In this day and age, data is more valuable than gold. It helps companies provide better service to their customers, ramp up their market efforts and make smarter business decisions. Ever wondered why you see top or sidebar advertisements for products you browsed ten minutes ago? That’s because data about your shopping preferences has already been collected by the vendor you visited online.
What Is Cyber Security?
A lot of companies go to extreme measures to protect their data and that’s essentially what cyber security is. It’s the practice of making sure that sensitive data remains both uncorrupted and confidential; that there is no risk of it becoming lost or stolen by hackers.
A common misconception is that cyber security is just about installing the right anti-hacker software. It’s also about establishing and updating security protocols, providing security training to staff, investing time and money into constant surveillance and having contingency plans in the event of breaches.
What Are The Different Types Of Cyber Security?
When constructing a good cyber security strategy, it is crucial that companies consider all the basic types of cyber security:
Critical Infrastructure
This doesn’t just affect a single company but a whole neighbourhood, city, state or even a country as a whole. Critical infrastructure is concerned with the systems that all of us depend on: electricity, water, traffic lights…etc. A breach on or damage to any of these systems can have serious repercussions. For instance if there was an electricity problem that lasted several days, a workplace may not be able to function.
In cases like this, a company needs comprehensive contingency plans. How do we deal with a power outage that lasts more than day? What do we do if employees are having trouble coming in to work because of unregulated traffic? These are the sort of questions that upper management should be considering.
Network Security
The reason that you have usernames and passwords to log in to your company’s intra net is because it prevents unauthorized persons from accessing it. Employees may also have limited access based on their job role and tier. For instance, an employee from the sales department may have access to customer contact information while someone from HR may not. In the same way, a vice president may have access to more information than a manager.
Cloud Security
A lot of companies are moving to cloud solutions as it increases efficiency and productivity. However, this results in more security risks. Therefore when making the transition, it is very important to implement cloud-specific security measures and make sure that instance configuration and rollout is handled by experience professionals like Gridware.
Application Security
Applications, especially online ones, are the most susceptible to hacking. Companies should be especially concerned about applications that contain sensitive data such as sales platforms. If cloud applications such as Microsoft Office 365 are used, then should focus on improving the security of the cloud itself.
Internet of Things Security
This concerns things that are connected to the internet such as printers and security cameras. A breach on these can pose a threat to both employees and the company.
Cyber security is crucial if companies want to protect sensitive data and avoid lawsuits. Knowing the different types is essential to coming up with a great security strategy.