Cyber-security - An Introduction
What is cyber-security?
Cyber-security is sometimes called information security. It is the term used to include the knowledge, tools and best practices that relate to protecting the computers, communications networks, programs and data that make our digital lives possible. The Sophos Threatsaurus is a useful compendium of terminology in this field.
We do so much online these days - we obtain information, news reports, letters from utilities and financial institutions, communicate with friends and relatives, do our banking, shopping, booking holidays, taxis and outings, many of us working and/or studying via our computers. This means that many aspects of our lives are 'online' and because of all of this criminals are very active in cyberspace.
We hear of large-scale cyber-security breaches because they make the headlines but these are a very small percentage of security incidents are kept quiet to avoid bad publicity. You can be assured that there are many thousands of cyber-attacks every hour.
What can we do?
We each have a responsibility to install our own security measures and to report cyber-security events as they arise. This will help to protect the services we use from being maliciously disrupted or misused.
We also need to check the validity of any information we find online before accepting it as 'true' and 'speading misinformation'. There is so much 'false news' out there.
It is useful to be aware of the types of scams that are circulating. For your own protection you need to be aware of how easily fraudulent websites can be set up, and to become very wary of responding to unsolicited e-mails or clicking on links within an email.
Phishing attacks have proved to be the most disruptive and expensive breaches of security - these 'phish' in order to obtain details about you that can be used to access your financial accounts.
How many security breaches are there each year?
Governments regularly publish surveys of cyber security breaches. For example: The UK government has surveyed UK businesses and charities to find out how they approach cyber security and gain insight into the cyber security issues faced by organisations. The research informs government policy on cyber security and how government works with industry to make the UK one of the most secure places to do business online.
As well as Government reports there are reports from specialist security firms as to just how many breaches of security they detect per year. These companies provide virus protection, so you may well buy your virus protection software from themand therefore think that they exaggerate the problem to get you to 'employ them'.
TrendMicro Sophos Norton McAffee
Statista is a business that focuses on collecting and presenting statistics on a huge variety of subjects - they are not touting for your business so it is easier to believe their data is 'true'.
