Introduction To Cyber Security | Cyber Security Training For Beginners | CyberSecurity | Simplilearn

Introduction to Cyber Security

This video provides a comprehensive overview of cyber security, its importance, and the path to becoming a cyber security expert. It begins by illustrating the potential consequences of a cyber attack through the example of Quinn's confidential files being accessed by a hacker, leading to legal ramifications, loss of company secrets, industrial espionage, ransom demands, or sale to criminals.

What is Cyber Security?

Cyber security is defined as a process, design, and architecture created to protect networks and devices from attacks, damage, or unauthorized access. Its advantages include protecting businesses, increasing productivity by creating a controlled environment, inspiring customer confidence through compliance with regulations, and ensuring the stability and security of applications and websites.

The CIA Triad

The fundamental pillars of cyber security are the Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability (CIA) triad:

• Confidentiality: Ensures that information and functions are accessible only by authorized parties. For example, password protection aims to keep data confidential.
• Integrity: Guarantees the trustworthiness of data, ensuring it is not modified by unauthorized users. For instance, verifying that spreadsheet data remains unchanged.
• Availability: Ensures that data is accessible to authorized users when and where they need it, as per agreed-upon service levels. An example is the consistent availability of services like Gmail.

Threats to the CIA Triad

Threats to the CIA triad are categorized under cyber crime and hacking.

Cyber Crime: Any criminal or unauthorized activity involving computing devices that results in a security incident. Most cyber crimes are motivated by profit.

• Types of Cyber Crime:
  1. Computer-assisted crime: Computers are used as tools to facilitate a crime (e.g., online bank hijacking).
  2. Computer as the target crime: The computer itself is the target (e.g., denial-of-service attacks, viruses, data packet sniffing).
  3. Computer incidental to the crime: The computer is used as a temporary storage for illegal data (e.g., child pornography).

Business Scenario Example (Stark Industries): Employees reported system crashes and hangs. Investigation revealed an employee clicked a suspicious link, redirecting their computer to a malicious server, downloading and executing scripts (viruses, Trojans). The IT security team blocked Facebook and Skype as a preventive measure. The question posed is to classify this crime: computer-assisted, computer as target, or computer incidental.

Motivations for Cyber Crimes:

• Disrupting business continuity.
• Data theft and manipulation for profit.
• Creating fear and chaos by disrupting critical infrastructure.
• Financial loss to the target.
• Achieving state military objectives (espionage).
• Demanding ransom.
• Damaging reputation (e.g., impersonation on social media).
• Propagating religious or political beliefs.
• "Script kiddies" hacking for fun or to showcase skills.

Types of Hackers

Understanding hacker types helps identify potential attacks and motives:

• Black Hat Hacker: Possesses advanced computing skills and engages in malicious or destructive activities for profit.
• Grey Hat Hacker: Works both offensively and defensively, sometimes with malicious intent and other times for remuneration to enhance security.
• White Hat Hacker: Uses the same skills as black hat hackers but with defensive intent and authorization to identify and fix vulnerabilities.
• Suicide Hacker: Aims to bring down critical infrastructure for a cause, unconcerned about legal repercussions. They often claim responsibility.
• Script Kitty: An unskilled hacker who uses pre-made tools and scripts with minimal technical knowledge.
• Cyber Terrorist: Motivated by religious or political beliefs to create fear through large-scale disruption of computer networks.
• State-Sponsored Hacker: Employed by governments to penetrate and gather intelligence from other governments.
• Hacktivist: Promotes a political agenda by hacking, often defacing or disabling websites.

Common Cyber Security Attacks

• Denial of Service (DoS) Attack: Consumes server resources, making them unavailable to legitimate users.
• Malware Attacks: Malicious software (viruses, Trojans, worms) infects machines.
• Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) Attack: Hacker intercepts communication between two parties to steal data.
• Phishing Attack: Deceptive emails or messages impersonating legitimate organizations to trick users into revealing confidential information.
• Drive-by Attack: Malicious code executed automatically when a user visits a compromised website.
• Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) Attack: Scripts are embedded in web applications to compromise user sessions.
• Password Attacks: Attempts to crack passwords using brute force, dictionary attacks, or guessing.
• Eavesdropping Attacks: Physically overhearing conversations or capturing data packets containing transmissions.
• SQL Injection Attack: Malicious queries are sent to a database to compromise it.
• Cryptographic Attacks: Exploiting weaknesses in encryption algorithms.

History of Cyber Crime

The video highlights the progression of cyber crime:

• 1990s: Hacking becomes more mainstream with early attacks on major databases and operating systems. The advent of the internet and e-commerce in the late '80s and '90s created new opportunities for criminals.
• 2001: Attacks against major online organizations like eBay and Yahoo.
• 2007: Significant bank hacks, like the Nordia bank incident where over a million dollars were stolen.
• 2013: Adobe experienced a breach compromising 2.9 million accounts.
• 2016: Kaspersky reported approximately 758 million malicious attacks.

Notable Cyber Criminals:

• Robert Morris (1988): Creator of the Morris worm, one of the first internet worms.
• Kevin Lee Pollson (1990): Hacked radio station phone lines to win a contest.
• David Smith (1999): Creator of the Melissa virus, a macro-based virus.
• Adam Bot Bill (2004): Gained unauthorized access to a corporate network via unsecured Wi-Fi to steal credit card information.

How Cyber Security Works

Cyber security involves various mechanisms to secure computers:

• Authentication Mechanisms: Verifying a user's identity.
  • Username and Password: Basic identification and authentication.
  • Two-Way Authentication: Adding a second layer, like an OTP sent to a registered device.
• Securing Passwords: Ensuring passwords meet complexity standards.
• Regular Updates (Patches): Installing software updates to fix security vulnerabilities.
• Antivirus Software: Detecting and removing malware.
• Firewalls: Software or hardware that controls network traffic, allowing or disallowing access based on policies.
• Anti-Phishing Tools: Identifying and warning users about malicious websites.
• Cryptography (Encryption): Protecting data by encoding it, making it unreadable without a key. This involves identifying which protocols and data need encryption.
• Securing DNS Servers: Protecting the Domain Name System, which maps domain names to IP addresses, from being compromised to redirect users to malicious sites.

Becoming a Cyber Security Expert

A cyber security expert protects an organization's infrastructure by identifying flaws and threats and designing protective methodologies.

Domains in Cyber Security:

• Asset Security: Securing all organizational assets (applications, devices, networks).
• Security Architecture and Engineering: Standardizing and planning security implementation.
• Communication and Network Security: Securing data transmission across networks, especially with cloud computing.
• Identity and Access Management (IAM): Managing user identities, authentication, authorization, and accountability.
• Security Operations: Day-to-day monitoring of security, detecting and responding to attacks.
• Security Assessment and Testing: Regularly evaluating and testing security controls to identify gaps.
• Software Development Security: Ensuring security is integrated into the software development lifecycle (secure coding, testing).
• Security and Risk Management: Identifying, mapping, and mitigating risks to organizational security.

Courses and Certifications:

• Technical (Ethical Hacking/Penetration Testing):
  • CompTIA Security+
  • EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)
• Management/Leadership:
  • CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional): High-level, management-focused, requiring 5 years of experience.
  • CISM (Certified Information Security Manager): Project-oriented management of organizational security.
• Auditing:
  • CISA (Certified Information Systems Auditor): Auditing systems to ensure adherence to policies.
• Risk Management:
  • CRISC (Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control): Focuses on understanding business processes and their technical implications for risk.
• Cloud Security:
  • CCSP (Certified Cloud Security Professional): For professionals working with cloud security.

SimplyLearn offers training programs and a Master's program for aspiring cyber security experts.

Conclusion

The video covered the definition and advantages of cyber security, the CIA triad, various threats and motives behind cyber crimes, different types of hackers, common attack methods, the history of cyber crime, how cyber security mechanisms work, and the domains and certifications required to become a cyber security expert.

Key Concepts

• Cyber Security
• CIA Triad (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability)
• Cyber Crime
• Hacking
• Black Hat Hacker
• White Hat Hacker
• Grey Hat Hacker
• Denial of Service (DoS) Attack
• Malware
• Phishing
• Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) Attack
• SQL Injection
• Authentication
• Firewall
• Antivirus
• Encryption
• Vulnerability Management
• Penetration Testing
• CISSP
• CISM
• CISA
• CEH
• CRISC
• CCSP