In this article, we will let you know about different types of cyber security and computer security, their definition, objectives, Importance, and 15 best practices of computer security and cybersecurity.
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What is Computer Security?
Computer security is protecting the information that is stored in the computer from anyone stealing or harming it.
It is a process of preventing a person who is not authorized, to access your computer.
Normally computer security is maintained in a stand-alone machine (personal computer) by having the system updated and patched regularly.
Types of Computer Security
There are three different types of Computer Security. They are as follows –
- Physical Security
- Network Security
- Executable Security
Physical Security
Physical Security – This type of computer security is one of the simplest and easiest to interpret. Anyone who has access to the computer can access it.
Always we need to make sure not to share our passwords in order to safeguard our system from data thefts.
Our computers should not be left unattended, as others can access all our files.
Physical security is one of the basic securities that one must consider.
Network Security
Network Security – A firewall is one of the most important computer security.
This firewall helps network security by stopping any unauthorized networks that would attempt to access your computer.
Executable Security
Executable Security – Anti-virus security is known as executable security.
This type of security is quite complex as it requires a team to code the anti-virus. An anti-virus is a must, to block the virus from attacking the system.
These anti-virus securities are called executable security as they are executable files that need to be run on the computer, to be installed. With this, our computers would be more reliable.
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Importance of Computer Security
Computer security is one of the most important aspects, as it keeps all our data safe.
Prevention helps to stop hackers (unauthorized users) from accessing our computers.
Today most of the transactions that we perform from shopping to banking are by accessing websites (through a network).
The main intention of a hacker is to attack the system and get all the data stored in the system.
Once the hacker can access different computers, they can cause damage by formatting the hard drive.
Also, it would be easy for the hacker to attack other computers through your computer as they can hide their actual information.
Some of the objectives for computer security in any organization are –
Confidentiality – This means that information should be accessed only by authorized users.
Integrity – Here information should be added, modified, or deleted only by an authorized user which means we need to protect the information being modified.
Availability – This means that the information should be available only to authorized people on demand.
How to secure your Computer from Unauthorized Access
Secure passwords – Always we should keep in mind to create passwords that have at least 15 characters which include capital letters, special characters, and numbers.
Anti-virus – Make sure to install and update the anti-virus regularly to prevent malware. Examples are Norton and McAfee.
Two-way authentication – Here there would be two layers of authentication making it difficult for hackers to get access to your accounts.
Firewalls – Firewalls do not allow unauthorized users from accessing the network connected to the internet.
Anti-phishing tactics – Attackers normally try to send an email with a malicious link or ask us to provide our data or send us any attached files. By doing this (by clicking on the malicious link, sending our personal data, or clicking on any attachments) we fall into their trap and they would succeed to hack our computers.
Encryption – This is a method of converting plain text to secret text. Many applications follow this – Banking transactions, Computer passwords, etc.
Types of Computer Security Threats
Computer Security threats are general risks that can harm the functioning of a computer.
A physical threat happens if someone steals the computer or does any physical damage to the computer and a non-physical threat happens if there is a virus attack on the computer.
These days cyber threats have increased in large numbers and one must be careful to prevent this.
What is Cyber Security?
Cyber Security is a way of protecting computers, mobile devices, and electronic systems from malicious attacks, damage, or unauthorized access. In other terms, it is known as Information Technology security.
The most common type of cyber attack is stealing sensitive data like credit card details, bank details, or login information.
Hence the integrity and privacy of the data must be protected ad it can be done through cybersecurity.
The main goal of cybersecurity is to have zero risks and protect our data.
Types of CyberSecurity
Below are the different types of cybersecurity that we need to be aware of-
Network security – This type of security prevents any unauthorized users to intrude into the network.
Application security – This type of security helps applications to be more secure by finding external threats.
Information security – Information security is also called data security. This keeps the data safe by securing it from unauthorized data when the user saves it or transfers it to another machine.
Cloud security – This type of security protects and monitors the data in your cloud resources.
Is Computer Security and Cyber Security the same?
Computer Security mainly deals with the security of stand-alone systems. One major aspect of computer security is having stand-alone machines updated every time.
Cyber Security deals with individual computers along with the networks they are connected to and with all those devices that the computer is communicating to such as mobile, printers, and scanners.
Importance of Cybersecurity
It is very crucial to understand the importance of cyber security in – 2022.
With the internet and cloud computing controlling most of our data, we need to keep them protected from various internal and external threats.
Cybersecurity is very important for a company or organization as it would have critical information or data that needs to be maintained.
One of the ways cybersecurity is handled in these companies is that they train and educate the employees.
Also, most of the companies use tools provided by reliable services from cybersecurity provider companies like IBM Security, and Cisco group.
CyberSecurity in different organizations – Banks and others
Cybersecurity is very important in the Banking sector as customer assets are very confidential.
Most of the transactions these days are performed through online banking, so security experts have to include a security approach to prevent fraud and data breaches.
Most banks have cybersecurity in place. Good knowledge of threats and measures on controlling the same can help financial services firms to secure the system.
The most common type of threat that we observe in the banking domain is ATM malware Mobile banking malware and fraudulent debit/credit card usage.
Cybercriminals are increasing day by day and we need to be more vigilant.
One more industry that is vulnerable to cyber threats is Health care. Cyber theft is happening with more complicated tools to attack healthcare organizations.
This sector must, therefore, have cybersecurity to protect the personal information of its patients.
As the hospitals would have all the information such as patients’ names, addresses, ages, financial information, and Identity cards, hackers would get the needed data.
The online retail industry is one more industry that is vulnerable to cyber-attacks.
Since most retail companies have their products online, there are high chances of theft happening over the network.
The first step to avoid this theft would be to educate the staff on cybersecurity and to invest in firewalls for the website to save customer information from being hacked.
Education institutions are also one of the targets of cyber attacks.
All educational institutions contain large data of students, and staff including sensitive details like names and addresses, which the hackers sell to third parties for money.
Financially as educational institutions handle a large amount of money as fees, they become the major targets for these cyber criminals.
Hence cybersecurity plays a very important role. Users should use a platform with extra security which prevents unauthorized access to the network.
15 Best practices for Computer Security and Cyber Security
People need to be smart and need to pay attention to the security of their personal computers. Few points that we need to keep in mind: –
- Do not click on anything you are not sure is safe.
- Do not open any attachments that show up in emails from an unknown person.
- Do not hand over your personal identification or debit card details, or credit card details to strangers.
- Do not use unsecured public Wi-Fi networks as we don’t know if someone is looking at our data
- Always keep data backup safe elsewhere.
- Make sure to keep changing the passwords often and follow the standards while choosing a password.
- Install a good Anti-virus on your computer and keep it up to date.
- Always enable the firewall
- Install the security software that helps to recognize the website that you be aware of.
- Do not use USBs or hard disks on other machines that you don’t trust.
- Make sure all the software is up to date.
- Lock your computers when you are not around.
- Do not run programs that are unknown to you.
- Keep an eye on installed software and remove unnecessary software.
- Use a pop-up blocker.
Social Engineering and Cyber Attacks
When the network is secure, hackers fail to hack it and they in turn target the users of that network. This is called Social Engineering.
In recent days these types of hackers have increased subsequently.
The following are different techniques used in social engineering attacks –
Phishing – This is one of the oldest methods used. In this method, the Attacker sends an email expecting to get the information from the user back.
Vishing – Here attackers attack in the form of voice phishing. They would contact you over the phone and pretend to be from a bank or any other company.
Smishing – Here attackers use SMS phishing and the person will receive a text message which looks like it is from the bank, asking for all the personal details.
Whaling – In this form of phishing, the attackers attack the CEO or high-level person from the organization to get all the financial information.
Smear Phishing – Here they target specific a person or business to get all the information. This is similar to Phishing except that the emails are designed in such a way that a single recipient is targeted.
Careers in Cyber Security
As the cyber threat is increasing day by day, there is a lot of scope for individuals with skills and awareness in cyber security (both software and hardware). Following IT professionals, are in much demand these days –
- Security Engineer
- Security Architects
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