Paper About Cybersecurity and the Future

Because of the rising quantity of online activities, cybersecurity is an important concern in today’s society. Its relevance remains the same as before. This paper goes into detail about the history of cybersecurity, the issues it faces, present developments, and future prospects. Because people now conduct the majority of their activities online, malicious individuals are exploiting this and wreaking havoc in the hopes of gaining a financial reward in the end. Cybersecurity entails a set of activities aimed at protecting the integrity of programs, networks, and data from damage, unauthorized access, or attack. Cybersecurity’s primary duty is to protect systems and information against cyber threats. Cyber threats come in numerous forms like exploit kits, phishing, ransom ware or application attacks. Unfortunately, cybercriminals have found means of launching this sophisticated and automated attacks at low costs. Keeping up with these challenges is becoming harder and harder as time progress. Understanding the topic better requires an in-depth look at its history, challenges, the trends and the prospects for its future.

History

First worm

Robert Morris developed and launched the first computer worm in1989. The self-propagating virus spread rapidly and affected much of the internet. Even though some of the subsequent attacks have gained more recognition, this worm attack remains a landmark since it was the pioneer denial of service attack.

The Morris worm and other attacks that followed it gave the need for experts to come up with measures that would contain the cyber-attacks. They gave rise to the security industry. Computer Emergency Response Teams also came into existence as central points of organizing the appropriate responses to the threats. The initial attempts predominantly included preventive and detective techniques.

Viruses

After the worms, came the viruses in the 1990s which dominated the headlines. The most outstanding were ILOVEYOU and Melisa viruses than infected a vast number of PCs around the world. Due to the constant threats, experts developed the antivirus technology. This software could recognize the signature of the malicious software and stopped them from executing malicious scripts (Oriji, 2012). The viruses played an essential role in making the public aware that emails and attachment from untrusted sources could cause damage to the computers.

Attacks on credit cards

The turn of the millennium saw rapid changes with the attacks becoming more sophisticated and targeted. It was during this era that the most notable breach on credit cards in the United States of America occurred. Albert Gonzalez led a group of cybercriminals that stole details of millions of credit cards. The customers of TJX, a giant retailer in the U.S suffered severely in the hands of this hackers (Dietrich, 2017). The massive compromise occurred on a scale that no one had ever seen before. Reports suggest that the breach could have cost the company close to 256 million dollars.

At this point things became serious. The data used in the attacks were regulated. The authorities came in and demanded that some funds be set aside to cater for the losses of the company (Margulies, 2017). The company became aware of the repercussions of being unprotected in a tough way. Other corporations learned from the experience and started arming themselves with advanced security systems modeled to cope with the new challenges.

Modern day

In the current era, the target breach has increased on a staggering scale. The most recent attacks saw the target breach rise to another level. The theft of information relating to 40 million.

From a professional perspective, the attack was more sophisticated than the previous incident. The masterminds of these attacks had a detailed plan and were aware that to reach their objectives an indirect approach was the way to go (Oriji, 2012). Using scripts developed for point of sales system the hackers were able to achieve their goals. The malware grabbed the card numbers at the opportune time while they were in the system memory and were not encrypted.

This showed that the attack illustrated above could not only affect the consumers but could also have a severe impact on the organizations. In the end, the CEO of the company had to step down. Public opinion and response are now very critical when dealing with the incidences of cybercrime. It is vital for every individual to understand the threats posed by cybercrime. Companies can no longer take a casual approach to these issues. The corporations must commit resources and skills that will detect, prevent and respond efficiently to breaches when they occur.

Challenges

The challenges facing the field of cybersecurity keeps on evolving regularly. It, therefore, becomes challenging to counter the concerns when new ones arise day by day (Margulies, 2017). This is why the experts need to engage in continuous learning to get the latest concepts. The challenges come in the form of malware, users, and budgets.

Malware

The malicious software is abundant and easily accessible. This makes the work of cyber criminals very easy. With them, hackers can quickly take control of systems infiltrate companies and steal confidential information. Through this attacks, the cybercriminals always make a big public statement.

An excellent example of the stubborn malware is the remote access Trojan. A program of this nature always presents a significant challenge to the security experts. It is always designed to operate under low profile without any detection. The current EDR(endpoint detection response) technology that can detect and flush out RATs from their hiding (O’Connell, 2012). Sharing the information about malware can help in this fight.

Users

Some of the present challenges in cybersecurity are caused by the users. Be it an accidental action or a betrayal from within the organization. For example, a demotivated system expert containing all the critical files can erase or leak them. Such actions can have severe effects on a company. However, this can be prevented by having tight control and monitoring. It is also not advisable to give an individual so much power. And so malicious behaviors can be thwarted before they happen.

Spear phishing is a common form of attack these days. People do not think twice before launching PDF or word docs (Dietrich, 2017). Criminals exploit the weakness on a daily basis. This is where educating the masses is important. Use of email gateway technologies could substantially reduce the levels of spear phishing.

Budgets

Finance is fundamental to any operation. Likewise, cybersecurity activities require sufficient funding. Unfortunately, there are always delays or lack of consideration when the funds are released. It is only after severe breaches that the budget is allocated and cybersecurity given the seriousness it deserves. Cybersecurity is costly, and firms must invest large chunks of money if they want to be secure (Margulies, 2017). As previously stated, this sector faces numerous challenges. The good thing is that every problem has a solution.

Current trends

The internet of things is trending topic of conversation in cybersecurity. In simple terms, the concept involves connecting everything from wearable devices, lamps, headphones, washing machines, coffee makers, cellphones and almost everything that one can think of. The approach is also used on machines, for example, the components of a jet plane can get connected. Projections show that billions of devices will get connected by 2020.

As the world roll out this highly packed interconnection, their concerns are that it remains a serious topic of interest for cybersecurity experts. IoT remains a major weak point and a concern to experts.

From time to time the devices do not have the necessary security features or in some instances are not correctly configured. Hackers easily access password that they use to launch their exploits. There are cases of botnets on the rise due to the internet of things. Botnets can aid volumetric attacks, identify the vulnerabilities or help execute brute force attacks (Bellovin, 2015). It is imperative to properly secure the Internet of things since it’s here to stay.

The flexibility provided by cloud storage has seen a rise in its adoption. It provides a seamless platform that has helped the company save on costs. However if poorly implemented it can cause an organization serious headache. Improvement in the security of cloud storage should include the end to end encryption, and this will give people the confidence to use this technology. Currently, hackers are aggressively targeting cloud storage. This platform provides a broad target for the hackers.

The future of cybersecurity

As machine learning and artificial intelligence gathers momentum and continue to play a significant role in various industries, cybersecurity will also adopt it. Since the field is rapidly evolving, the strong minds of the computer will help predict the patterns with accuracy and identify attacks before it happens. Security experts should develop and use this concept. The primary concern, however, is that hackers will as well exploit the machine learning and AI.

The future promises increased the number of connected devices. The figure of internet-enabled devices will also rise. This will provide a large pool of targets that hackers can easily access and exploit. It, therefore, means that as the number of devices increases so will the cases of the cybercriminal activities.

Currently, there are concerns about certain inappropriate measures applied by cybersecurity efforts. For example cases of spying on employees. The current heightened security suggests that these activities will continue to go on. As a result, there will be a lot of legislation and court cases relating to the topic of cybersecurity.

Conclusion

The key message in this essay is that cybersecurity is an issue that will remain to be significant. As time goes by it also continue to become sophisticated . This, therefore, means that it is an area that should receive the attention it deserves if the online community hopes to defeat cybercriminals. The fight requires a persistent and a collaborative approach. In the end, even if cybercrime is not eliminated, at least the cases will have reduced.

References

Bellovin, S. M. (2015). What a real cybersecurity bill should address. IEEE Security & Privacy, 13(3).

Dietrich, S. (2017). Cybersecurity and the Future. Computer, 50(4),

Margulies, P. (2017). Newsroom: Cybersecurity: Obama’s Conflicted Legacy 02-17-2017.

O’Connell, M. E. (2012). Cyber security without cyber war. Journal of Conflict and Security Law, 17(2), 187-209.

Orji, U. J. (2012). Cybersecurity Law and Regulation (pp. 398-400). Wolf Legal Publishers.