What is Cyber-Security?
Cyber-security is about protecting systems, networks and devices against digital threats. It ensures confidentiality, integrity and availability of information while supporting safe digital transformation and eliminating risks from malware, ransomware and data breaches.
Cyber criminals are smart and ever-evolving, and staying a step ahead of them can be a challenge for businesses with limited IT resources. Cybersecurity solutions include applications, measures and devices that constantly monitor network traffic for suspicious activity. When a threat is detected, it isolates and quarantines affected files and devices and sends the appropriate alerts to IT staff.
A business can be hit by a wide range of attacks, from cybercriminals stealing credit card information and other sensitive data to sell on the dark web to phishing scams targeting employees with malicious links that infect their systems. There are also ransomware attacks that lock down computers and demand money in order to release them, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks where thousands of “zombified” computers bombard a website with traffic to the point of failure, and man-in-the-middle schemes that intercept messages between two parties for illicit financial gain or to collect sensitive information.
While these are external dangers, companies must also be vigilant about internal risks, such as current or former employees with a grudge who can wreak havoc from inside the company’s firewall. Maintaining cybersecurity in an ever-evolving threat landscape is a never-ending task that often requires outside expertise.