Fortify Your Data

A Guide to the Emerging Technologies

Michael A Hudak

• Publisher: Michael Hudak
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9781684541805
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Information Technology
• Index: Computer Science

Fortify Your Data is a book written to help educate business leaders on how to keep both their own and their customer’s data protected. It is extremely important to know not only how Blockchain, IoT, and Artificial Intelligence can affect you business, but how to properly secure these new technologies so that they don’t backfire. Fortify Your Data’s mission is to help educate everyone who uses technology on the emerging technologies and best practices. We plan to stock this website with the results of research in several technology topics such as the Internet of Things, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Cyber security, and everything else that is emerging and relevant to the technology scene. The author, Michael Hudak, is a tech leader out of Cleveland, Ohio with a wealth of knowledge to share on technology – with over a decade’s experience in all things tech from BlockChain and IoT to general routing/switching and cloud implementation. Today, Michael works as part of an extremely accomplished team at BlueBridge Networks, a world class SSAE 16 SOC Third party audited and HIPAA HITECH assurance data center & PCI best practice company offering secure and compliant Data Center Services, Cloud Computing and Managed Services and IT Security. BlueBridge Networks has an institutional mission of being an educator and innovator in the mid-westtechnology market, with several solutions centered around protecting your data.

Part 1.
Cybersecurity

Chapter 1.
An Introduction to Cybersecurity

So, What Exactly is Cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity is a tech term often associated with and used in the computer field that gets thrown around quite a bit. The analogy is not fortuitous. Cybersecurity is security of all things cyber, but what is cybersecurity really? What are the mechanisms, the foundations and especially how does this translate into our daily personal and professional lives?

Cybersecurity is a set of technologies, processes, and practices that are designed to protect networks, computers, and data from unauthorized attacks, damage, and access. In an information technology context, the term “security” includes cybersecurity and physical security. That means that hackers can come in through the internet and through the front door of your workplace.

Cybersecurity seeks to ensure that the security properties of organizations, and its user’s assets, are not only maintained but maintained in relation to security risks in the cyber environment.

Cybersecurity also means the implementation of measures to protect systems, networks and software applications from digital attacks. Such attacks are usually aimed at gaining access to confidential information, its modification and destruction, at extorting money from users or at disrupting the normal operation of companies.

Implementing effective cybersecurity measures is currently quite a challenge, since today there are far more devices than people, and attackers are becoming more and more inventive.

To ensure cybersecurity, coordinated efforts are required across the information system. Cybersecurity includes (but is not necessarily limited to):

• application security
• information security
• network security
• disaster recovery / business continuity
• operational security
• end user awareness

One of the most problematic aspects of cybersecurity is the constant and rapid evolution of security risks. The traditional approach used to be to focus most of the resources available on critical system components and protect them against the major known threats. This meant leaving some important systems defenseless and giving up the fight against some less important risks. In the current context, this approach is no longer sufficient. Adam Vincent is Technical Director for the Public Sector at Layer 7 Technologies, a security services company that works for US federal services, including some of the Department of Defense services. He explains:

“The threats evolve too fast so we have time to follow them. They change our perception of the notion of risk. Today, it is no longer possible to write a white paper on a risk for a particular system, it should be rewritten permanently ... “.

To cope with the current environment, consulting firms recommend a more proactive, adaptive approach. For example, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has just released an update of its recommendations on the risk assessment framework, which recommends real-time assessments and ongoing monitoring.

Forbes estimated the global cyber security market at $ 75 billion in 2015 and predicts the market will reach $ 170 billion in 2020.

What are the principles underlying cyber security?

A successful cybersecurity approach is expressed in the form of multi-level protection covering computers, networks, programs or data that must be secured. Employees, workflows, and technologies must complement each other in organizations to provide effective protection against cyber-attacks.

Employees

Users should understand and follow basic information security principles, such as choosing strong passwords, paying attention to attachments in emails, and backing up data.

Processes

The organization should develop a set of basic measures to counter ongoing and successfully carried out attacks. This set of measures should be one reliable set guild and explains how to identify attacks, protect systems, identify and counter threats, and recover from the attacks. Watch a video clip with explanations about the NIST cybersecurity solution package.

Technology

Technologies are an essential element, that provide organizations and individual users with the tools they need to protect against cyber-attacks. The main components that need to be protected are endpoints, such as computers, smart devices and routers; networks and cloud environments. The most common technologies used to protect the listed components include new-generation firewalls, DNS filtering, malware protection, antivirus software, and email protection solutions.

Why is cybersecurity so important?

In the modern “connected” world, extended cyber defense programs serve the benefit of each user. At the individual level, cyber defense burglary can lead to a variety of consequences, ranging from theft of personal information to extortion of money or loss of valuable data, such as family photos. All of this depends on critical infrastructure, such as power plants, hospitals, and financial services companies. The protection of these and other organizations is important for the maintenance of our society.

Everyone benefits from the research that cyber threat specialists are engaged in; Cybersecurity analysts and technicians studying new and emerging threats, as well as cyber-attack strategies around the world collaborate and share information discovered about new threats. They reveal new vulnerabilities, inform the public about the importance of cybersecurity, and increase the reliability of open source tools. The work of these specialists makes the Internet more secure for each user.

Every year massive amounts of funds are spent on cybersecurity, and the annual increase in spending is more than 5 times higher than the increase in funds spent in the IT sphere as a whole. With an accumulated annual growth rate estimated at 8.3% by 2020 ($ 3.8 trillion) compared with 0.9% in 2016 ($ 3.4 trillion). However, money aimed at developing and ensuring cybersecurity does not affect the greatest threat: human users. About 95% of all information leakages are related to the human factor.

With the increasing diversity of cyber threats, the number of decisions is growing, however, fatigue from constant news and warnings about the dangers of new threats may affect the current state of affairs. “There is a form of growing desensitization to daily reports on cyber-attacks and threats, to the point where some are beginning to wonder: what’s the meaning of cyber security?” Said Earl Perkins, vice president of digital security gurus.

Fortunately, well-designed security procedures, methods, and solutions can almost completely stop intruders. But this requires t...

Table of contents

• Contents
• Introduction:Why is Data Important?
• Part 1.Cybersecurity
• Chapter 1.An Introduction to Cybersecurity
• Chapter 2.Understanding Cybersecurity Attacks
• Chapter 3.The Growing Threat of Ransomware
• Chapter 4.Why Criminals Want Data
• Chapter 5. How to Protect your Data
• Part 2.The Internet of Things
• Chapter 6.Defining the Internet of Things
• Chapter 7. How the Internet of Things Works
• Chapter 8. Practical Uses for the Internet of Things
• Chapter 9Cybersecurity and IoT
• Chapter 10. How Security Experts Use IoT
• Part 3Blockchain
• Chapter 11.What is a Bitcoin?
• Chapter 12.The Revolution of How We Trust
• Chapter 13. Practical Uses for Blockchain
• Chapter 14.Blockchain and Cybersecurity
• Chapter 15. How Security Experts use Blockchain
• Chapter 16.Advantages and Disadvantages of Blockchain
• Part 4. AI in Cybersecurity
• Chapter 17.A Look into How AI Is Used in Business Today
• Chapter 18.The Difference between Predictive Analytics and AI
• Chapter 19.Some Practical Future Ideas for AI
• Chapter 20.AI’s Role in Cybersecurity
• Chapter 21.The Malicious Reach of AI
• Chapter 22.How the Industry Is Trying To Mitigate Cyber Risk
• Conclusion: Fortify Your Data