Understanding Cyberspace Threats

The primary problem in cyber security these days is not technology, it’s the policy. How we behave using the Internet today is more of a factor than how many firewalls or intrusion prevention systems or two-factor authentications a business may have; it’s how people use the facilities that makes security policies on the use of these facilities as complicated as they are. Protecting critical infrastructure against cyber-attacks is just one of the many security challenges, so it would be very important to understand them all before any of these issues can be solved.

The Real Issue of Cyberspace Threats

Depending on who an individual is and what an organization does, there are several areas of concern, even to those organizations or people whom we entrust our data. The issue here is about what should be protected and what should not be. Do the security products you buy to protect against cybercrime completely protect you from every possible security threat? I don’t think so.

All of the possible cyber security questions are too difficult to address because the government, military, security organizations and even private corporations tend to hype particular threats. For example, cyber war and cyber terrorism are greatly overblown, because they result in huge programmes with huge budgets and power, while cybercrimes which affect millions of users are downplayed.

Cyber Security Needs Aren’t One-Size-Fits-All

Each individual and each organization needs to address their own specific cyber security needs, because each individual and organization is unique and threats that may be existing in a specific industry or user may not be applicable to another organization or individual.

Awareness is the Key

To conclude, awareness is the primary key. We have to be aware what may affect us individually and corporately. Greater accountability on the corporate sides is needed before everyone can move forward.  I personally feel that there are still secrecies involved that surrounds cyber attacks and cyber defences coupled with the actual threats that lie outside. It could be very hard to be optimistic about these, but it would also be very hard to be pessimistic.