What is cyber security?

when coming to cyber security people often think of a virus, IT, or the internet. Some people will say as long as we have a firewall we are fine. Some people will talk about passwords like how long and how complex your password should be some people will mention data protection or encryption.

And of course, many people will talk about hackers because they are on the news almost every day. All of these are right, but we need a complete picture of cyber security.

What is cyber security?

There's an old story of blind men and an elephant a group of blind men has never known an elephant. They try to tell what the elephant is like by touching it then they claim the elephant is like a rope, a fin, a snake, a wall, or some other things based on which body part They put their hands on.

it is just like when people are talking about cyber security, people will say cyber security is about the virus, IT, internet, firewall, data, encryption, or hacker based on their own experience.

So here I want to give you a big picture of cyber security the complete picture of this elephant, of course, it's not an absolute answer different books, curriculums or organizations may explain it differently, and the security industry also involves very fast with new technologies, concepts and models added. Cybersecurity right now is often used as one word to fully understand it We need to separate it into two words cyber and security.

What is cyber?

We are living in a physical world just look around you are in the room sitting by a table having something to drink but we are also living in a digital world at the same time the word cyber originally means computer networks for example internet but we now associate cyber with critical elements in the digital world. So what do we have in this digital world or the cyber world?

Devices

We usually refer to devices as computers For example laptops, desktops, and servers. They also include billions of internet of things (IoT) used in smart homes, industrial control systems, and autonomous cars.

Communication

communication allows devices to talk to each other nowadays, If your laptop cannot access the internet it is almost useless like ethernet, wi-fi, Bluetooth, 5g. These communication technologies empower the connected cyber world to produce real value.

Systems

what is running on devices all kinds of systems for example operating systems like windows, Linux, ios, android, and application systems like CRM, accounting, e-commerce, and games?

Information

systems will produce a lot of data like documents, Audio, videos logs customer records. This data can then be further transformed and analyzed to provide information and intelligence.

So these are the four main elements of the cyber world. We have billions of devices connected through communication protocols run various systems and produce numerous information.

What is security?

simply put it's about protection. So cyber security is about protecting the cyber world. But what exactly do we need to do? We need to protect three things

Confidentiality

It's about protecting your read privilege. For example, your credit card number is confidential you don't want others to know about it without your permission.

Integrity

It's about protecting your right to privilege. For example, if you have one thousand dollars in your bank account, You don't want others to change it to 900 without your permission.

Availability

is about protecting your access privilege. For example, if you want to check your emails at night, You don't want to see an error message saying the mail server is down.

Now, you should know what cyber is and what security is let's put them together.

What is cyber security?

in a nutshell, it is to protect confidentiality, integrity, and availability of the cyber world. If you want to get more specific you can have:

device security protects confidentiality, integrity, and availability of devices, like computers, phones, and IoT.

communication security protects confidentiality, integrity, and availability of communications, like ethernet, wi-fi, 5g.

system security protects the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of systems, like windows, Linux, and web applications.

information security protects confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information, like documents, logs, and databases.