How many types of Cyber Security are there?
Nuno Soares
Business Adviser for Tech Business Owners | Coach | Mentor | NED | Author | Speaker | LifeShifter Coach Expert | Get your LifeShift Plan
Cyber Security?is an important aspect of any business’s IT infrastructure. It ensures your operations are protected from cyber threats and data breaches. Cyber security is an umbrella term for many practices and methods used to protect computer systems. Some types of cyber security are more important to certain types of businesses than others.
In this article, we’ll be exploring how many different types of cyber security, and how they are vital to keeping your business’s operations secure.
Critical Infrastructure Security
Critical Infrastructure Security (CIS) is cyber security at the highest level. It describes the methods used to keep the physical and cyber system countries or even global society running. Attacks on the critical infrastructure of governments could have a devastating on public, economic and physical security.
Any measures in place to protect the systems providing essential services fall under critical infrastructure. In the UK, there are 13 sectors regarded as national infrastructure:
The security of these is monitored by Lead Government Departments.
These LCGs, or the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure, conduct assessments and provide advice to companies about how to invest resources to improve security. This includes both before and after an event and improving recovery after a cyber security breach.
?Businesses operating in these sectors and handle critical infrastructure and services should familiarise themselves with the role of their LGD. They should also review advice from those responsible for improving Critical Infrastructure Security.
Application Security
Application security refers to the security measures built into applications. This is used to fix security vulnerabilities and prevent any unauthorised data access. This is especially important during the development stages of an application.
Ensuring tight application security during the development of apps and products is vital for keeping your customer's data safe.
Businesses and consumers rely on your products to operate safely. Poor application security can result in damaging consequences for consumer trust and brand image.
Many apps lack the basic level of security to prevent criminals from breaching sensitive data. Security firm Veracode found that 76% of all apps they tested had at least one security vulnerability. A whopping 26% having a catastrophic flaw in their security design.
There are two main approaches to improving application security, this is testing and shielding.
Testing
Testing or a security audit aims to expose any security vulnerability so it can be patched before an app goes live.
In static application security testing, engineers use security tools to analyse sections of code. They do this to find unintentional security gaps during development. However, dynamic application security testing involves mimicking cyber threats. This is to see how well the application would respond to them.
Shielding
In shielding, developers use tools like encryption, threat detection and firewalls to protect applications and databases from cyber-attacks.
Network Security
Network Security refers to the tools and tactics put in place to protect networks from threats like data breaches, authorised access, and damage. Full network security protection is vital for businesses to keep their networks and shared storage secure.
Some of the most rudimentary implementations of network security come in the form of access control and password protection. Modifying access permissions for your critical data helps reduce the chance of any internal data breaches. The most sensitive or damaging information should be kept behind a secure password.
User accounts for employees should implement stringent password policies. You should also require regular password resets. Two-factor authentication?should be used to ensure criminals can’t access your company’s network, even if they gain access to employee’s login information.
Anti-virus and anti-malware programs are important to quash a wide range of cyber-attacks. According to research, 92% of malware is delivered by email, so email filters and threat detection should be used. You may want to consider blocking emails or attachments from outside the organization altogether.
Internet browsing filters should be used to ensure employees aren't downloading files with malware. Firewalls should also be used to monitor network traffic and block any security threats.
Cloud Security
Cloud Security involves the use of tools and policies to protect your cloud resources and data. While the use of cloud services like cloud storage increases data security by introducing location redundancy, as the data is controlled over the Internet, it can introduce more opportunities for data breaches. Unsecure APIs, poor password management or traffic hijacking could lead to data loss when using cloud services.
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A large proponent of cloud security is the choice of your cloud provider. Businesses should perform due diligence on their cloud provider options, ensuring they're selecting firms that take their cloud security seriously. Often providers offering ‘too good to be true’ prices don’t do enough to protect your data from cyber-attacks. Providers should be independently audited by security firms before being considered by SMBs.
Businesses should also use tools like two-factor authentication and password policies to prevent unauthorised access to their cloud data. Many cloud services are breached through social engineering attacks like phishing. Therefore, employees should be trained to spot signs of illegitimate access attempts.
Internet of Things (IoT) Security
Internet of Things Security refers to the tools and practices used to protect connected devices and devices using the IoT from cyber threats. Devices affected include appliances, smart sensors, televisions, network routers, printers, and security cameras. Common vulnerabilities in the IoT sector include poor application program interface (API) integration and lack of industry foresight.
During the design and development process of IoT devices, designers should consider possible threats and safeguard their products from them. Application security tools like dynamic application security testing are vital here. For example, a security audit should expose any issues with APIs giving criminals too much access to device functions.
As IoT devices are controlled by the Internet and local networks, stringent network security is important to ensure IoT security. These steps include firewalls, disabling port forwarding and using intrusion detection systems. This will ensure your network is secure before using IoT-enabled devices.
Disaster Recovery
Disaster Recovery Security defines the policies, procedures and tools used to help businesses recover from cyber-attacks and IT disasters. Businesses should assume a cyber-attack is inevitable and perform risk assessments for common risk points and vulnerabilities. This will help ensure best practice is followed in the case of a disaster.
Through the use of detailed Disaster Recovery Plans (DRPs), businesses seek to redirect available resources. This includes rebuilding IT systems, restoring data and ensuring business continuity following disasters.
Key points in this plan should be:
Data recovery tools can be used to attempt to recover any vital data lost. IT support firms can help facilitate data rollbacks from previous backups. Any damaged hard drives can be sent to professional data recovery vendors in an attempt to salvage any company files and sensitive data.
Businesses should consult IT and data security specialists when devising disaster recovery plans. A poor plan could cost businesses ￡10,000’s in lost productivity and hardware damage.
Website Security
To ensure websites are kept online and data is secured, good website security aims to protect public-facing websites. Cyber-attacks like denial-of-service (DoS) on sites could cause costly website downtime and lost business. While cyber-vandalism could tarnish your brand image.
Websites should use secure DNS (domain name servers) to protect from redirect attacks. Any DNS and domain registrar logins should be secure with two-factor authentication. This will help keep criminals out of your DNS settings.
Businesses should run threat detection and penetration tests regularly to find any threats and vulnerabilities. Any user accounts like WordPress logins should be secured with two-factor authentication.
Secure data encryption protocols like HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) and HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS). Personal and financial data should never be transmitted over unencrypted HTTP.
To reduce data loss, websites should be backed up regularly. Any web applications and plugins used should be updated and inspected for safety. Web servers powering public-facing sites should have the necessary network security protection.
Endpoint Security
Endpoint Security ensures their organisation’s end-user devices like workstations, laptops and mobile devices are secured. This will help reduce security damage on the organisation’s IT system as a whole. Endpoint security is important as these devices are access points into your computer network. Any cyber threat on one device could cause spread to others and cause further damage.
Using anti-virus and anti-malware software on all devices can help stamp out any cyber threats. Enforcing policies like no external storage devices or Internet downloads can be an overkill solution. However, business-critical devices may benefit from the added protection.
Network administrators should use tools to monitor the devices connected to the network. This will help prevent any unsecured or unauthorised devices from accessing your network.
Endpoint security is the most familiar type of cyber security to most users. Apps like BitDefender, Norton, AVG and Avast are all examples of endpoint security tools.
Let’s improve your Cyber Security Together
Keeping your business safe from cyber threats is vital to secure your business and avoid costly IT disasters. Get in touch with us today at Clear IT Solutions to explore which types of cyber security applies to your organisation.
Get a Free IT Audit today and let our security experts identify what steps you need to take to ensure complete cyber security.