Cybersecurity 1: Introduction to cybersecurity 2013 Slide 1
Cybersecurity 1
Introduction to cybersecurity

Cybersecurity 1: Introduction to cybersecurity 2013 Slide 2
What is cybersecurity?
• A very wide-ranging term with no
standard definition.
• It covers all aspects of ensuring the
protection of citizens, businesses and
critical infrastructures from threats that
arise from their use of computers and
the internet.

Cybersecurity 1: Introduction to cybersecurity 2013 Slide 3
Internet-enabled crime
• Criminals see lower risks and high
rewards from cyber crime than through
‘physical’ crime
• Stealing confidential and national
secrets by intelligence agencies and
others now involves illegally accessing
digitised information.

Cybersecurity 1: Introduction to cybersecurity 2013 Slide 4
Internet-enabled crime
• Nation states have the potential to
disrupt an enemy’s economy and
perhaps reach their strategic objectives
without risk to their armed forces
• There are fewer online barriers to anti-
social behaviour on the net than in face
to face interaction.

Cybersecurity 1: Introduction to cybersecurity 2013 Slide 5
Scope of cybersecurity
• Techniques of threat and attack
analysis and mitigation
• Protection and recovery
technologies, processes and
procedures for individuals, business
and government
• Policies, laws and regulation relevant to
the use of computers and the Internet

Cybersecurity 1: Introduction to cybersecurity 2013 Slide 6
Cybersecurity is not…
• Computer security
• Security engineering
• Encryption
• Computer crime
• Computer forensics

Cybersecurity 1: Introduction to cybersecurity 2013 Slide 7
Cybersecurity is…
• A socio-technical systems problem
• Security problems almost always stem
from a mix of technical, human and
organisational causes

Cybersecurity 1: Introduction to cybersecurity 2013 Slide 8
Cyber attack
• A malicious attempt, using digital
technologies, to cause personal or
property loss or damage, and/or steal or
alter confidential personal or
organisational data

Cybersecurity 1: Introduction to cybersecurity 2013 Slide 9
Insider attacks
• Attacks to an organisation carried out by
someone who is inside that organisation
• Difficult to counter using technical
methods as the insider may have valid
credentials to access the system

Cybersecurity 1: Introduction to cybersecurity 2013 Slide 10
External attacks
• Attacks to an organisation carried out by
an external agent
• Requires either valid credentials or the
exploitation of some vulnerability to gain
access to the systems

Cybersecurity 1: Introduction to cybersecurity 2013 Slide 11
© Infosecurity magazine 2012

Cybersecurity 1: Introduction to cybersecurity 2013 Slide 12
Malware
• Software that has some malicious intent
and which is installed on a user’s
computer without that user’s consent

Cybersecurity 1: Introduction to cybersecurity 2013 Slide 13
Malware
• Key loggers
– Software installed on a computer that
captures key strokes and sends these
to a remote system
– Used to try and get personal
information to gain access to sites
such as banks

Cybersecurity 1: Introduction to cybersecurity 2013 Slide 14
Malware
• Ransomware
– Software that runs on a user’s computer
and demands that the user pays some
other organisation. If they don’t, the
information on their computer will be
destroyed.

Cybersecurity 1: Introduction to cybersecurity 2013 Slide 15
Malware transmission
• Malware can usually spread itself from
one computer to another either as a
virus or as a worm

Cybersecurity 1: Introduction to cybersecurity 2013 Slide 16
Viruses and worms
• Virus – malware attached to a carrier
such as an email message or a word
processing document
• Worm – malware can autonomously
spread itself without a carrier, using
information about connected computers

Cybersecurity 1: Introduction to cybersecurity 2013 Slide 17
Malicious and accidental
damage
• Cybersecurity is most concerned with
– Cyber attacks
• Cyber-accidents
– Accidental events that can cause
loss or damage to to an individual,
business or public body

Cybersecurity 1: Introduction to cybersecurity 2013 Slide 18
• Many of the same technologies used to
protect against external attack also
protect against cyber-accidents.
• However, sometimes protecting against
cyber attacks increases the probability
of cyber-accidents.

Cybersecurity 1: Introduction to cybersecurity 2013 Slide 19
• Adding protection increases system
complexity which increases the likelihood of
introducing bugs into the system and for
humans to make mistakes.
• For example
– An attack detection system might mistakenly
detects an external attack and shut down part of
the system in response to this.

Cybersecurity 1: Introduction to cybersecurity 2013 Slide 20
Summary
• Cybersecurity all about protecting, repelling
and recovering from cyberattacks
• Need to be aware of the potential for both
insider and external cyber attacks
• Malware is malicious code that is installed on
a computer without the owner’s consent.