development environment, security of the software development lifecycle (SDLC) and security implementation of software systems.
Security Assessment and Testing: Security audits both internal and outside audits, collecting security test data, testing the implemented security and validating test assessment comes under this domain, security assessment and testing.
Jobs in cybersecurity:
Jobs in cybersecurity can be very rewarding and satisfying as it involves some amount of technical skills and more logic to help and defend the systems.
There are various cybersecurity jobs available and we are listing a few of them here along with their salaries for your better reference.
Ethical Hacker:
Ethical Hacker, also known as penetration tester, helps to look into loopholes and vulnerabilities in the system by performing penetration testing. Their main job is to try and break the system security before a hacker does, and provide suitable solutions to reinforce the security.
For an ethical hacker the average annual salary is about $104,000.
Security Incident Reporter:
Whenever there is a security breach, a security incident reporter is the first one to be notified. The job role of the person is to identify the scope of breach, how it happened and responding to it as quickly as possible.
For a security incident reporter the average annual salary is around $85,000.
Security Administrator: A security administrator’s job role is to maintain the security of a business’s systems and networks. The Average annual salary of a security administrator is $103,000
Security Analyst: A security analyst has to check and update the organisation security practices, whenever there is a change in the systems. Security analysts also have to ensure that security best practices are followed by the organisation. The average annual salary of a security analyst is $96,000
In the end, good always triumphs over evil. And this holds good about having a cybersecurity career. Want to know what are all the certifications you can do, what other career options are available and proper training to pursue the same? Contact us! Our trainers & mentors in Peakin will help you out with your dream career.