What is Cybersecurity?

Question 1

Define Cybersecurity

Answer 1

Cybersecurity is the practice of protecting systems, networks, and programs from digital attacks.

Question 2

What is the CIA Triad?

Answer 2

A basic, overarching model for Cybersecurity. Stands for:
- Confidentiality
- Integrity
- Availability

Question 3

What is CONFIDENTIALITY, and what are some examples of how it is managed (CIA Triad)?

Answer 3

Confidentiality is the protection of private information and can be managed by:
1) Keeping levels of access and setting permissions
2) Encrypting Data and Files
3) Requiring multi-factor authentication

Question 4

What is INTEGRITY and what are some techniques related to integrity? (CIA Triad)

Answer 4

Data integrity refers to security controls that protect data from being changed or deleted.
1) Keeping backups of the data in its correct state, and logging versions
2) Using cryptography to securely check for changes
3) Keeping track of digital signatures to prove integrity of data

Question 5

What is AVAILABILITY, and how is it accomplished? (CIA Triad)

Answer 5

Availability refers to data being consistently, reliably available to those authorized, and is accomplished by:
1) Always monitoring servers and networks
2) Maintaining hardware & software
3) Having a plan for disaster recovery

Question 6

What are the primary domains of Cybersecurity?

Answer 6

1) Security Engineering
2) Governance & Compliance
3) Risk Management & Threat Intelligence
4) Security Operations
5) Education

Question 7

What are the primary components of Security Engineering?

Answer 7

1) Information Security
2) Network Security
3) Application Security
4) Cloud Security
5) Cryptography
6) Critical Infrastructure Security

Question 8

What is Information Security?

Answer 8

InfoSec protects data in any form (physical and digital) from being accessed, modified, shared, or deleted by the wrong people.

Question 9

What is the GDPR? (General Data Protection Regulation)

Answer 9

In 2016, the European Parliament and Council agreed on the General Data Protection Regulation. In the spring of 2018, the GDPR began requiring companies to:

1) provide data breach notifications
2) appoint a data-protection officer
3) require user consent for data processing
4) anonymize data for privacy

All companies operating within the EU must comply with these standards.

Question 10

What is Network Security?

Answer 10

Network security is concerned with the network infrastructure of an organization that guards against unauthorized access or data from being intercepted.

Question 11

What is Application Security?

Answer 11

Application security refers to implementing measures that defend an application (mobile, desktop, or web) from attack, including both software and hardware solutions.

Examples of application security include secure coding, the use of antivirus programs, firewalls, and encryption.

Question 12

What is Cloud Security?

Answer 12

Cloud security refers to the new field of making sure resources uploaded into the cloud are secure.

Question 13

What is Cryptography?

Answer 13

Cryptography focuses on methods to hide and un-hide information so that data is only readable or usable by authorized people.

Question 14

What is Critical Infrastructure Security?

Answer 14

Critical infrastructure security is defending physical systems that are becoming more digital/networked, such as energy grids, hospitals, water and waste systems, and even schools. Among the issues that come up are natural disasters and outages.

Question 15

What is Cybersecurity Governance & Compliance?

Answer 15

1) Governance refers to understanding international, federal, and state laws and regulations for security.
2) Compliance refers to making sure an organization enforces certain policies, and continuously auditing as well.

Question 16

How is Cybersecurity Risk managed?

Answer 16

Through identifying risks, assessing the likelihood and potential threat of security vulnerabilities, and finding the most cost-effective and efficient security measures.

Question 17

What is Cybersecurity Threat Intelligence?

Answer 17

Threat intelligence is the continuous gathering of knowledge of possible attacks. Intelligence could look like knowing the motivations behind attacks, what the scale of attacks could be, and what vectors that might use. These roles often intersect with data science and machine learning because of the need to process all this information.

Question 18

What is Cybersecurity Security Operations?

Answer 18

People who work in this area are responsible for implementing security principles, monitoring for incidents, and recovering from disasters. They work closely with everyone under the security umbrella to:

1) Detect when something has gone wrong.
2) Implement preventative measures against cyber attacks.
3) Make sure there are back-ups in case a system is compromised and data is lost.
4) Track changes to a system.
5) Come up with disaster recovery plans in advance
6) Create documents and organization policies for all of the above.