Cyber Security
CyberSecurity has become an indispensable field in our world, due to the need for it to address cyber-attacks and crimes, which cost the world in 2020 only $945 billion, or nearly a trillion dollars.
There is a cyber attack that occurs every 45 seconds somewhere in the world, and experts expect that this year more than 6 trillion will be paid in various cyber security sectors… whether by governments, companies or even individuals.
In this article, we will provide you with all the information you need to know about Cyber Security; Starting from its definition, history, importance, types, and even different types of cyber attacks, hackers.
Definition of Cyber Security
Like all broad and general concepts that include many domains and goals, cybersecurity does not have a single definition that everyone agrees on.
But we can say that cyber security is: all practices and techniques that aim to protect various electronic devices, networks, computer systems and data from being exposed to any kind of malicious attacks, whatever their nature and purpose.
And we can understand this through the name only. Cyber Security consists of two parts, the first: Security, which refers to protection, and the other, Cyber, which refers to systems, networks, devices, and data.
CyberSecurity is significantly different from Information Security, despite the frequent confusion between them. Information security is a larger and more general concept, and it is concerned with protecting information from any penetration or manipulation, whether electronic or not.
We will soon discuss the difference between cyber and information security in detail in a single article, where we will delve deeper into the definition of Information Security.
History of Cyber Security
Cybersecurity is much older than some people think – even specialists among them – as its beginning does not go back to the eighties or the nineties, but rather dates back to the late forties, specifically to the year 1949.
This year, the Hungarian-American scientist John von Neumann predicted that computer software could replicate or reproduce itself.
18 years later, the first hack in history occurred, where a group of high school students used their computers, but at that time they were allowed to access a limited part of the system, but they learned the computer language and were able to access the entire system.
In the seventies, Bob Thomas invented the first virus in history, which was called Creeper, and he navigates the system and prints the phrase “I’M THE CREEPER: CATCH ME IF YOU CAN” and translates it as “I’M THE CREEPER: Catch me if you can.”
Then came the famous programmer Ray Tomlinson, the inventor of e-mail, and he invents the first anti-virus program, Reaper, or the reaper, which is also the first program that can copy and reproduce itself, and the goal was to eliminate the Creeper virus.
In the late seventies, Kevin Mitnick, one of the world’s most famous hackers, at the age of 16, hacked the computer of a software company and made several copies of its software, and was eventually arrested and imprisoned as the perpetrator of one of the first cyber attacks.
In 1986, German hacker Markus Hess hacked into military computers belonging to the US Department of Defense, and was about to sell sensitive and confidential data to the KGB, had he not been arrested.
As for network and Internet viruses; The first was the Morris worm, which in 1988 infected about 10% of the devices connected to the Internet around the world.
Thus, the development of cyber-attacks and cyber-crime continued, and with it the development of cyber-security until we reached the progress and complexity that we live in today.
The importance of cyber security
In the digital world we live in today, cybersecurity is as important as military defense systems. Sophisticated cyber attacks can cause damage that wars cannot afford, whether economic or even human.
Today we rely on computers and the Internet for almost everything; Starting with financial transactions and organizing traffic and aviation, in addition to controlling the electricity, water and sewage networks, and even the medical and treatment system.
Any defect, penetration, manipulation or suspension caused by electronic attacks will have unreasonable catastrophic damage to countries and individuals, and this is what makes countries and institutions develop cyber security technologies, and spend huge money on this matter.
In the last ten years, there has been an increase in the amount of data that is used, saved and generated due to the Internet and the nature of modern life, so there is a great fear that hackers will obtain this important data.
This is what can be done with it; From money theft and exploitation, to misinformation and crowd manipulation as happened in the Cambridge Analytica and Facebook scandal.
Cybersecurity is no longer only important for giant organizations and countries, but has become necessary for ordinary individuals and medium and even small companies, hundreds of these medium and small companies go bankrupt or at least suffer huge losses every year due to cyber attacks.
Types of Cyber Security
Cyber Security is a very broad field with many smaller areas that we can call types of cyber security.
There are a lot of these types of cybersecurity, and it is very difficult to list them all, but we will mention the most famous and important ones:
1. Network Security
Network security is the branch of cyber security that secures computer networks from any penetration, attack, tampering, or even misuse, whether the attack is from internal or external parties using software or hardware tools.
2. Application Security
Application security is a branch of cybersecurity that protects software and hardware from any malicious threats through continuous updating and development of applications to be secure against any attack, and this process starts from the design and coding stage and continues after the applications are launched.
3. Identity Management
This type of cyber security aims to determine the level of access allowed to each employee in a company, organization or government, and to certify their identity in order to prevent hacking or identity fraud.
4. Data Security
Data security is a branch that has increased in importance in the past years due to big data , and it applies data storage mechanisms to ensure data privacy and security both during storage and exchange.
5. Operational Security
It is a field of cybersecurity that includes making decisions, protecting and dealing with data and its assets, as it is the one who makes decisions when any party attempts to connect to the network and store, share or access data.
6. Cloud Security
Cloud security is a very important branch and its importance has increased with the rise of computing and cloud storage , and it is concerned with protecting data stored on the virtual environment or the cloud.
7. Mobile Security
Mobile security is the branch of cybersecurity that is responsible for protecting and maintaining data stored on phones and mobile devices; Be it personal or corporate from unauthorized access, malware or even loss or theft of devices.
8. Disaster Recovery
disaster recovery or business continuity planning; It is the part of cyber security that deals with the response of organizations to cyber attacks or cyber crimes.
As it deals with the loss of data or interruption of the operational process resulting from these attacks and crimes to return the company or organization to its operational capacity.
9. User Education
This important branch deals with the human side of the insurance process, as it educates people about everything they need to maintain the security of the devices and networks they use, as 95% of data breaches are due to the human factor.
Cyber Security Objectives (CIA Model)
The ultimate goal of cyber security is to secure devices, networks, and information, and preserve them against any hack or attacks of any kind, but this is not enough to bring the concept closer and set security standards even for cyber security experts.
That’s why they created the CIA model or the CIA triangle that combines the three basic concepts of cybersecurity: Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability.
Here is an explanation of each of these concepts:
1. Confidentiality
Confidentiality is synonymous with privacy, the goal of which is to prevent any unauthorized access to data, information and devices. Only people with powers can access them.
Confidentiality means allowing authorized people to access data and devices and preventing hackers or other people from accessing it. Examples of technologies used in this matter are: data encryption.
2. Safety or Integrity
Integrity is the concept of protecting and maintaining accurate and peaceful data from any unauthorized modification or alteration by any hacker or person who does not have the authority to do so.
This concept deals with the data, whether it is stored or transmitted, so that it prevents its corruption or manipulation through tools to detect any change that occurs in the data.
3. Availability
This concept is related to making data always available, available and usable at any time by those who have the authority to do so, it ensures that the system is not obstructed or disrupted by various attacks.
The concept is also related to making repairs and continuous development of the operating system as well as the ability to function after attacks or natural disasters.
Types of cyber attacks
Cybersecurity is responsible for dealing with various threats, including cyber attacks or cybercrimes, which are the exploitation of a vulnerability in the system or network in order to perform an unauthorized or malicious act.
These cyber attacks have many types, but before we talk about them in detail, we need to understand the different types of threats and know where the cyber attacks are.
There are several threats that Cyber Security is concerned about:
1. Threats and natural disasters: such as earthquakes, volcanoes, storms, torrential rains, fires and temperature changes, these things can lead to a decrease in the effectiveness of the operational process, complete disruption, data loss, and other risks.
2. Unintended threats: They are unintended errors caused by the human factor, whether due to lack of awareness and competence or any wrong practices, and they can be overcome by using awareness, training and continuous development.
3. Threats to the surrounding environment: This means the effects of the environment in which the devices are placed and in which operations are carried out, and such threats are modernization in factories, nuclear reactors, or any place where chemical or radiological hazards affect electronics.
4. Intentional or intentional threats: These are the threats we call Cyber Attacks or Cybercrimes, which we will discuss in detail now.
Cyber attacks can be divided into two main types, namely:
- Systems-based attacks.
- Web-based attacks.
Here is an explanation of each of them:
First: Systems-based attacks
System attacks are attacks that are carried out by malicious software in order to damage, destroy, or perform an unauthorized act on the users’ systems.
Perhaps these attacks are among the most popular and widely used, and they are divided according to the malware used as follows:
1. Viruses
Viruses are among the most famous malicious software used and common in attacks and cybercrime, which are pieces of code capable of re-manufacturing and copying themselves, and the goal behind them is to steal data, damage devices, or infect all device files and devices connected to it without the user’s knowledge.
2. Worms
Worms are a type of malicious software that moves from one device to another without human knowledge and without any human intervention, and does not need another program or code in order to damage or steal data.
3. Trojans
Trojan or Trojan horse is a frequently used malicious software, and it is in the form of a program or tool, but when you download and install it, it begins to steal or corrupt the data of the device or do any other actions that harm your device or the network you are using.
4. Ransomwares
Ransomware is a well-described malware that infects millions of devices annually. It is malicious software that encrypts user files and data on their device, and usually requires a ransom in order to decrypt this encryption.
5. Adwares
Adware is annoying malicious software that spreads ads on your device with the aim of making profit from your viewing of these ads.
6. Spywares
Spyware is a type of malicious software that records user data and various activities on the device or system, and one of the most famous things it does is record credit card data and use it afterwards and withdraw money from it.
7. Botnets
Botnets are a group of Internet-related malware that allow cybercriminals to take control of your device and gain access to all of your data.
Second: Web-based attacks
Web attacks are the second type of electronic attacks, and they have many types, the most important of which are:
1. Injection Attacks
Injection attacks are a type of electronic attack in which some data is injected into a web application with the aim of manipulating it and extracting, modifying or erasing the required information, and it has many types, such as:
- SQL injection, which is the most common type of injection attack.
- Code injection.
- Log injection.
- XML injection.
2. Phishing
Phishing or phishing attacks are a well-known type of cyber attack, where the hacker pretends to be a trusted person or entity such as a bank or your business partner, whether through phone calls, text messages or email.
The hacker does this with the aim of persuading you to do a certain action or extracting sensitive information from you, such as: secret numbers, credit card data, or others.
3. Brute Force Attacks
Blind force attack is one of the traditional attacks that depend on trial and error, this attack depends on the experience of the hacker for all possibilities in order to enter a password or a PIN number in order to gain access to someone’s confidential data.
4. Denial of Service
Denial of service is an electronic attack in which the hacker can make the network or server unavailable to users, and this is usually done by deceiving the network or server with fake activities, such as: traffic or fake information until the network or server fails.
There are several types of denial-of-service attacks, the most famous of which are:
- Volume-based Attacks.
- Protocol Attacks.
- Application layer attacks.
5. DNS Spoofing Attacks
Impersonation attacks are cyber attacks in which the DNS – the Domain Name System – which converts domain names into IP addresses, is manipulated so that the traffic is transmitted to the hacker’s computer or any other computer.
The problem with these attacks is that they may not be detected until long after they have occurred, or after they cause major problems.
6. Man-in-the-middle Attack or MITM Attacks
A man-in-the-middle attack is a type of cyber attack in which the hacker intercepts a conversation or data transmission between two parties, and this attack enables him to obtain sensitive information and manipulate the responses between the two parties.
Of course, these are not all cyber attacks, they cannot be limited to one article, and there are new types of cyber attacks that appear every once in a while.
Types of hackers or hackers
You may be a bit surprised by this title, but there are several types of hackers who carry out attacks and cybercrime, and they are categorized according to their motives into:
1. Cyber Criminals
CyberCriminals or Black-Hat Hackers are the hackers or hackers that we all know, who carry out cyber attacks with the aim of making profits, stealing sensitive data from organizations or even obtaining personal data of some individuals.
2. White-Hat Hackers
White hat hackers or ethical hackers are security analysts who detect, prevent and address problems created by cybercriminals.
3. Hacktivists
Human rights hackers are another type of hackers who carry out cyber attacks because of their political ideas, human rights activism, or even religious belief, and they carry out these cyber crimes not for profit, but for their own causes.
4. State-sponsored Attacker
Recruited hackers are people who carry out cyber attacks due to political or military motives. They are hackers who are employed by governments and countries in order to fight each other electronically.
Here, my friend, we have finished our article about cybersecurity and the most important information about it, but we have not yet finished this topic that is full of details.. where we will successively address a lot of detailed articles on cybersecurity.
So, follow us during the coming period, and share with us the comments about the most important detailed points in cybersecurity, to which you would like to dedicate articles
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