Cyber Security, Types and Importance

Cyber Security is the practice of Protecting computers, mobile devices, Servers, electronic Systems, networks, and data from malicious attacks. It’s also known as Information Security (INFOSEC) or Information Assurance (IA), System Security. Cyber Security is important because the government, Corporate, medical organizations collect, military, financial, process, and store the unpreceded amount of data on a computer and other property, personal information, or exposure could have negative consequences.

Cyber Security proper began in 1972 with a research project on ARPANET (The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), a precursor to the internet. ARPANET developed protocols for remote computer networking. Example – If we shop from any online shopping website and shared information like email id, address, and credit card details as well as saved on that website to enable a faster and hassle-free shopping experience then the required information is stored in server one day we receive an email which state that the eligibility for a special discount voucher from XXXXX (hacker use famous website Name like Flipkart, Amazon etc.) website in order to receive the coupon code, and we will be asked to fill the details then we will use saved card account credentials. Then our data will be shared because we think it was just an account for the verification step then they can wipe a substantial amount of money from our account. 

That is why Cyber Security provides Service as a Security Gate-Way to make information more Secure, in today’s time hackers are advance we can’t surely say the data store in my Devices is safe or not by outside threats. With Cybercrime increasing at a rapid pace, it’s crucial to have Cyber Security in place of personal life and our Business.

Types of Cybersecurity :

1. Application Security –

1.1 Most of the App that we use in our Cell-phone are Secured and work under the rules and regulations of the Google Play Store.

1.2 There are 1.85 million different apps are available for users to download. Now when we have different choices then this does not mean that all apps are safe.

1.3 Many of the apps pretend to be safe but after taking all information from ours, the app users to share information in money to the 3rd-party as well app stop working suddenly this comes under Cyber attack.

1.4 The app must be installed from a trust-worthy platform, not from Google Chrome.

2. Network Security –

2.1 Guard your internal network against outside threats with increased network security.

2.2 Some times we used to utilize free Wi-Fi on public area such as cafe, Malls, etc., by this activity 3rd Party start tracking your Phone over the internet that time if you are using any payment gateway then our bank account can be Empty.

2.3 So, avoid using Free Network because free network Doesn’t support Securities.

3. Cloud Security –

3.1 Cloud base data storage has become a popular option over the last Decade due to it enhance privacy as well saving data on cloud make it excess able from any device but need correct authentication.

3.2 Some Famous platforms are Google Drive, Microsoft Cloud, Dropbox, etc.

3.3 These platforms are free to some extent, if we want to save more data than we have to pay.

3.4 ASW is also a new Technique that helps to run your business over the internet provides security to your data

4. Mobile Security –

4.1 Mobile is the very common gadgets we use daily, everything we excess is by mobile phone online class then the mobile phone, Call to the client then the mobile phone, sending money need a mobile phone and many more.

4.2 The mobile phones made our life so easy only by single touch we can be excess news from another country. Then this mobile phone must come under all security patches.

4.3 We must lock all the payment applications by phone in-built app as well never share your phone password except your family.

The importance and challenges of Cyber Security :

Cyber security is important in any organization no matter how big or small is the organization. Due to increasing technology and increasing software across various sectors like government, education, hospitals etc., the information is becoming digital through wireless communication networks. 

The importance of cyber security is to secure our data of various organizations like email, yahoo, etc. which have extremely sensitive information that can cause damage to both our reputation. Attackers target both small and large companies and obtain their important documents and information. 

There are few reasons why it is important which are as follows:

1. Cyber security is on rising –

There are 4000 roughly cyber attacks every day. One of the reasons why cyber crime is increasing is because it is cheap, fast, and highly profitable compared to other types of crime which is why cyber criminals are headed.

2. Damage is significant –

Cyber crime can cost organizations can cause millions of dollars in damage. But it is not just about financial costs it can also damage reputations. Their ability to business and sometimes even compromises the physical safety and health of employees, patients, customers, and others.

3. Cybersecurity builds trust –

Cybersecurity affects trust with customers and employees.  When people feel that their information is being properly secured and kept private. They began to lose trust in the brand the product, and the services.

4. Our identities protect our data –

User identity now protects billions of points of data. This is the data we are transmitting at work data from the internet of things, devices or a coffee maker or the printers we use and our personal information as more of our data is becoming digitized. Security of these identities helps to reduce the risk of cybercrime to organizations and to individuals alike.

5. Every organization has vulnerabilities – 

As organizations evolve, merge, and grow over time their networks and systems naturally get more complicated and things may slip through the cracks. Additionally, end-users can often be the weakest link in an organization’s security, and that requires the organizations to put robust security and compliance protection in place. We should all care about cybersecurity.

Cyber-attack :

A cyber-attack is a deliberate attempt by external or internal threats or attackers to exploit and compromise the integrity and confidentiality of the information system of a target organization.

Cyber-attacks come in a wide variety and the following list highlights some of the important ones that criminals and attackers use to exploit software:

1. Malware

2. Ransomware

3. Injection attacks

4. Session management and Man-in-the-Middle attacks

5. Phishing

6. Denial of service

7. Privilege escalations

8. Unpatched/Vulnerable software

Source: geeksforgeeks.org

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Different Job Roles In Cyber Security

Prerequisite

Cyber Security is the practice of Protecting computers, mobile devices, Servers, electronic Systems, networks, and data from malicious attacks. It’s also known as Information Security (INFOSEC) or Information Assurance (IA), System Security. Cyber Security is important because the government, Corporate, medical organizations collect, military, financial, process, and store the unpreceded amount of data on a computer and other property, personal information, or exposure could have negative consequences. 

Cyber Security proper began in 1972 with a research project on ARPANET (The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), a precursor to the internet. ARPANET developed protocols for remote computer networking. Example – If we shop from any online shopping website and shared information like email id, address, and credit card details as well as saved on that website to enable a faster and hassle-free shopping experience then the required information is stored in server one day we receive an email which state that the eligibility for a special discount voucher from XXXXX (hacker use famous website Name like Flipkart, Amazon etc.) website in order to receive the coupon code, and we will be asked to fill the details then we will use saved card account credentials. Then our data will be shared because we think it was just an account for the verification step then they can wipe a substantial amount of money from our account. 

That is why Cyber Security provides Service as a Security Gate-Way to make information more Secure, in today’s time hackers are advance we can’t surely say the data store in my Devices is safe or not by outside threats. With Cybercrime increasing at a rapid pace, it’s crucial to have Cyber Security in place of personal life and our Business.

The Roles and job titles in the security sector often leads to overlapping of several responsibilities and are customized according to the size and needs of the organization. Different job roles like security analyst, security administration, security engineer, security architect and other consultant specialist are the typical job titles. As the cybersecurity domain keeps on expanding and developing all over the place  further, new roles and titles are likely to emerge an d the roles attributed to the current titles will likely crystallize or evolve.  

Cyber security is a vital area in this advanced world. With a surge of cyber attacks nowadays, ensuring the safety of your and your clients data has become a must-have for all companies. There are many different types of cyber security jobs available, some more technical than others. Often, you will need to have a few years of specialized education or training under your belt before you can apply for these positions, but even entry level jobs in the cyber security industry are still very lucrative.  

There are many job titles and which are discussed below:   

1. Security Specialist –

Security specialist are the people who are responsible for their organizations security. They check the systems and the connections for any security vulnerability. The onset of cloud trend has boosted this role as a security specialist is required to assess the cloud systems regularly.

2. Incident Responder –

Incident responders are people who not only detect the threats but also respond to them. These people help the organization and its employees to stay prepared and act when the security is breached.

3. Security Administrator –

Security administrators are the most essential personnel. Their tasks include roles of multiple titles. They set up proper security guidelines for the flow of data and also are responsible for installing firewalls and malware blockers.

4. Vulnerability Assessor –

Vulnerability assessor or vulnerable assessment analyst are people who run multiple tests on the systems. Their main aim is to find the critical flaws in the security system while also prioritizing things that affect the organization the most.

5. Cryptographer –

Cryptographers are the people who use cryptography techniques to encrypt and decrypt the data keeping it hidden from irrelevant parties. They are very essential and are more in demand.

6. Security Manager –

Security managers supervise the rest of the team. They take important decisions and oversee the whole team’s work.

7. Security Architect –

As the name suggests security architect are people who design the security structure. They also test out the security and respond to threats.  

8. Security Analyst –

Security analysts analyze the systems and patch the loop holes. They often work together with the rest of the team of IT specialist and developers.

9. Security Auditor –

Security auditor are the people who are tasked with finding the breach in the system first before anyone else does. They check whether the currently installed firewalls and other security measures are working properly or not.

10. Forensic Expert –

Forensic expert are people who trace back the hacks and breaches. They investigate cyberattacks or any other illegal activity taking place online. They try to revive any damaged or encrypted data related to the crime.

11. Penetration Tester –

Penetration testers are people who are allowed to hack the system and try to find a way in. They act like hackers trying to attack the security system.

12. Security Consultant –

Security consultant are people who assess the systems and suggest new improvements while pointing out the flaws. These people generally work as freelancers to develop a security plan.

13. Security Engineer –

Security engineers patch, maintain and remove stuffs on the system. They work directly on the system and are responsible for the modification of the system.

Finally, Cyber security is a vast world which has multiple job titles depending on the requirement. Even though the job responsibilities of most roles overlap, each one has its importance.

Source: geeksforgeeks.org

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Cyber Forensics

Cyber forensics is a process of extracting data as proof for a crime (that involves electronic devices) while following proper investigation rules to nab the culprit by presenting the evidence to the court. Cyber forensics is also known as computer forensics. The main aim of cyber forensics is to maintain the thread of evidence and documentation to find out who did the crime digitally. Cyber forensics can do the following:

◉ It can recover deleted files, chat logs, emails, etc

◉ It can also get deleted SMS, Phone calls.

◉ It can get recorded audio of phone conversations.

◉ It can determine which user used which system and for how much time.

◉ It can identify which user ran which program.

Why is cyber forensics important?

In todays technology driven generation, the importance of cyber forensics is immense. Technology combined with forensic forensics paves the way for quicker investigations and accurate results. Below are the points depicting the importance of cyber forensics:

◉ Cyber forensics helps in collecting important digital evidence to trace the criminal.

◉ Electronic equipment stores massive amounts of data that a normal person fails to see. For example: in a smart house, for every word we speak, actions performed by smart devices, collect huge data which is crucial in cyber forensics.

◉ It is also helpful for innocent people to prove their innocence via the evidence collected online.

◉ It is not only used to solve digital crimes but also used to solve real-world crimes like theft cases, murder, etc.

◉ Businesses are equally benefitted from cyber forensics in tracking system breaches and finding the attackers.

How did Cyber Forensics Experts work?

Cyber forensics is a field that follows certain procedures to find the evidence to reach conclusions after proper investigation of matters. The procedures that cyber forensic experts follow are:

◉ Identification: The first step of cyber forensics experts are to identify what evidence is present, where it is stored, and in which format it is stored.

◉ Preservation: After identifying the data the next step is to safely preserve the data and not allow other people to use that device so that no one can tamper data.

◉ Analysis: After getting the data, the next step is to analyze the data or system. Here the expert recovers the deleted files and verifies the recovered data and finds the evidence that the criminal tried to erase by deleting secret files. This process might take several iterations to reach the final conclusion.

◉ Documentation: Now after analyzing data a record is created. This record contains all the recovered and available(not deleted) data which helps in recreating the crime scene and reviewing it.

◉ Presentation: This is the final step in which the analyzed data is presented in front of the court to solve cases.

Types of computer forensics

There are multiple types of computer forensics depending on the field in which digital investigation is needed. The fields are:

◉ Network forensics: This involves monitoring and analyzing the network traffic to and from the criminal’s network. The tools used here are network intrusion detection systems and other automated tools.

◉ Email forensics: In this type of forensics, the experts check the email of the criminal and recover deleted email threads to extract out crucial information related to the case.

◉ Malware forensics: This branch of forensics involves hacking related crimes. Here, the forensics expert examines the malware, trojans to identify the hacker involved behind this.

◉ Memory forensics: This branch of forensics deals with collecting data from the memory(like cache, RAM, etc.) in raw and then retrieve information from that data.

◉ Mobile Phone forensics: This branch of forensics generally deals with mobile phones. They examine and analyze data from the mobile phone.

◉ Database forensics: This branch of forensics examines and analyzes the data from databases and their related metadata.

◉ Disk forensics: This branch of forensics extracts data from storage media by searching modified,  active, or deleted files.

Techniques that cyber forensic investigators use

Cyber forensic investigators use various techniques and tools to examine the data and some of the commonly used techniques are:

◉ Reverse steganography: Steganography is a method of hiding important data inside the digital file, image, etc. So, cyber forensic experts do reverse steganography to analyze the data and find a relation with the case.

◉ Stochastic forensics: In Stochastic forensics, the experts analyze and reconstruct digital activity without using digital artifacts. Here, artifacts mean unintended alterations of data that occur from digital processes.

◉ Cross-drive analysis: In this process, the information found on multiple computer drives is correlated and cross-references to analyze and preserve information that is relevant to the investigation.

◉ Live analysis: In this technique, the computer of criminals is analyzed from within the OS in running mode. It aims at the volatile data of RAM to get some valuable information.

◉ Deleted file recovery: This includes searching for memory to find fragments of a partially deleted file in order to recover it for evidence purposes.

Advantages

◉ Cyber forensics ensures the integrity of the computer.

◉ Through cyber forensics, many people, companies, etc get to know about such crimes, thus taking proper measures to avoid them.

◉ Cyber forensics find evidence from digital devices and then present them in court, which can lead to the punishment of the culprit.

◉ They efficiently track down the culprit anywhere in the world.

◉ They help people or organizations to protect their money and time.

◉ The relevant data can be made trending and be used in making the public aware of it.

What are the required set of skills needed to be a cyber forensic expert?

The following skills are required to be a cyber forensic expert: 

◉ As we know, cyber forensic based on technology. So, knowledge of various technologies, computers, mobile phones, network hacks, security breaches, etc. is required.

◉ The expert should be very attentive while examining a large amount of data to identify proof/evidence.

◉ The expert must be aware of criminal laws, a criminal investigation, etc.

◉ As we know, over time technology always changes, so the experts must be updated with the latest technology.

◉ Cyber forensic experts must be able to analyse the data, derive conclusions from it and make proper interpretations.

◉ The communication skill of the expert must be good so that while presenting evidence in front of the court, everyone understands each detail with clarity.

◉ The expert must have strong knowledge of basic cyber security.

Source: geeksforgeeks.org

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Digital Forensics in Information Security

Digital Forensics is a branch of forensic science which includes the identification, collection, analysis and reporting any valuable digital information in the digital devices related to the computer crimes, as a part of the investigation.

Read More: 312-49: Computer Hacking Forensic Investigation

In simple words, Digital Forensics is the process of identifying, preserving, analyzing and presenting digital evidences. The first computer crimes were recognized in the 1978 Florida computers act and after this, the field of digital forensics grew pretty fast in the late 1980-90’s. It includes the area of analysis like storage media, hardware, operating system, network and applications.

It consists of 5 steps at high level:

1. Identification of evidence:

It includes of identifying evidences related to the digital crime in storage media, hardware, operating system, network and/or applications. It is the most important and basic step.

2. Collection:

It includes preserving the digital evidences identified in the first step so that they doesn’t degrade to vanish with time. Preserving the digital evidences is very important and crucial.

3. Analysis:

It includes analyzing the collected digital evidences of the committed computer crime in order to trace the criminal and possible path used to breach into the system.

4. Documentation:

It includes the proper documentation of the whole digital investigation, digital evidences, loop holes of the attacked system etc. so that the case can be studied and analysed in future also and can be presented in the court in a proper format.

5. Presentation:

It includes the presentation of all the digital evidences and documentation in the court in order to prove the digital crime committed and identify the criminal.

Branches of Digital Forensics:

◉ Media forensics:

It is the branch of digital forensics which includes identification, collection, analysis and presentation of audio, video and image evidences during the investigation process.

◉ Cyber forensics:

It is the branch of digital forensics which includes identification, collection, analysis and presentation of digital evidences during the investigation of a cyber crime.

◉ Mobile forensics:

It is the branch of digital forensics which includes identification, collection, analysis and presentation of digital evidences during the investigation of a crime committed through a mobile device like mobile phones, GPS device, tablet, laptop.

◉ Sofware forensics:

It is the branch of digital forensics which includes identification, collection, analysis and presentation of digital evidences during the investigation of a crime related to softwares only.

Source: geeksforgeeks.org

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Role of Blockchain in Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is the practice of protecting systems and networks from digital attacks which aim to access, change or destroy digital information either to extort money or sensitive data. With the increasing reliance on technology and data, it becomes very important to reinforce security measures to protect digital data and transactions. Cyberattacks can be carried out using various malware such as viruses, Trojans, Rootkits, etc. Some common types of cyberattacks are Phishing, Man in a middle (MITM) attack, Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, SQL injection, and Ransomware attacks.

Key Cybersecurity Features:

1. Cryptographic checksums.

2. Data backup and data correction codes.

3. Assess threats and risks.

4. Take measures to restrain vulnerabilities in systems.

5. Understanding malicious software.

6. Access control.

7. Authentication.

8. Encryption.

9. Implementing Firewalls.

10. Use of Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDS and IPS).

What is Blockchain?

Blockchain is a shared, decentralized, and digital ledger that records transactions in the form of blocks. This ledger helps to store information transparently due to its property of immutability and access to allowed members only.

Key Blockchain Features:

1. Distributed shared ledger.

2. Immutable records.

3. Decentralized consensus mechanisms.

4. Smart contracts.

5. Cryptographic key pair.

6. Identity and access management.

7. Enhanced security.

8. Peer to peer network.

9. Traceability and transparency in transactions.

10. No central authority or need for trusted third-party involvement.

Possible Blockchain Use Cases For Cybersecurity

1. IoT security: With the increasing application of AI and IoT, the security of data and systems from hackers has always been a major concern. Usage of Blockchain for improved security by using device-to-device encryption to secure communication, key management techniques, and authentication is a potential use case to maintain cybersecurity in the IoT system.

2. The integrity of software downloads: Blockchain can be utilized to verify updates and installers to prevent malicious software from infecting the devices. Here, hashes are recorded in the blockchain and new software identities can be compared to the hashes to verify the integrity of the downloads.

3. Data transmission protection: By using encryption, the data in transit will be protected from unauthorized access.

4. Decentralized storage of critical data: With the exponentially increasing data generated every day, blockchain-based storage solutions help achieve decentralized storage thus protecting digital information.

5. Mitigating DDoS Attacks: One of the most popular cyberattacks today is DDoS attacks where hackers aim to generate a flood of Internet traffic and thus disrupt the flow of services. The properties of immutability and cryptography help Blockchain prove to be an effective solution for these attacks.

6. DNS security: The Domain Name System (DNS) is similar to a public directory that links domain names to their IP addresses. Over time, hackers have tried to access the DNS and exploit these links thus crashing sites. Due to Blockchain’s properties of immutability and decentralized systems, the DNS can be stored with enhanced security.

Application of Blockchain in Cybersecurity

In cybersecurity, the CIA triad model acts as a reference to assess the security model of an organization. The triad consists of -

1. Confidentiality

2. Integrity

3. Availability

Blockchain helps us ensure all these policies are satisfied.

1. Confidentiality: It means to ensure that only interested and authorized parties access the appropriate data. Full encryption of blockchain data ensures that the data will not be accessible by unauthorized parties while flowing through untrusted networks. Security measures such as access controls should be implemented directly at the application level so as to prevent attacks from within the network. Blockchain can provide advanced security controls by using public key infrastructure to authenticate parties and encrypt their communication. However backup storage of private keys in secondary storage poses theft of private keys as a high risk. To prevent this, key management procedures such as IETF or RFC and cryptographic algorithms based on integer factorization problems should be implemented.

2. Integrity: Blockchains built-in characteristics of immutability and traceability help organizations ensure data integrity. Consensus model protocols can further help organizations to implement mechanisms to prevent and control ledger splitting in the event of a 51% cyber control attack. In Blockchain, with every new iteration, the previous state of the system is stored thus providing a fully traceable history log. Smart contracts can be used to verify and enforce rules between parties preventing miners from mining blocks of data.

3. Availability: In recent times, cyberattacks attempting to impact technology services availability are on the surge with DDoSs being the most common types of attacks. However, in blockchain-based systems, DDoS attacks are costly as the attacker attempts to overpower the network with a great number of small transactions. Blockchains have no single point of failure which decreases the chances of IP-based DDoS attacks disrupting the normal operation. Data remains available through various nodes and thus full copies of the ledger can be accessed at all times. The combination of multiple nodes and distributed operation makes the platforms and systems resilient.

Pros of Using Blockchain in Cybersecurity

1. User confidentiality: The public key cryptography in a Blockchain network helps maintain the confidentiality of the users.

2. Data transparency and traceability: A history of all these transactions is maintained and thus can be traced anytime. The transactions data is digitally signed by members of the Blockchain network thus maintaining transparency.

3. Secure data storage and processing: Blockchain’s major feature of immutability and records of any changes to the data help store the data in a safe and secure manner.

4. No single point failures: Blockchain systems are decentralized and thus a single node failure doesn’t affect the entire network. Thus even during DDoS attacks, the system is not compromised due to the maintenance of multiple copies of ledgers. This advantage is not possible for Private blockchains.

5. Safe data transfers: The Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) in Blockchain maintains authentication during data transfers. Smart contracts help with the automatic execution of agreements between two parties during a transfer.

Cons of Using Blockchain in Cybersecurity 

1. Reliance on private keys: Blockchains rely heavily on Private Keys for encryption of data but these private keys cannot be recovered once lost. This may lead to losing access to encrypted data forever.

2. Adaptability and scalability challenges: Blockchain networks have preset block volume and limits to transactions per second so it becomes very important to check the scalability of the network. Integrating Blockchain technology requires a complete replacement of the current systems and thus companies may face difficulties in doing so.

3. High operating costs: Blockchain requires high computing power and storage capabilities. This leads to higher costs as compared to non-Blockchain applications.

4. Lack of governance: Blockchain concepts aren’t regulated globally yet. Regulations and frameworks need to be developed in order to maintain governance in Blockchain applications.

5. Blockchain literacy: Learning Blockchain technology requires a profound knowledge of various development, programming languages, and other tools. Thus in spite of numerous applications of Blockchain Technology, enough Blockchain developers are not available in the present scenario.

Real-Life Application Examples

Following are some prominent examples where Blockchain is used for Cybersecurity:

1. Barclays (London, England), Traditional Banking: Barclays have filed a patent to use blockchain to enhance security in fund transfers. It aims to stabilize cryptocurrency transfers by using Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). Thus, blockchain helps the bank store customer information on a secure blockchain.

2. CISCO (San Jose, California), IoT: Cisco plans to use blockchain to secure IoT devices as ledger technology eliminates single point of failure and encryption helps secure data.

3. Coinbase (San Francisco, California), Cryptocurrencies: Coinbase uses encryption to store wallets and passwords in a secure database. It also undergoes background checks on employees to ensure that their crypto is secured.

4. Australian Government (Canberra, Australia): The Australian government has plans to develop a cybersecurity network based on DLT. The government has also partnered with IBM to secure the storage of government documents with the creation of a blockchain ecosystem.

5. Philips Healthcare (Andover, Massachusetts), Healthcare: Philips Healthcare has partnered with hospitals all over the world to create a healthcare ecosystem using blockchain and AI. This ecosystem will help discover and analyze various operational, administrative, and medical data.

6. Chinese Military (Beijing, China), Defense and Military: China’s government and the military are attempting to secure vital government and military information, intelligence information using blockchain cybersecurity.

7. Founders Bank (Valletta, Malta), Cryptocurrencies: They aim to be the world’s first decentralized bank thus being owned by the buyers and not any central authority. Concepts such as encryption and distributed ledgers will be used to store and secure users’ cryptocurrencies.

8. The State of Colorado (Denver, Colorado), Government: According to a bill passed by the Senate, the government will consider using Blockchain to secure the storage of records thus trying to curb the increase in attempted attacks.

9. J. P. Morgan (New York, NY), Traditional Banking: They have developed a platform called Quorum which uses Blockchain to process private transactions. It uses the concepts of Smart contracts and cryptography to maintain the security of the transactions.

10. Health Linkages (Mountain View, California): They aim to use Blockchain to keep patient records secure allowing only certain personnel to access the records. It will also be used to maintain a chronological record of major healthcare events which will help doctors make better decisions.

Future of Blockchain Cybersecurity 

Blockchain is a breakthrough in cybersecurity for the digital world and will help ensure that the CIA triads of cybersecurity are being followed. The complexity of its implementation may however lead to some difficulties for application.

Source: geeksforgeeks.org

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The Impact of AI on Cybersecurity

Experts believe that Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) have both negative and positive effects on cybersecurity. AI algorithms use training data to learn how to respond to different situations. They learn by copying and adding additional information as they go along. This article reviews the positive and the negative impacts of AI on cybersecurity.

Main Challenges Cybersecurity Faces Today

Attacks are becoming more and more dangerous despite the advancements in cybersecurity. The main challenges of cybersecurity include:

◉ Geographically-distant IT systems—geographical distance makes manual tracking of incidents more difficult. Cybersecurity experts need to overcome differences in infrastructure to successfully monitor incidents across regions.

◉ Manual threat hunting—can be expensive and time-consuming, resulting in more unnoticed attacks.

◉ Reactive nature of cybersecurity—companies can resolve problems only after they have already happened. Predicting threats before they occur is a great challenge for security experts.

◉ Hackers often hide and change their IP addresses—hackers use different programs like Virtual Private Networks (VPN), Proxy servers, Tor browsers, and more. These programs help hackers stay anonymous and undetected.

AI and Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is one of the multiple uses of artificial intelligence. A report by Norton showed that the global cost of typical data breach recovery is $3.86 million. The report also indicates that companies need 196 days on average to recover from any data breach. For this reason, organizations should invest more in AI to avoid waste of time and financial losses and.

AI, machine learning, and threat intelligence can recognize patterns in data to enable security systems learn from past experience. In addition, AI and machine learning enable companies to reduce incident response times and comply with security best practices.

How AI Improves Cybersecurity

Threat hunting

Traditional security techniques use signatures or indicators of compromise to identify threats. This technique might work well for previously encountered threats, but they are not effective for threats that have not been discovered yet.

Signature-based techniques can detect about 90% of threats. Replacing traditional techniques with AI can increase the detection rates up to 95%, but you will get an explosion of false positives. The best solution would be to combine both traditional methods and AI. This can result in 100% detection rate and minimize false positives.

Companies can also use AI to enhance the threat hunting process by integrating behavioral analysis. For example, you can leverage AI models to develop profiles of every application within an organization’s network by processing high volumes of endpoint data.

Vulnerability management

20,362 new vulnerabilities were reported in 2019, up 17.8% compared to 2018. Organizations are struggling to prioritize and manage the large amount of new vulnerabilities they encounter on a daily basis. Traditional vulnerability management methods tend to wait for hackers to exploit high-risk vulnerabilities before neutralizing them.

While traditional vulnerability databases are critical to manage and contain known vulnerabilities, AI and machine learning techniques like User and Event Behavioral Analytics (UEBA) can analyze baseline behavior of user accounts, endpoint and servers, and identify anomalous behavior that might signal a zero-day unknown attack. This can help protect organizations even before vulnerabilities are officially reported and patched.

Data centers

AI can optimize and monitor many essential data center processes like backup power, cooling filters, power consumption, internal temperatures, and bandwidth usage. The calculative powers and continuous monitoring capabilities of AI provide insights into what values would improve the effectiveness and security of hardware and infrastructure.

In addition, AI can reduce the cost of hardware maintenance by alerting on when you have to fix the equipment. These alerts enable you to repair your equipment before it breaks in a more severe manner. In fact, Google reported a 40 percent reduction in cooling costs at their facility and a 15 percent reduction in power consumption after implementing AI technology within data centers in 2016

Network security

Traditional network security has two time-intensive aspects, creating security policies and understanding the network topography of an organization.

◉ Policies—security policies identify which network connections are legitimate and which you should further inspect for malicious behavior. You can use these policies to effectively enforce a zero-trust model. The real challenge lies in creating and maintaining the policies given the large amount of networks.

◉ Topography—most organizations don’t have the exact naming conventions for applications and workloads. As a result, security teams have to spend a lot of time determining what set of workloads belong to a given application.

Companies can leverage AI to improve network security by learning network traffic patterns and recommending both functional grouping of workloads and security policy.

Drawbacks and Limitations of Using AI for Cybersecurity

There are also some limitations that prevent AI from becoming a mainstream security tool:

◉ Resources—companies need to invest a lot of time and money in resources like computing power, memory, and data to build and maintain AI systems.

◉ Data sets—AI models are trained with learning data sets. Security teams need to get their hands on many different data sets of malicious codes, malware codes, and anomalies. Some companies just don’t have the resources and time to obtain all of these accurate data sets.

◉ Hackers also use AI—attackers test and improve their malware to make it resistant to AI-based security tools. Hackers learn from existing AI tools to develop more advanced attacks and attack traditional security systems or even AI-boosted systems.

◉ Neural fuzzing—fuzzing is the process of testing large amounts of random input data within software to identify its vulnerabilities. Neural fuzzing leverages AI to quickly test large amounts of random inputs. However, fuzzing has also a constructive side. Hackers can learn about the weaknesses of a target system by gathering information with the power of neural networks. Microsoft developed a method to apply this approach to improve their software, resulting in more secure code that is harder to exploit.

Source: computer.org

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Types of Footprinting in Ethical Hacking

Footprinting is the first step of an attack on information systems in which an attacker collects information about a target network for identifying various ways to intrude into the system. Using this, we can find a number of opportunities to penetrate and assess the target organization’s network.

Types of Footprinting:

1. Passive Footprinting

2. Active Footprinting.

1. Passive Footprinting: 

This involves gathering information about the target without direct interaction. It is a type of footprinting gathering that is mainly useful when there is a requirement that the information-gathering activities are not to be detected by the target is not sent to the target organization from a host or from anonymous hosts or services over the Internet. We can just gather the documented and put away data about the target utilizing web crawlers, social networking websites, etc.

Passive footprinting techniques include: –

1. Finding the Top-level Domains (TLDs) and sub-domains of an objective through web services

2. Gathering area information on the objective through web services

3. Performing individuals search utilizing social networking websites and individuals search services

4. Stealing monetary data about the objective through various monetary services

5. Get-together framework subtleties of the objective association through places of work

6. Checking objective utilizing ready services

7. Social occasion data utilizing gatherings, discussions, and online journals

8. Deciding the working frameworks being used by the objective association

9. Extricating data about the objective utilizing Internet documents

10. Performing competitive intelligence

11. Discovering data through web crawlers

12. Monitoring website traffic of the target

13. Tracking the online reputation of the target

14. Gathering data through social designing on social networking destinations

2. Active Footprinting: –

This involves gathering information about the target with direct interaction. In this type of footprinting, the target may recognize the ongoing information gathering process, as we only interact with the target network.

Active Footprinting techniques include: –

1. Querying published name servers of the target

2. Extracting metadata of published documents and files

3. Stealing a lot of website information using various types of mirroring and web spidering tools

4. Gathering information through email tracking

5. Performing Whois lookup

6. Extracting DNS information

7. Performing traceroute analysis

8. Performing social engineering

The major goals of footprinting incorporate gathering the organization data, mainframe data, and hierarchical data of the victim. By directing footprinting across various organization levels, we can acquire precious data, for example, network blocks, explicit IP addresses, representative subtleties, etc. Such data can help the network intruders in accessing confidential information or performing different types of hacks on the objective organization.

Source: geeksforgeeks.org

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Certified Chief Information Security Officer (CCISO)

EC-Council’s CCISO Program has certified leading information security professionals around the world. A core group of high-level information security executives, the CCISO Advisory Board, contributed by forming the foundation of the program and outlining the content that would be covered by the exam, body of knowledge, and training. Some members of the Board contributed as authors, others as exam writers, others as quality assurance checks, and still others as trainers. Each segment of the program was developed with the aspiring CISO in mind and looks to transfer the knowledge of seasoned professionals to the next generation in the areas that are most critical in the development and maintenance of a successful information security program.

The Certified CISO (CCISO) program is the first of its kind training and certification program aimed at producing top-level information security executives. The CCISO does not focus solely on technical knowledge but on the application of information security management principles from an executive management point of view. The program was developed by sitting CISOs for current and aspiring CISOs.

Why should you consider the CCISO program?

The CCISO Certification is an industry-leading program that recognizes the real-world experience necessary to succeed at the highest executive levels of information security.

Bringing together all the components required for a C-Level positions, the CCISO program combines audit management, governance, IS controls, human capital management, strategic program development, and the financial expertise vital to leading a highly successful IS program. Material in the CCISO Program assumes a high-level understanding of technical topics and doesn’t spend much time on strictly technical information, but rather on the application of technical knowledge to an information security executive’s day-to-day work. The CCISO aims to bridge the gap between the executive management knowledge that CISOs need and the technical knowledge that many aspiring CISOs have. This can be a crucial gap as a practitioner endeavors to move from mid-management to upper, executive management roles. Much of this is traditionally learned as on the job training, but the CCISO Training Program can be the key to a successful transition to the highest ranks of information security management.

CCISO Domain Details

Domain 1

Governance, Risk, Compliance

Domain 2

Information Security Controls and Audit Management

Domain 3

Security Program Management & Operations

Domain 4

Information Security Core Competencies

Domain 5 

Strategic Planning, Finance, Procurement, and Third-Party Management

Source: eccouncil.org

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Top 5 Reasons to Learn Ethical Hacking

Ethical Hacking is compromising computer systems for assessing their security and acting in good faith by informing the vulnerable party. Ethical hacking is a key skill for many job roles related to securing the online assets of an organization. The professionals working on these job roles maintain the organization’s computers, servers and other components of its infrastructure in working conditions preventing unauthorized access through non-physical channels.

If you are a student or a budding IT professional, you might be thinking about learning ethical hacking as a career option. In this article, we will tell you how you might be thinking just right. The reasons are evaluated on the parameters of earning, future scope, social status, self-satisfaction, and intellectual growth.

1. Pays Well (More Than Well)

Cyber Security professionals get a much higher median salary than their counterparts in the field of computer science. This is for the simple reason that protecting what’s built online against cyber attacks is essential to the company’s growth and sustainability. A cyber attack can not only cost in terms of immediate damage to the systems and finances but also terms of user trust. For these reasons, companies pay decent salaries to their cyber warriors. For this reason, companies pay a decent starting salary with an average hike of 50% per year according to Simplilearn, an ed-tech firm.

2. Highly In-Demand Skill

Cybersecurity as a profession has not received much enthusiasm until in very recent years(2016+). The main reason for this is considered the fact that companies tend to underestimate the criticality of their internet-facing systems. Things changed after a series of massive cyberattacks on large companies that were responsible for running many websites by providing hosting, cloud storage, and other services. Due to this trend, there is a wide gap between the sudden need for highly skilled professionals and a few number of such professionals. In India, there are 30, 000 cybersecurity posts currently unfilled, according to Economic Times. The gap is almost the same at the global level too. The global market of cybersecurity is expected to grow to $35 billion by 2025.

3. Help in Creating a Secure Internet for All

Not all the cyber attacks require complex exploits. Some require finding a gullible person and luring them into giving up their credentials. Phishing is a highly used technique for this purpose. It is very likely that one or more such attempts of phishing were made on you too(You might have seen some shady emails about winning a grand sum of money or some refugee having trouble in managing millions of dollars), but since you were smart, you didn’t fall for those. (You didn’t right?). A basic understanding of how cyber attacks work and how one can be safe online can be the key to preventing such frauds. This is why everyone should learn about basic ethical hacking principles and tools.

4. One Can Become a National Asset

Cybersecurity professionals will be the soldiers of future warfare which will be primarily about securing own online systems and destroying enemies’. Since almost every device, even the ones with the highest criticality will be connected to some network. Cyberwarfare goes on even during times of no apparent tension among countries. Country A may try to use its skilled hackers to:

◉ Take over and disable large power grids of country B.

◉ Disrupt share markets of country B.

◉ Intervene in national or state elections of country B.

As a cybersecurity professional, you will be useful in the prevention of your national assets and reputation from jeopardy.

5. Good to Learn Something New

One needs to learn a variety of things before they can think of learning ethical hacking. Programming, scripting, computer networking, web technologies, cryptography, etc. are some of the subjects to be mastered before expecting a decent and smooth introduction to ethical hacking. Being an active cybersecurity professional also requires staying updated on newly discovered vulnerabilities, their exploitation, and mitigation, new frameworks, new attack techniques, new bypasses to previous mitigations, etc. This is as pleasantly challenging as it sounds.

Source: geeksforgeeks.org

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Requirements and Responsibilities For Cyber Security Entry-Level Jobs

With the use of technology and the internet, a threat to system and network is increasing day by day. Cyber attackers use various techniques like malware, ransomware, phishing, and many more to compromise confidential data of large companies. Due to this, there is a tremendous demand for computer security professionals around the world. The computer security or cybersecurity professional’s main job is to protect the computer and network from cyber attackers. To make a career in cybersecurity, we need to get some certifications to increase our abilities to involve in the jobs. Cybersecurity career starts from entry-level and then goes to expert-level based on one’s experience and knowledge. The three basic entry-level job roles in cybersecurity are: 

Cybersecurity Analyst

Requirements 

◉ A Bachelors degree in IT or computer science with minimum one to two years experience in network security 

◉ Familiarity with Unix, Linux, and Windows operating system 

◉ Knowledge about SaaS models and cloud computing 

◉ Require certification like security+, network+, certified ethical hacker 

◉ Strong cybersecurity and awareness skills 

◉ Need knowledge in using forensic tools 

◉ Programming skills like java, C, C++, and PHP 

◉ Strong communication skills and decision-making skills 

◉ Certification like certified ethical hacking, GIAC security certifications, EC-Council certified security analyst 

◉ Knowledge of vulnerabilities and penetration testing

Responsibilities 

◉ Monitor security access and maintain data 

◉ Install and recommend appropriate tools and countermeasures 

◉ Able to train the employees about the awareness of computer security and procedure 

◉ Gather information from both external and internal sources to analysis the cyber threats and report 

◉ Test the vulnerabilities and risk analysis 

◉ Analyze the security breaches and identify the root causes 

◉ Monitor the company’s incidents and report to the disaster recovery planners 

◉ Collaborate with the vendors to meet the security requirements

Incident Analyst

Requirements 

◉ A Bachelors degree in computer science or other equivalent electrical engineering or cybersecurity with minimum two or three years experience in an incident analyst 

◉ Must have the experience to use forensic tools such as Encase, FTK, Sleuth kit and many more 

◉ Problem-solving skills and should respond to incidences immediately 

◉ Must know programming languages like C, C++, Java, ASM, PHP, and Perl 

◉ Familiarity with Linux, Unix, and Windows operating system 

◉ Knowledge of backup and archiving technologies 

◉ Knowledge of web application security and cloud computing 

◉ Required certification in certified ethical hacker, GIAC credited forensic examiner, forensic analyst, and incident handler.

Responsibilities 

◉ To monitor network and systems to detect intrusions. 

◉ He is responsible for identifying security flaws and vulnerabilities in systems and the network of a company. 

◉ He is responsible for analyzing risks and ensure the security of data. 

◉ He is responsible for penetration testing. 

◉ He is responsible for producing incident reports. 

◉ He is responsible for providing detailed endpoint analysis reports on various operating systems. 

◉ To support clients during attacks. 

◉ To investigate cyberattacks and provide solutions to prevent them 

◉ He needs to resolve incidents in the specified service level agreement 

◉ Record the troubleshooting and service restoration details.

Cybersecurity Specialist

Requirements 

◉ Problem-solving skills 

◉ Programming languages like C, C++, PHP 

◉ Knowledge of cybersecurity frameworks and risk management methodologies 

◉ Knowledge in public key infrastructure and cryptography protocols 

◉ Excellent communication skills and decision-making skills 

◉ Bachelors degree or BSc or BA in computer science with one year experience 

◉ Certifications like CompTIA security+, CISSP is desirable

Responsibilities 

◉ Operate information security aspects like data integrity, availability, authentication, confidentiality and non- repudiation under the general supervision, 

◉ Implement and monitor security measures of communication system, 

◉ Install, configure, and update the security software applications, 

◉ Responsible for network security, network intrusion detection, 

◉ Responsible for handling the information security 

◉ Responsible for maintaining COOP/Disaster Recovery plans 

◉ Responsible for protecting private networks 

◉ Need to operate an electronic key management system 

◉ Take steps to ensure privacy from threats and malware 

◉ Need to develop government-approved security policies.

Source: geeksforgeeks.org

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Impact of IoT on CyberSecurity

IoT deals with anything particularly related to the Internet. It is just like the extension of the Internet in the devices which we use daily. Aim of IoT is basically knowledge management, i.e to utilize a lot of data available for certain useful purposes. All the electronic devices are fitted with sensors having Internet connectivity, these sensors collect the data about their surroundings and communicate with each other making it possible for the device to remotely monitor and control each and every kind of data. This status is reported to the data stores where information is stored in the form of text videos or images that are then processed in analytical engines for making various deductions. Human and machine learning are the parts of analytic engines. IoT is aiming at seamless connectivity where devices constantly transform the way we live and work whether it may be a refrigerator or fitness watch everything and almost anything related to the Internet comes under IoT.

Read More: 312-38: Certified Network Defender (CND)

A huge amount of data is stored in the cloud and this kind of confidential business data that may be hacked by hackers can cause the company to bear huge losses in certain situations. Cloud protection is a very serious matter of concern, for hackers will exploit loopholes in software for their own benefit. There will be a considerable need of web developers and cyber experts who may handle such critical threats because in the future if IOT is very huge as more and more devices are being connected to the internet every day. Challenges with cybersecurity involve device security, data security, and protection of individual’s privacy.

◉ The aftermath of these cyberattacks may be very dangerous as it may lead to loss of very private and important data like bank details and passwords that may lead to various bank scams resulting in economic damage.

◉ Cyber-attacks also damage the reputation of companies as a trustful relationship is not possible between two companies or between the company and their customers because customers then consider the company unworthy of their trust as they could not handle their information properly resulting in further loss in customers and profits.

◉ If a person in charge of managing customer data has failed somehow allowing their data to be leaked, they must suffer legally.

◉ If the data involves information regarding people of a country and is managed by a company based in another country, things may even escalate to a level that may result in increased global tensions.

Various ways to tackle security problems are:

◉ Maintenance of accurate data of all IoT devices their lifecycle and characteristics which help us to prevent a certain level of risk.

◉ Identification of all possible software and firmware threats so that loopholes may be anticipated and corrected timely.

◉ Providing restricted access to data helps it to be more secure.

◉ The monitoring of devices can also take place that helps us to identify any malicious activity happening on a device.

◉ Frequent backup of data with regular updation in software can also protect us from facing potential consequences of cyber-attack.

In near future, we can see a lot of scope for web developers and cyber experts in IoT also leading to the creation of certain new job titles. The demand for such professionals would be unimaginable in the coming times for IoT plans to grow exponentially in the years ahead.

Source: geeksforgeeks.org

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Difference between Software Security and Cyber Security

1. Software Security:

Software Security, as name suggests, is type of security used to protect or secure program from malicious attack or hacking. Types of software attacks include viruses, bugs, cookies, password attack, malware attack, buffer overflow, spoofing, etc. Absolute, Norton, McAfee, etc., are some popular companies that manages software security. It simply ensures that software continues to function and are safe from attacks.

2. Cyber Security:

Cyber Security, as name suggests, is a type of security used to protect systems, network and programs against unauthorized access or attack. It is also known as computer security or information security. Types of cyber-attack includes Trojan horses, brute-force attacks, insider threats, SQL injection, ransomware attacks, etc. Accenture, Cisco, Centrify, Transmit Security, etc., are some popular companies that manages cyber security. It is of three types: Cloud security, application security, and network security.

Difference between Software Security and Cyber Security :

Software Security	Cyber Security
It is process of providing security to software against malicious attack and other hackers risks.	It is a process of providing security to computer systems and networks from attack, damage, and unauthorized access.
It is important because it helps to prevent viruses and malwares that allows program to run quicker and smoother.	It is important because it include everything that can be done to protect confidential data, PII (Personally identifiable information), PHI (Protected health information), personal data, etc.
Its process includes designing, creating, and testing security software.	Its process includes risk management, network security, monitoring, managing user privileges, malware protection.
It is especially designed to make software systems free of vulnerabilities and impervious to attack as possible.	It is especially designed to protect network, devices, programs, and data from attack, damage, or unauthorized access.
Its main aim is to develop more-robust, higher-quality, and defect-free software that simply continues to function properly and correctly.	Its main aim is to prevent or mitigate or reduce harm and defend computing assets against all threat actors throughout entire life cycle of cyber-attack.
Its activities include secure software design, developing secure coding guidelines for developers to follow, secure coding that follows established guidelines, developing secure configuration procedures and standards for deployment phase, etc.	Its activities include protecting and securing data, protecting information technology, discovering threats, removing unwarranted data, ensuring confidentiality and server availability, etc.
It deals with only small piece of software that is usually uploaded to one computer of system at a time.	It deals with larger-scale network or entire cybernetic interweb or digital marketplace.
Its domain protects only system or mechanism it is attached to such as computer it is attached to, integrity of files, confidentiality of files, etc.	Its domain protects each and everything within cyber realm such as software, data, code, technology, hardware, information both digital and analog, etc.
Tools used for software security includes antivirus protection, antimalware, antispyware, data encryption software, etc.	Tools used for cyber security includes firewalls, behavior-monitoring layers, online back-up systems, network-based restrictions, etc.
It is less versatile as compared to cyber security.	It is more versatile because it protects more digital architecture as compared to software security.

Source: geeksforgeeks.org

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