This webinar will explain what is cybersecurity, how it works, why cybersecurity, who is a cybersecurity expert, and what are the different types of cyber attacks and where we can fit in Cybersecurity. The speaker of the webinar was Miss Nik, a lecturer from Asia Pacific University (APU).

What is Cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity is the practice of protecting critical systems and sensitive information from digital attacks. It is also known as information technology (IT) security, and cybersecurity measures are designed to combat threats against networked systems and applications, whether those threats originate from inside or outside of an organization.

Computer security consists of three key objectives:

Elements of Computer Security

Confidentiality

to ensure that computer-related assets are accessed only by authorised parties
Prevent the disclosure of sensitive information from unauthorised people, resources, and processes

Integrity

The protection of system information or processes from intentional or accidental modification
It means that assets can be modified only by authorised parties or only in authorised ways.

Availability

The assurance that systems and data are accessible by authorised users when it's needed.
In other words, if some person or system has legitimate access to a particular set of objects, that access should not be prevented.

Who Is At Risk of Being Hacked?

Some of the biggest misconceptions and myths are:

The internet is so huge; No one will attack my computer!

Hackers use automated tools that continually probe computers to find victims.

A new, unprotected computer installed on the internet will generally be compromised within seven minutes.

My computer contains no valuable information!

Anyone who uses their computer very much probably has relatively valuable data stored in many places

Firewalls and anti-virus software will fully protect my computer.

A lot of techniques are used by attackers to bypass security solutions!

Emails from your friends are probably safe

It is easy to spoof emails to use anyone's identity as the sender of a note.

What Is Hacking?

1960 – Began in MIT with the Model railroad club.

Internet Engineering Task Force - All findings will be documented in Request of command (RFC).
Hacker - A person who delights in having an intimate understanding of the internal working of a system, computers and computer networks in particular - RFC

1980 – Robert Tappan Morris

Created 1st internet worm and caused a lot of down time.
Resulted with the computer Emergency Response Team at Carnegie Mellon, responsible for responding to small worms.
Hacker
- An individual who gains access with malicious intent in their mind.
- A deep understanding of something particularly with relation to computers and computing.
- Exploring and the joy of learning new things and understanding them very clearly and being able to manipulate those things in ways that maybe other people haven't before.
- Digging into problems to find solutions in creative and interesting ways and sometimes finding problems where there were no problems previously.

Reasons Why People Hack

Just For Fun
To Make A Political Point
For The Challenge
To Get There Before The Bad Guys

Skills Necessary For Cybersecurity

Computing

Basic understanding of operating systems
Understanding of basic software systems
Grasp on CLI commands

Networking

Cables, Systems, Switches
Networking Architecture
Understanding of different networking protocols

Life Skills

Ability to think out of the box
Ability to accept failure and move
Perseverance

Where Can We Fit In Cybersecurity?

If you are interested in ethical hacking, there are several career opportunities in various industries. From vulnerability management, risk assessment domain, to training or awareness in user education, you are able to provide effective protection of networks, systems, and applications for your organisations.

Q & A Session

CIA Triangle . Is it possible for the system to achieve these three criteria?

Miss Nik: Yes, it depends on the systems within the organisation.

Can computer science students go into cybersecurity courses?

Miss Nik: Whether you are from IT , computer science, business, you can always select cybersecurity as your Elective course at APU.

Do students need to learn coding to be a professional in cybersecurity?

Miss Nik: Yes, it is important to pick up practical skills like coding and programming to understand the entire computer system.

Hope this article helps you learn more about Cyber Security courses and its industry. If you are unsure of which courses is more suitable for you, you can discover your interest and potential with our psychometric test for free now!

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Information accurate at time of writing, May 2022

What is Cyber Security?