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What Is Cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity has become a buzzword in today’s world with the growing status of tech companies and our dependence on their services. People have become that bit much more concerned about how safe they are on the internet, information wise.
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Now cybersecurity means slightly different things to different categories of “netizens” but broadly speaking can be translated to mean protocols that are employed to defend network servers, devices, electronic systems and data from malicious attacks. Now this applies whether the end-user here is an individual, business or government. There are different categories to cybersecurity: Network security refers to the protection of a network of computers from malware and malicious intruders. Application security is targeted at securing software against data breaches from intruders. Information security has to do with the protection of data integrity and privacy in storage and transit. Operational security refers to the protocols and decisions that are need for managing data. Distant recovery and business recovery refer to the response model or policy that guides how an organization responds to data loss or cybersecurity breach. Distant recovery is how an organization is supposed to recover the lost data and fixing the breach and business continuity refers to how a business or organization can continue its operations while fixing the problem. End-user education is the most important and yet tricky part of the cybersecurity. People could fall victim of attacks by just clicking a link unsuspectingly or plugging in an unknown USB flash drive. That could endanger an entire system even if they do not mean to.
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How Real Is The Threat?

Analysts have estimated that 7.9 billion data records were exposed in 2019 alone. That number more than doubled the 2018 number so the threat is real and growing rapidly. Experts say the threat is multiplying faster than the targets can even keep up with, hence, the need for end-user education. The prime targets seem to be institutions that have copious amounts of records on actual individuals. These are majorly financial institutions, medical facilities and public institutions. The projected spend on cybersecurity from governments and big organizations by the International Data Corporation is estimated to be $134 billion. Most of that figure will be going towards developing security frameworks for big data such as early detection and effective monitoring.

What Types Of Cyber Threats Are There?

There are many of them and they are steady evolving: Cybercrime: may include cyber-attacks (politically motivated info gathering) and cyber-terrorism (intent to cause fear and panic online and over networks). Malware: software created to disrupt or damage a network. The name is literally derived from “malicious software”. Source: Security Magazine Featured Image Source: Data Center Knowledge
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This article was first published on 21st January 2021 and updated on January 23rd, 2021 at 7:51 pm

david-okwara

Some call me David. Others, Emerie. Others, (unfortunate fellows) Biggie. I like to think that I have sense and that is why I write too. Otherwise, I draw and paint and sing (in the bathroom) and love to make people laugh. I love to understand how things work and that’s why I love DIY videos and YouTube of course. Follow me on Twitter @EmerieOkwara


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