Cyber Space and Security

Introduction to the mysterious world of Cyberspace

Cyber Space:

The notional environment in which communication over computer network occurs is known as cyberspace.

Cyber Attack:

Attack on cyberspace is known as cyber attack. We should remember anything that is online is hackable. Thus cyberspace is also susceptible to attacks. So, in technical terms, the action which breaches or jeopardizes the confidentiality, availability and integrity of a computer network system is known as cyber attack.

Cyber Security:

The prevention against cyber attack for the betterment of cyberspace is termed as cyber security. In technical terms, the procedure that ensures the confidentiality, integrity and availability of cyberspace is known as cyber security.

Security at a glance:

Introduction to security threats:

Security threat means an action through which the vulnerability of a system can be exploited through Internal or External threats.

Types of Security Threats:

Internal Threat: It means that the threat is someone or something that lies within the internal boundaries of the organization or system. This kind of threats can be an accident or intentional, it all depends on the motive of the threat actor.

External Threat: It means that the threat is from an external source or an outsider with an intension to make the system vulnerable to attacks. These kind of threat are almost always intentional.

Threat Actor:

Threat actor is an entity who holds the power to threaten the data of an organization.

There are a few basic kinds of threat actors:

1. Script Kiddies: A person who uses existing computer scripts or codes to hack into computers, lacking the expertise to write their own. They are basically beginners to scripting.
2. Hacktivists: Hacktivists are individuals or group or organizations who hacks for a social or political motivation or movement. They often claim to do these for the betterment of the society.
3. Organized crime/Cyber Criminals: As the name suggests they are individuals or organizations who does illegal work on the cyber space and cause heavy losses or defamation to a particular individual or organizations.
4. Government/State sponsored actors: They are highly skilled individuals that are hired by the government to gather intelligence on rivals.
5. Insiders: They are threat actors from inside an organization who intentionally or by accident cause massive losses to the particular organization they belong to.
6. Internal User Error: This is kind of an accident that causes the system to be susceptible to external or internal threats. This is generally caused by some errors form the end user side.

Intensions or motivations of different threat actors can be anything from gathering inter to money to fame. It is the work of the cyber security specialists to stop them from causing harm to the cyberspace.

Classifications of Cyber Security:

1. Information Security
2. Network Security
3. Application Security
4. Database Security
5. Cloud Security
6. IOT Security