Cyber security in the modern era

Cyber security is the safeguarding of computer systems and programs against theft and harm to their software, hardware, and data. It also includes safeguarding computer activities against disruption and diversion of the services they deliver. The increasing reliance on computers to hold information has highlighted the question and necessity for network security against cybercrime. As a result, both academics and information technology professionals have been working feverishly to address these concerns. As part of my cybersecurity research, my paper tries to explore what cybersecurity is all about, its benefits and challenges. Ways in which viruses get to the computers, various types of cybercrime and solution to the growing need for cyber insecurity (Singh, 2012).

According to Buchana, the need for faster access to information, research work and more secure of data and its accessibility anywhere any time led to the overgrowing use of the computer (2011). As a result, cyber activities expanded tremendously over time. In today’s world, technology has grown to the point that significant amount of information is being stored in the cyberspace. Also, is because of cyberspace storage that the people around the world get easier access to information as compared the ancient days, where work was cumbersome and challenging to do. Time before the late 20th century, gathering information was long and tedious since it revolved much only on book work research of which some of the books that the researchers would require from the library would take a couple of weeks before getting the (Buchanan, 2011)

In the current world, time, through the information technology sector and the cyber-generated activities, research has been made easier than in the olden days. Based on Singh’s argument, he contended that because of the improvement and the step that the world has made towards a computer and cyber activities issues, academic performance had increased a great deal over time (2012). For instance, if one wants to research on any given topic he or she would only need to get access to an internet, and he or she shall be done in her research work (Singh, 2012).

In as much as there is an improvement in the information and technology settings, internet users, organizations and the public have faced significant challenges related to cybersecurity. Of more concern, it has promoted internet-based criminal activities (Buchanan, 2011). To start with, the most prominent form of cybercrime is identity theft. Criminals use the internet to steal personal information from other internet users by either phishing and pharming (Buchanan, 2011).

The methods lure users to fake websites that appear to be legitimate but instead are trapped well set for them. In this technique, the internet users are asked to key in their personal information. The login credentials such as names, email addresses and passwords and much other relevant information such as credit card details are of much importance to the cyber thieves (Buchanan, 2011). Once this information gets fed into their malicious websites, the cybercrimes in many occasion to use them to access various accounts and get away with chunks of money and any other relevant information tailored to help the person in future (Buchanan, 2011).

With the rapid growth of the internet, network security has become a significant concern too. Also, cybercriminals make use of the vulnerabilities in computer software and networks to their advantage by hacking into various systems to obtain valuable information. (Lehto, 2013) Stated that cyber-hacking is the significant cybercrime activity today. In his argument, he noted that the hackers make use of the loopholes in operating systems to destroy data and still important information from victim’s computers. In his view, he stated that the cracking is customarily done with backdoor programs installed in one’s computer machines by cracking passwords and software. As a result, the hackers can monitor what is done within once computer and import essential information and files from one computer to another (Lehto, 2013).

Secondly, cyber theft has also become a challenge to many people in the current world. According to (Buchanan, 2011), he defined cyber robbery as the use of computers and communication systems to steal information in electronic format. His research on cyber theft seemed to clarify that hacker cracks into operations of banks and transfer money into their bank accounts. According to him, this forms the major problem of cyber theft; a significant amount of money can now be stolen and illegally transferred to unknown hackers account. Making even saving through banks to be trickier to most investors (Buchanan, 2011).

Besides, the absence of or inadequate provisions for, documentation and accesses control for computer installations, it has facilitated computer crime through cyber theft. Unauthorized access to software and hardware is becoming the most exclusive means of crime perpetration. With unauthorized access, it results in a criminal conspiracy, whereby two or more cyber gangs may commit a crime and goes unnoticed (Lehto, 2013). As a result, online security breaching which is also another cybersecurity challenge has been on the rise. Moreover, breaching can occur anywhere on the globe with most of these breaches done by falsifying personal information or even a violation of the security stemming from lack of proper security knowledge (Singh, 2012). There have also been many complaints about an alarming increase on the cybercrime activities over the internet, the police, information technology specialist, detectives and even the government is charged with the mandate to find a solution to these problems whenever they occur. The officials should always take significant actions against preventing major security breaches (Singh, 2012).

Because of the overgrowing use of the internet, cybersecurity issues has been compromised. According to Buchanan (2011), he argued out that, effective cybersecurity should reduce the risks of cyber-attacks and protect entities, organisation and individuals from the deliberate exploitation of systems, network and technologies. He farther argued that the consequences of cyber-attacks are usually intended to inflict damage or expropriate information from an individual, organizations and even public entity for theft. Unauthorized access to one’s personal information through the internet compromises one’s security and may result in considerable losses and damage to individual reputation (Buchanan, 2011).

Singh, argued that cybercriminals who are indiscriminate more often cause cybercrimes (2012). Whereby when they realize a weakness somewhere on the internet they will typically try to exploit it to maximise their profit and to get something home for their families. Because of the massive financial gains being made by the cyber gangs, cybercrime has become a multibillion-pound industry. Hence this act as culminated to many people working too had to become the best cyber hackers just earn money. As a result, cyber-attacks has become more complex, and organizations are struggling to keep up with the pace of change, of which they find it very difficult in catching up with the cyber gangs (Singh, 2012).

Cyber-attacks comes in various forms and are designed to not only target technological weakness such as the use of old applications by individuals and organizations. Cybercriminals use a variety of malware and vectors to attack their targets. Criminals have developed much malware, which acts as software designed to allow them to achieve their objectives in ways that they feel comfortable depending on the type of the cybercrime that they intend to perform (Horowitz & Lucero, 2017).

Ransomware is one of the malicious programs that the cyber hackers have put in place so that they achieve what they want. Ransomware is a malicious program that demands payment after launching a cyber-attack to your computer system, it becomes costly to remove, thus costing individuals and organization a lot of money each year trying to get rid of them (Horowitz & Lucero, 2017). Another category of malware is the virus which is a piece of code that can duplicate itself, manipulate files before spreading to other computers. Computer viruses can generate havoc within the computer operating systems. Once they cause this, companies and various organizations do suffer economic loses (“Applied Cyber-security and the Smart,” 2013). This is because the infections cost companies millions and dollars in time to repair an infected system. Major international policing organizations like Interpol have created departments to monitor and investigate cybercrimes by establishing Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC), which are currently specializing in internet crime. In general, computer viruses and s can be transferred to unsuspecting personal computers through a variety of formats. The virus can appear through an email, infected software, diskettes, affected CD/DVDs or computer documents (Horowitz & Lucero, 2017).

Moreover, cybercriminals have also developed worms, spyware, and Trojans. That they use alongside ransomware and viruses to attack significantly necessary credentials online. The worms are self-replicating and do not require a program file to be attached (“Applied Cyber-security and the Smart,” 2013). Instead, look for vulnerabilities and report to them once the weakness has been discovered. This gives them ample time to make their malicious attacks on various information that are stored in the cyberspace and other files stored in software. While Trojans, on the other hand, is usually, a program that tends to perform one function majorly virus removal but does perform malicious activities when executed (“Applied Cyber-security and the Smart,” 2013).

The cyber criminals do commit and infect other computers with a different range of malware; they have developed attack vectors such as social engineering, phishing, pharming, drive-by, and man in the middle tools for infecting and hacking into the different software to get access to cogent information within the internet. (Lehto, 2013) Stated that, social engineering do exploit individual’s weaknesses. According to Lehto, the exploitation comes when one clicks a malicious link, or by physical gaining access to computers through deception (2013). He farther reported that phishing does attempt to acquire user’s information s by masquerading its legal entity. Pharming on its attacks by redirecting a website traffic to a different fake website where individual information is compromised. Drive-by make opportunistic assaults against specific weaknesses within a system, while a man in the middle is an attack where middleman impersonates each point and can manipulate the victim’s search during the strive to get relevant information over the internet (Horowitz & Lucero, 2017).

Solution towards cybersecurity.

Antivirus and anti-spyware software have been developed to reduce the threats and insecurity that the viruses usually cause to the computers. Anti-spy wares are used to restrict backdoor programs, Trojans and additional spyware to be installed on the machines. Again, firewalls have also been developed to protect computer networks from unauthorized access. The firewall can be hardware devices, software programs or combination of the two. A network firewall has been found to typically guard an internal computer network against malicious access from outside the system (Horowitz & Lucero, 2017).

Cryptography technology has also been developed to encrypt and decrypt information. In the understanding of the difference between the two, encryption involves sending data that is protected through the transformation of readable content non-readable to the recipient. Some cryptographic methods have been developed that cannot be cracked.

Conclusion

The introduction of internet has increased the exposure by individuals and organizations to cybercrimes. Network jammers and hackers infiltrate private emails and accounts, access and leak highly classified information that threatens the survival of governments and business. For instance, the hacking of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s email revealed highly detailed governments secrets that compromised her campaign. On the other hand, the CERBER ransomware infiltrates computer on unsecured network, encrypt documents and personal files thereby demanding payment of a ransom for recovery of such information. Ransomware is one of the malicious programs that the cyber hackers have put in place so that they achieve what they want. A malicious program demands payment after launching a cyber-attack on computer operating system. The attackers demand huge sums of money that becomes costing the organization a lot of money each year. Increasing computer attacks from cybercriminals is creating a significant challenge for governments especially when it comes to the protection of highly classified intelligence information.

A security breach may lead to leakage of information that may threaten relationships between countries and organizations. For instance, the US accused Russia in the just-concluded presidential election of political interference through cyber-attack on the Democratic Party database. Also, cyber-attacks increases the vulnerability of online banking systems like PayPal, pioneer, master card foundation, global wire transfer among others. As such, cyber-attack is a major challenge to the modern generation system developers. Firms today expect IT experts and governments to create tamper-proof application software and system.

Reference

Buchanan, W. (2011). Introduction to security and network forensics. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Horowitz, B., & Lucero, D. (2017). System-Aware Cyber Security: A Systems Engineering Approach For Enhancing Cyber Security. Insight, 20(3), 66-68.

Lehto, M. (2013). The Cyberspace Threats and Cyber Security Objectives in the Cyber Security Strategies. International Journal Of Cyber Warfare And Terrorism, 3(3), 1-18. http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/ijcwt.2013070101

Singh, T. (2012). Emerging Challenges to Cyber Security-Internet Monitoring with Specific reference to National Security. International Journal Of Scientific Research, 1(2), 129- 131.

Turuk, A., Sahoo, B., & Addya, S. Resource management and efficiency in cloud computing environments.