As a widely accepted definition of cybersecurity, it can be described as the collection of methods, technologies, and processes aimed at maintaining or ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of computer systems, networks, and data when they are vulnerable to cyber-attacks or unauthorized access. There are many reasons why cybersecurity is important to an organization, but the main purpose is to protect all its assets from both external and internal threats, as well as disruptions caused by natural disasters.

 Cybersecurity postures are reliant on coordination across all organizational information systems because organizational assets are made up of multiple disparate systems.

The Importance And Challenges Of Cybersecurity

 With the rapidly advancing technological landscape, as well as the rapid adoption of software across a wide range of industries, including finance, government, military, retail, hospitals, education, and energy, more and more information is becoming digital and accessible via wireless and wired digital communication networks, as well as the omnipresent internet. Criminals and evil-doers are very interested in this highly sensitive information, so it is essential to protect it with strong cybersecurity measures and processes.

 Organizations such as Equifax, Yahoo, and the U.S. Government have recently suffered high-profile security breaches that demonstrate the importance of good cybersecurity strategies. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which lost extremely sensitive user information, causing irreparable damage to its reputation and finances. According to the trend, cyber-attacks are on the rise. Every day, attackers target companies, big and small, to obtain sensitive information or disrupt operations.

Cybersecurity strategies also face challenges as a result of the same evolving technological landscape. Every time software is updated or modified, it introduces new issues and vulnerabilities and opens it up to a variety of cyber-attacks.

Furthermore, IT infrastructure is evolving as well, with many companies migrating their on-premise systems to the cloud, introducing a whole new set of design and implementation issues that create a whole new category of vulnerabilities. Often, companies are unaware of the various risks within their IT infrastructure and fail to implement cybersecurity countermeasures until it is too late.

Types of Cybersecurity

Every organization’s assets are a combination of different systems. All of these systems have a strong cybersecurity posture that requires coordinated efforts across them. As a result, cybersecurity can be divided into the following subdomains:

Network Security

A computer network is secured by implementing hardware and software to prevent unauthorized access, intruders, attacks, disruptions, and misuse. An organization can use this security to protect its assets from external and internal threats.

Application Security

Software and devices are protected from unwanted threats. Keeping apps up-to-date can ensure they are secure from attacks. Security begins in the design stage, with source code, validation, threat modeling, etc., before a program or device is implemented.

Information or Data Security

There is a need to implement a robust data storage mechanism in order to maintain the integrity and privacy of data, both while it is stored and when it is in transit.

Identity Management

Within an organization, it has to do with determining the level of access to each individual within that organization.

Operational Security

The activity involves the processing of and the making of decisions regarding the handling and security of data assets.

Mobile Security

A mobile device security program involves protecting data stored on mobile devices such as cell phones, computers, tablets, and other similar devices against various malicious threats. These threats are unauthorized access, device loss or theft, malware, etc.

Cloud Security

 Specifically, it involves the protection of the company’s information stored within the organization’s digital environment or cloud architectures in order to ensure data security. AWS, Azure, Google, etc., are some of the cloud service providers that the company uses to ensure security against multiple threats.

Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning

 This process is concerned with processes, monitoring, alerting, and plans for how an organization responds if any malicious activity occurs which results in the loss of operations or data as a result of any malicious activity. In accordance with its policies, after a disaster, the company is to resume operations in the same capacity as they were before the disaster took place.

User Education

 This process is concerned with processes, monitoring, alerting, and plans for how an organization responds if any malicious activity occurs which results in the loss of operations or data as a result of any malicious activity. In accordance with its policies, after a disaster, the company is to resume operations in the same capacity as they were before the disaster took place.