With technology evolving at an exponential rate, it’s never been more important for organization's and individuals to bolster their cyber security practices. The incidence of cyber threats is rising year-on-year, costing trillions of dollars globally, so it’s no wonder cyber security professionals are in demand.
Understanding the basics of cyber security is the first step for anyone looking to enter the field. We’ve put together some cyber security fundamentals to get you on the path to a successful cyber security career.
The three concepts of cyber security
The foundation of cyber security basics lies in the CIA triad, which stands for confidentiality, integrity and availability. These three concepts of cyber security form the basis of protecting sensitive information and ensuring digital systems can operate securely.
1. Confidentiality
Within the CIA triad, ‘confidentiality’ refers to the assurance that data and information are accessible only to authorized persons. It involves strict security measures like encryption and access controls, which are deployed to prevent unauthorized access and data breaches.
2. Integrity
Integrity is all about keeping the data accurate and unaltered during transfers and storage. Any unauthorised modification or tampering with data will compromise its integrity, potentially leading to serious consequences.
3. Availability
Availability ensures that systems, data and resources are accessible and usable by authorised individuals around the clock. Protection against denial-of-service (DoS) attacks and system failures is crucial to maintaining availability.
Cyber security best practices
The best practices described below should be considered cyber security fundamentals, but they aren’t an exhaustive list. Instead, cyber professionals will need to continuously monitor and assess potential risks, stay informed about emerging threats and adapt best practices accordingly.
1. Strong passwords
Arguably the fundamental of cyber security is the use of strong, unique passwords. A strong password should include a combination of upper- and lower-case letters, numbers and special characters. The worst thing you can do is to use passwords with easily guessable information, such as birthdays or common words and numbers. It’s also important to use a different password for each account.
2. Regular software updates
Developers regularly release updates to their software that include security patches and address vulnerabilities and bugs. Enabling automatic updates for your operating systems and commonly used programs will protect against known exploits and potential cyber attacks.
3. Data backup
Data loss can happen for any number of reasons – ransomware attacks, hardware failures or even disasters like a fire or flood. Both individuals and organization's should have a robust data-backup strategy in place so you can always access critical information – even in the event of a cyber incident or system failure.
4. Network segmentation
Network segmentation involves dividing a network into smaller segments – or sub-networks – to limit the potential impact of a cyber attack. By isolating sensitive data and resources from the rest of the network, you can contain and mitigate the effects of any breach.