Cyber Security: Threats, Challenges, and Mitigation Strategies

This report discusses the threats and challenges faced in cyber security, along with the countermeasures and mitigation strategies used to maintain security over the network. It also covers the objective of cyber security, cyber compliance, possible threats and attacks, cyber security policies and protections, and cyber security techniques.

Running Head: cyber security
Cyber Security

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Cyber security............................................................................................................................3
Objective of cyber security.....................................................................................................3
Cyber Compliance..................................................................................................................4
Possible threats and attacks....................................................................................................4
Challenges faced in cyber security.............................................................................................5
Cyber security policies and protections..................................................................................6
Countermeasures and mitigation strategies............................................................................7
Reason for cyber crime.......................................................................................................7
Cyber security techniques.......................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Cyber security is a defence that is used to safeguard the information stored on wide networks.
Cyber security is used to ensure that the data is shielded from the hackers. Cyber security shields the
information from unauthorized user and make sure that secrecy is maintained. Cyber security is
fundamental for every organisation as it uses set of techniques to keep up the protection of data. In
this report the threats and attacks along with challenges that are faced are discussed. The count
measures and mitigation strategies that are used to maintain security over the network are listed. It
promises that private information which is stored on the network is secure and integrity,
confidentiality and availability of data are met. Cyber security is very significant as it protects digital
data from hackers and avoid that the data do not get modifies by unauthorized user. It uses set of
strategies to maintain the privacy of information. Cyber is related to group of computers that are
connected to form a network via internet these computers store important data and files that need to be
secured.

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Cyber security
In today’s time all the sensitive information of businesses are stored internet and people
complete rely that their data is secured and it will not be leaked. Thus it is essential to assure that the
network through which communication take place is secure and is free from all the possible attacks.
For such cases cyber security plays an important role as it safeguards the information and system from
all the malicious activities (Abomhara, 2015). Thus business and organisation contribute much of
the efforts in securing the system and making sure that web is protected from all the attacks. This is
done by securing all asserts, resources and data (Gupta, Agrawal & Yamaguchi, 2016). Cyber
security works on the principal to gain confidentiality, integrity and availability of all the data packets.
Cyber security can be seen as a protecting agent that protects all the hardware’s, software’s,
applications and data of an organisation. The work cyber related to the network of computers that are
linked over a network by the medium of internet. The network contains sensitive information that
need to be secured thus cyber security assures that data will be protected against all the hackers.
Security of cyber network can be stated as cyber security. They disallow all the invalid users to access
the data or modify it without any modification (Gupta, Agrawal & Yamaguchi, 2016). This make
sure that only valid user can access the data and a proper access control is provided regarding who can
read, write and modify the sensitive data. This can be treated as a security shield from all the
unauthorized users. It can be referred as information technology security that focuses on safeguarding
the network, computers and data from all the unauthorized access. The aim of cyber security is to
protect the information from all the criminals and measures need to be taken to achieve protection.
Cyber security is the collection of tools, policies, guidelines, risk management approaches, assurance
and technologies that are used to protect the cyber background, business, asserts and the users. It
strives to ensure the attainment and maintenance of the security properties of the organization and
user’s assets against relevant security risks in the cyber environment. It is a protecting agent that
protects all the hardware’s, software’s, applications and data of an organisation. The aim of cyber
security is maintain secrecy of all the information. It not only protects the sensitive data but take care
that digital data is also not accessed by hackers.
Objective of cyber security
The main aim an objective of cyber security is to assure that three factors are met. The three
factors that assure that information are secure and are free from all the attacks (Knowles, et. al,
2015). The features that are used for cyber security are:
 Confidentiality- this helps in maintaining the privacy of information. This makes sure that
only authorized user can access the data and sensitive data is protected from reaching towards

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invalid users. The aim of cyber security is to assure that that information of an organisation is
shared only with the authorized users (Knowles, et. al, 2015). Thus a proper access list is
prepared that tells about who can read, write and modify the data.
 Integrity- The aim of this feature is to take care that information is authentic and is complete.
The data should be relevant and no illegal information should be shared (Knowles, et. al,
2015). It also makes sure that information is received from valid user and is delivered to
correct user. If considering the case of data security in means that information should be
integrated and consistency (Graham, Olson & Howard, 2016).
 Availability- Cyber security works on achieving this objective of keeping the information
available 24/7 (Knowles, et. al, 2015). It allows that data can be accessed from any location
at any time. They work on storing the information and processing the data as per the request
from valid user. It allows valid user to access the information whenever they need.
Cyber Compliance
Cybercrimes are increasing due to the innovation of new technology that open side doors for
the criminals to enter in the system. Cyber compliance is necessary for every organisation as it
assures that business continues to work even at any kind of attack. This assures that security of
business meets all the standards. Thus every organisation use set of policies and methods to protect
the data and maintains it integrity (Graham, Olson & Howard, 2016). The threats are increased in
the market due to innovation and advancement in technology. This leads to increase in cyber-attacks
thus it is important to protect the network. Some of the tools are malwares; viruses, spyware and
attacks like denial of service, phishing attack and brute force attack are used by hackers to
read the data packets (Cavelty, 2017). These attacks are tools are found to be dangerous for
an organisation as they violet the confidentiality, availability and integrated of data packets
Possible threats and attacks
There are various threats and attacks that are related with cyber security. The foremost step is
to identify the threats that could exist (Buczak & Guven, 2016). The identification of threat helps in
analysing which part of network is damaged. The attacks that violets the security measures could be
either active or passive. In passive attack it is difficult to track the modification as hackers access the
data silently on the other hand in active attack the modification could be identified (Mead, Vasatka
& Craig, 2017). Some of the attacks that violets cyber security features are:
 Modification of data- In this sensitive information is changed without any knowledge.

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 Replay attack- This creates an abrupt behaviour as same information is been sent to the
receiver in a repeated manner.
 Masquerade- It is a kind of active attack in which invalid user acts like an authorised
user (Perakslis & Stanley, 2016). The unauthorised user act as valid user by taking all
the right and capturing its identity.
 Man in the middle attack- when a communication is going between two parties man in
the middle tries to access all the information which violets the confidentiality of information
(Perakslis & Stanley, 2016).
 Denial of service- This attack does not allow valid user to access information. Hackers try
to block the networks by overloading the channels and making the website inaccessible.
Challenges faced in cyber security
There are various challenges that are faced in an organisation due to cyber security. The
expansion of artificial intelligence has allowed robots to know about cyber-attacks so that they can
defend against them. It is difficult to detect the attack that might exist in the network (Benson,
McAlaney & Frumkin, 2018). The treats that attack the system violates the security of network by
weakening the link. Thus to overcome these challenges cyber security is used as is protect all asserts
of business. The other challenge that is faced in an organisation in terms of security is due to different
culture as every individual follow their own rules and regulations which increases the chances of risk.
The main challenge that is faced is modification of information, denial of service,
eavesdropping, masquerade, playback and various attacks. In some cases third party users
who do not have right to access the information access the data and reads all the sensitive
data (Benson, McAlaney & Frumkin, 2018). These attacks are every challenging as it is
difficult to identify that if any third person is reading or accessing the data. There are various
other challenging viruses that spoil the efficiency of system and also exploit the security of
system. Thus cyber security assures that information that is stored online is not accessed by
anyone without any prior knowledge (Boopathi, Sreejith & Bithin, 2015).
It is important for every organisation to maintain cyber security so that threats do not
cause any harm. The most common challenge that is faced these days is malware that violates
the visibility that affects the data that is stored digitally. The hackers silently read the data
and spoil the integrity and authenticity of data. A few difficulties happen due to digital
security as online payments are totally defence less and programmers endeavour to get profit
by breaking the security line. Furthermore an issue emerges because of advanced tricks that

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may cause phishing attacks. There are different difficulties each association is looking due to
digital security as a few organizations neglect to guarantee that information is appropriately
encoded and is put away in a protected domain (Wells, Camelio, Williams & White, 2014).
Dominant part of organizations doesn’t have affirmation against loss of information in
addition to just couple of organizations' undergo malware programming's to secure the
framework. Mobile innovation is one of the digital security challenges, as we are living in a
profoundly associated world. This innovation catches all the individual data which can be
abused by programmers or unapproved clients which get to the data while downloading any
outsider application (Carr, 2016). The other test is ransom ware; it is most recent infections
that get into the system while downloading the record. The challenges are increasing as
hackers have found side doors to read the information over the network. Some of the hackers
try to access the information by analysing the traffic flow. The reason behind increasing
cybercrimes is innovation of internet of things (Tsai, et. al, 2016). There are various
intrusions that are found over the network with the motive to access the information. Cyber
security protects the data from all the attacks.
Cyber security policies and protections
The challenges and attacks over the network can be protected by using antiviruses and
firewalls that secure all the communication channels. To make sure that information is protected
various policies are designed (Acs, 2017). The acceptable use policy is designed for every business
that undertakes that permission to access data is given only to valid users. The policy for
confidentiality of data is designed that make sure that information is kept confidential and can be
accessed only by valid clients (Lewis, 2014). The gateway of email is also the reason from where
viruses enter the system thus policies are designed that checks the liability of every organisation. The
other policy that is designed are authentication policy that states right that need to be given to
individual regarding who can modify and read the data (Acs, 2017). Apart from that various policies
regarding network channels are designed that assures that channels are integrated (Thuraisingham,
et. al, 2016).
Information and network can be protected by using various techniques. One of the major tools
is cryptography that protects the information from being leaked. Even if the information is leaked it
cannot be read by humans as cryptography is a technique that decodes the text in chipper text. It is the
best way to secure the information and the other ways by using strong passwords that adds up
difficulty among hackers to break it. Apart from that access control list help in deciding who can

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access the information (Thuraisingham, et. al, 2016). Cyber security works on taking regular
backups so that at time of site failure data could be easily recovered.
Over the cyber network the sensitive information is stored regarding credit cards or personal
data. There are chances that information gets leaked in such cases artificial intelligence is used. It
helps in identifying the path through which attacker can enter in the system. These policies need to be
followed by every organisation otherwise it increases overall cost of bringing the system back to
normal condition (Thuraisingham, et. al, 2016). Security of a network will be strong if all the
software, antiviruses and firewalls are updated regularly.
Countermeasures and mitigation strategies
Various precautions and measures need to be taken so that cyber-attacks do not penetrate in
the system (Rawat & Bajracharya, 2015). Some of the mitigation strategies that could be
undertaken are:
 IPS- It stands for intrusion prevention system in which steps are taken to remove bugs from
the network that permits unauthorized access to eh user.
 Firewall- It is gateway of the network that allow only authorised user to enter in the network
and blocks all the vulnerabilities and hackers to hit the network.
 Encryption- it is the best form to protect the data as even if the data is leaked it won’t be
possible for the third party users to access the information.
 VPN- It stands for virtual private network that assure the channels through which
communication take place is secure.
 ACL- This is an access control list that is used to assign right privileges among users. It
enhances the overall performance.
 Security Certification- The network should be certified to assure that all the risks are
reduced.
 Anti-Virus and anti-Spyware software’s- it is recommended that to protect the
network from bugs, viruses and spywares anti viruses should be used.
Reason for cyber crime
The motive behind such criminal activities can be money, revenge, recognition or fun. People
are motivated to gain the sensitive information of an organisation for the benefit of money (Pande,
2017). Some do such activities on the behalf of personal grudges or with the feeling of revenge. Some
people try cyber-attacks just to check new hacking tools and techniques.

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Cyber security techniques
There are various cyber security techniques that are used to protect the network from all the
cyber-attacks.
One such technique is authentication that identifies who is accessing the information and verifying
that it is valid user or not. Thus one time password helps in identifying that information is being
transferred from correct user. Other technique is encryption in that all the data is transformed in an
unreadable format (Wang, Ali & Kelly, 2015). Cyber security also makes use of digital signatures
that helps in validating the data. The message is verified by assuring that it is free from viruses and
worms. The traffic of channels are also organised by using firewalls that helps in blacklisting all the
unauthorised access and making correct configuration (Reed, 2015). Steganography is a technique in
which all the secret documents are made invisible and is retrieved only by valid users.
Apart from using all these techniques there are chances that cybercrime still exist, thus it is
important to report cybercrime (Ashok, Wang, Brown & Govindarasu, 2015)
. Some of the companies still do not report to such cases. It is important to report to cases so that it is
not repeated on regular basis.

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Conclusion
In this report a detail study regarding the topic of cyber security is done. Cyber security is one
of the important concerns that need to be taken care. In this report the importance of cyber security is
discussed along with the objective that is taken into consideration. It mainly aims to maintain
confidentiality, integrity and availability of information. The cyber compliance along with the
possible threats and attacks are discussed. There are various challenges that are faced in cyber
security. The challenges destroys the security of a network are listed. There are various policies and
protections that could be used to maintain the integrity and confidentiality are listed above in the
report. The reason why cyber-crime is increasing with time is discussed along with countermeasures
and mitigation strategies. Various cyber security techniques are listed.

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