We are in a time where many businesses are moving towards a more technologically advanced workplace, which, in turn, calls for the need for better security. Failure to improve one’s security may lead to a loss in data or a breach in data. As technology continues to evolve, the cybercrime landscape does too. More and more threat actors are going to try and forcefully access your business’ data to make some cash for themselves, so to protect those valuable data you’re trying to keep safe, you need to start considering investing in a more advanced security system.
Different Types of Digital Security
Like butter goes perfectly well on bread, security is a necessity in pretty much everything in the world; the digital world is no exception. So before you grab your wallet and randomly start implementing all sorts of security in your business, let’s first talk about what each of those securities is and what they do. However, in this article, we will only be talking about information, cyber, and network security.
INFORMATION SECURITY
You’ve probably heard of the term “InfoSec” before. If you haven’t, InfoSec ensures that both your physical and digital data is going to be protected from any unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, inspection, recording, or destruction. Unlike cybersecurity, InfoSec aims to protect your digital and physical data; on the other hand, cybersecurity only protects your digital data. So, suppose you’re trying to develop a security program for your business. In that case, information security will be the first thing you should opt for since it is going to be the foundation of your business’s data security.
When creating your information security program, having a proper governance structure in place will be very helpful since it is the framework that ensures that the security strategies you’re going to be implementing are in line with your business goals and objectives.
Information security experts use what they refer to as the CIA (confidentiality, integrity, and availability) triad as a guide when developing policies and procedures for their security programs. The CIA triad ensures that information is accessible only to authorized people, data is accurate and trustworthy, and enables authorized people to access information when needed. The CIA triad also ensures that information and systems are protected, restricting unauthorized people from modifying them, and ensuring that all software and hardware are properly maintained and updated whenever necessary.
CYBERSECURITY
Cybersecurity, on the other hand, is a subset of information security. It is the practice of using different procedures, technologies, and processes to protect an organization’s networks, computers, and data against unwanted digital access, attack, or damage.
Social engineering (malicious activities done through human interaction) is a tactic that actors use to manipulate people into giving them access to the organization’s sensitive information. The most common social engineering tactics that threat actors do are phishing, pretexting, baiting, and quid pro quo (gifts, money, or free services).
As a business leader, it is one of your responsibilities to create a culture of security awareness in your team’s cybersecurity knowledge and understanding. Neglecting basic cybersecurity knowledge could be fatal to your business since threat actors often go for people outside of IT security. They tend to be less aware of various cyber threats and how to deal with them. Provide your employees with the necessary training and technology to strengthen your organization’s human firewall and mitigate the possibility of a cyberattack.
NETWORK SECURITY
Finally, we have network security, a subset of cybersecurity. Network security aims to protect any data sent from one device to another in your organization’s network. It ensures that no authorized personnel has tampered with or intercepted the sent information. Network security keeps the company’s IT infrastructure safe from cyber threats such as viruses, worms, trojan horses, zero-day attacks, hacker attacks, DoS (Denial of Service) attacks, spyware, and adware.
Network security teams implement the hardware and software necessary to guard your organization’s security architecture. Having the proper security network enables your system to detect emerging threats before infiltrating your organization’s network and compromising your data.
Firewalls, Anti-virus software, Intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS/IPS), and Virtual Private Networks (VPN) are the most common network security components.
Whenever your network security is compromised, the first thing that you should do is to get the attackers out as fast as possible. Allowing them to stay for an extended time will enable them to steal or destroy more of your private data, which is why it is a priority to get them out of your organization’s network as soon as possible.