BASICS OF CYBER SECURITY

 

Overview of the article

•             Hey there, in this blog i have covered almost all the important concepts/topics related to cyber security. We will be going through following topics :
• 1.      Introduction To Cyber Security
• 2.      Types Of Cyber threats
• 3.      Types of Cyber Attacks
• 4.      Laws In The Indian Constitution For Cyber Security
• 5.      How to keep devices safe from cyber attackers/ hackers

#1. Introduction To Cyber Security

Cyber security in simple words refers to applications of various technologies in order to prevent a network, device, or data from getting unauthorized access. The main goal of cyber security is to keep the data/system/network safe from the attackers i.e hackers. If cyber security is practiced by the users , the system or the data can be prevented from various malicious attacks that can be in the form of viruses, worms, Trojans and many other.

#2. Types of Cyber Threats

The threats countered by cyber-security are three-fold:

1. Cybercrime includes single actors or groups targeting systems for financial gain or to cause disruption.

2. Cyber-attack often involves politically motivated information gathering.

3. Cyberterrorism is intended to undermine electronic systems to cause panic or fear.

  

#3. Types of Cyber Attacks

            Attacks in cyber security are classified as Active and Passive attacks:

1.      Active attack: In this type of attack the main aim of the hacker is to modify the message. Its very difficult to prevent this type of attack.

 

Active attack is further classified as:

a.       Interruption: It causes when an unauthorized user pretends to another user.

b.      Modification: It contains replay attack and alterations. A user captures a sequence of events and resends it. Alterations involves some modification to the original message.

c.       Fabrication: It is an attempt to prevent authorized users from accessing some services

Eg. Denial of Service attack.

 

 

2.      Passive attack: In this type of attack, hacker aims just to obtain information. Here hacker does not try to modify the original message.

Passive attacks are further classified as:

a.       Release of message contents: Release of message contents means confidential message should be accessed by authorized  user otherwise a message is released against our wishes.

b.      Traffic analysis: Traffic analysis is a passive attacker may try to find out similarities between encodes message for some clues regarding communication and this analysis is known as traffic analysis.

 

#4. Laws In The Indian Constitution For Cyber Security

 

 

Section	Offence	Penalty
65	Tampering with computer source documents	Imprisonment up to three years, or/and with fine up to ₹200,000
66	Hacking with computer system	Imprisonment up to three years, or/and with fine up to ₹500,000
66B	Receiving stolen computer or communication device	Imprisonment up to three years, or/and with fine up to ₹100,000
66C	Using password of another person	Imprisonment up to three years, or/and with fine up to ₹100,000
66D	Cheating using computer resource	Imprisonment up to three years, or/and with fine up to ₹100,000
66E	Publishing private images of others	Imprisonment up to three years, or/and with fine up to ₹200,000
66F	Acts of cyberterrorism	Imprisonment up to life.
67	Publishing information which is obscene in electronic form.	Imprisonment up to five years, or/and with fine up to ₹1,000,000
67A	Publishing images containing sexual acts	Imprisonment up to seven years, or/and with fine up to ₹1,000,000
67C	Failure to maintain records	Imprisonment up to three years, or/and with fine.

 

 

#5. How to keep devices safe from cyber attackers/ hackers:

 

1. Install antivirus and keep it up to date.

Yes installing antivirus is not a new concept but where the users make mistake is antivirus does not remain updated when the licences expires . This may be a helping hand to cyber attackers to steal the data

2. Install a firewall

A firewall is a device which is used for network security. A firewall blocks all the paths for attackers who do attempts to gain access to your computer. It can also protect your device from malwares, trojans and some viruses.

3. Keep updating all the other software

It is necessary for all the softwares to be updated as the company provides new updates. Updating software updates contains fixes and improvements which can help your pc/ laptop be away from bugs and intruders.

4. Don't install cracked versions or banned versions from any random site.

The reason why any software/ application is removed is it is because it either has some bugs or it can cause any legal trouble. And if the software/ application are made available on any website after being removed from the respective software store there are maximum chances that the new scripts are installed that can leak your data.

5. Don't open unknown emails/ attachments/ links

We can recieve any kind of emails, messages that claim that we can earn a huge amount of money or try to get our attention over that. But mostly these may be a trick to steal our banking credentials or any other important data.

 

6. Don't believe on false messages that you receive on any social media platform.

Today we recieve many messages on social media that claim we can win a car, get OTT free for any duration of time or any kind of shopping links. The first thing you need to understand is no company will ever give any thing for free and the next thing is check the domain. Most of the fake websites have random or sub domains used where the Non It people get fooled. If the website has any other domain name than ".com" such as ".cc","xyz" or any local domain then never trust on the website.

7. Beware using pre-owned device.

If you are not from a IT background you must be aware that many remote softwares are available that can be installed in your device before handing over to you. These softwares may have all the access such as using your camera, accessing your documents and many other. In such cases get the laptop checked from a IT professional and to be in the safer side format the laptop. 

8. Common methods to keep in mind. 

The few command methods that you need to keep in mind is keep the wifi off if it's not in use , because if it gets connected to a public wifi network the data can be exploited. Explaination:- When a device gets connected to wifi IP address of the device is visible which can be used to exploit the data. Also consider keeping bluetooth, hotspot, multicast and location services off. 

9. Use strong password:-

System users must always ensure that is their password safe? Is it easily guessable? and other factors. So while creating a password user should consider some things in mind they are as follows:-

a.It should be minimum of 8 characters

b It should be mixture of upper case, lower case, and digits.

c. It should contain special characters except "<>"

 

Thank You for spending your reading this article comment your views regarding the above topic and suggest if any improvement is needed.