As we become increasingly connected through the Internet by access through the computer, our phones, and even household devices, security has become a hot topic. Attacks can happen from any corner. What happens if someone gains control of your computer or phone? Or someone gains control of just your Google account?
On an enterprise level, attacks on computer systems can also breach millions of pieces of personal data, including credit card information. Governments are also vulnerable to attacks that expose sensitive data.
Cybersecurity involves everyone and every entity - from you and your neighbors, to organizations, to companies, to governments.
The Internet has completely revolutionized the way we communicate with each other and share information. Many of us spend hours on social media and online group chats. Nearly all institutions have some sort of computer system administration to keep track of accounts, and buying and selling things on the Internet is now the norm. One by one, even medical equipment, transportation systems, and vacuums are connected to the web.
What is Cybersecurity, exactly?
There’s no turning back, even as more connections to the Internet lead to more privacy concerns and security risks. We don’t want strangers to access our accounts, or our credit card numbers. Along with practicing personal security, organizations and businesses also need to do their part to implement the right protections.
Cybersecurity is the field of study and practice that responds to these challenges as technology evolves. In a formal definition by CISCO:
“Cybersecurity is the practice of protecting systems, networks, and programs from digital attacks.”
Digital attacks can cover a whole range from fraudulent emails to a targeted shutdown of a website’s traffic. Defenses against these attacks, then, must be learned and implemented at all levels.
The CIA Triad
A basic, overarching model for cybersecurity, particularly as it relates to information, is the CIA Triad. CIA stands for Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability (not the US Central Intelligence Agency). Nearly all information security policies trace back to this model. Let’s go through each component of this triad.
Confidentiality
This pillar of the triad refers to protecting private information from eyes that shouldn’t have access to it. Confidentiality is the need to enforce access - who can see this, and who shouldn’t? For example, we don’t want to give our social security number to just anyone, but we trust that the institutions we give them to - like tax services - implement the right security measures to keep it secret. So what tools are used to guarantee the right access?
Some of the ways confidentiality is managed are:
- Keeping levels of access and setting permissions
- Encrypting data and files
- Requiring multi-factor authentication
Integrity
Integrity refers to data integrity here. We need security controls that protect data from being changed or deleted. We must also ensure that the damage can be reversed if data was changed accidentally or by the wrong person. Some techniques related to integrity are:
- Keeping backups of the data in its correct state, and logging versions
- Using cryptography to securely check for changes
- Keeping track of digital signatures to prove integrity of data
Availability
This last pillar refers to data being consistently, reliably available to those authorized. For example, when you login to a social media account and want to set your privacy settings, you expect all the correct settings you had set before to appear immediately. The social media company ensures that even with high traffic, information gets to your screen. How is this accomplished?
- Always monitoring servers and networks
- Maintaining hardware and software
- Having a plan for disaster recovery
And on we go!
Again, the CIA triad provides a foundation for information security specifically. We will cover many other security principles and frameworks, and explore techniques deeper.
In this course, you will gain a foundational understanding of the field of cybersecurity. You will learn:
- how cybersecurity has evolved, including how it’s shaped modern standards and regulations
- how digital attacks operate, and their different targets and motivations
- basic knowledge of cryptography and authentication and authorization technologies
- how to make your personal devices and networks more secure
- the anatomy of networks
- what cybersecurity looks like in the era of cloud technology
Let’s dive in!
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