The year 2000 has a technological breakthrough that present electronic gadgets are inspired by. During this period, people saw the convenience of transferring files like phone numbers, music, pictures through infrared, and Bluetooth. It was not long ago since Apple Inc. Founder Steve Jobs launched the iPod, the transition of floppy disks to USB flash drives, camera phones, and even operating systems like Windows XP. The technology from the past two decades led us to today. However, attackers exploit the vulnerability of the users luring, creating almost identical websites, and making them provide sensitive information resulting in negative consequences such as financial damage, customer loss, and the company’s public relations.
What Does Cybersecurity Do?
Cybersecurity applies stages of protection on computers, applications, programs, and data to guard information. It has the principle of a collective effort from people, policies, processes, and technology to create a defense that minimizes cyber attacks, malicious activities, and protection against unauthorized use of networks and systems.
Cybersecurity can generate courses of action that the system may identify, apply protection, detection, respond to, and recover. With these principles, people as users must be aware to change their passwords regularly, data backups, and check the websites they are engaging in. Meanwhile, policies and processes are created by an organization to deal with attempts of cyber attacks and apply systems that will prevent them from happening again. The technology provides security tools to the organization to protect it from the attacks such as the installation of firewalls, malware protection, and security solutions.
The Common Types of Cybersecurity Threats
Malware is known as malicious software that is designed to harm devices and exploit its system. There are types of malware namely viruses that slow down the computer and steal information. The worms target the bandwidth and disk space that can be used to attack other systems. Meanwhile, trojans appear as legitimate websites to steal data. Spyware, on the other hand, gathers information without the users’ knowledge by tracking the activities and controlling the computer. Malware can spread through email attachments, downloaded software, and infected websites.
Phishing is commonly found in emails that seem from legitimate sources. It steals information when users log their sensitive information such as bank details and credit card numbers.
Ransomware is also a type of malware that blocks access to files, networks, and computer systems until the ransom is paid. Although the users paid the ransom, it does not guarantee access to the system.
Social Engineering is almost similar to ransomware but it gathers information through fake calls and shows concern to earn the trust of users to give sensitive information.
The Importance of Cybersecurity
The convenience of today’s technology allows its users to multi-task from work, business, and personal errands. However, the lack of cybersecurity awareness risks the users becoming the prey of cyber attackers that can result in the loss of important data including personal, and highly-confidential files of the company.
Studies showed that in 2020, cybersecurity threats are estimated to cost $6 trillion and increased more during the pandemic. To reduce the risks of cyber threats and cyber attacks, users must raise awareness of these threats, while companies and organizations must implement security operations in case of attacks.
Comments