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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
- Sprache: Englisch
Over 700 pages of insight into all things cybersecurity Cybersecurity All-in-One For Dummies covers a lot of ground in the world of keeping computer systems safe from those who want to break in. This book offers a one-stop resource on cybersecurity basics, personal security, business security, cloud security, security testing, and security awareness. Filled with content to help with both personal and business cybersecurity needs, this book shows you how to lock down your computers, devices, and systems--and explains why doing so is more important now than ever. Dig in for info on what kind of risks are out there, how to protect a variety of devices, strategies for testing your security, securing cloud data, and steps for creating an awareness program in an organization. * Explore the basics of cybersecurity at home and in business * Learn how to secure your devices, data, and cloud-based assets * Test your security to find holes and vulnerabilities before hackers do * Create a culture of cybersecurity throughout an entire organization This For Dummies All-in-One is a stellar reference for business owners and IT support pros who need a guide to making smart security choices. Any tech user with concerns about privacy and protection will also love this comprehensive guide.
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Cybersecurity All-in-One For Dummies®
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2022950725
ISBN 978-1-394-15285-8 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-394-15286-5 (ePDF); ISBN 978-1-394-15287-2 (epub)
Cybersecurity All-in-One For Dummies®
To view this book's Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and search for “Cybersecurity All-in-One For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the Search box.
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Introduction
About This Book
Foolish Assumptions
Icons Used in This Book
Beyond the Book
Where to Go from Here
Book 1: Cybersecurity Basics
Chapter 1: What Exactly Is Cybersecurity?
Cybersecurity Means Different Things to Different Folks
Cybersecurity Is a Constantly Moving Target
Looking at the Risks Cybersecurity Mitigates
Chapter 2: Getting to Know Common Cyberattacks
Attacks That Inflict Damage
Is That Really You? Impersonation
Messing around with Other People’s Stuff: Tampering
Captured in Transit: Interception
Taking What Isn’t Theirs: Data Theft
Cyberbombs That Sneak into Your Devices: Malware
Poisoned Web Service Attacks
Network Infrastructure Poisoning
Malvertising
Exploiting Maintenance Difficulties
Advanced Attacks
Some Technical Attack Techniques
Chapter 3: The Bad Guys You Must Defend Against
Bad Guys and Good Guys Are Relative Terms
Bad Guys Up to No Good
Cyberattackers and Their Colored Hats
How Cybercriminals Monetize Their Actions
Not All Dangers Come From Attackers: Dealing with Nonmalicious Threats
Defending against These Attackers
Book 2: Personal Cybersecurity
Chapter 1: Evaluating Your Current Cybersecurity Posture
Don’t be Achilles: Identifying Ways You May Be Less than Secure
Identifying Risks
Protecting against Risks
Evaluating Your Current Security Measures
Privacy 101
Banking Online Safely
Safely Using Smart Devices
Cryptocurrency Security 101
Chapter 2: Enhancing Physical Security
Understanding Why Physical Security Matters
Taking Inventory
Locating Your Vulnerable Data
Creating and Executing a Physical Security Plan
Implementing Physical Security
Security for Mobile Devices
Realizing That Insiders Pose the Greatest Risks
Chapter 3: Cybersecurity Considerations When Working from Home
Network Security Concerns
Device Security Concerns
Location Cybersecurity
Video Conferencing Cybersecurity
Social Engineering Issues
Regulatory Issues
Chapter 4: Securing Your Accounts
Realizing You’re a Target
Securing Your External Accounts
Securing Data Associated with User Accounts
Securing Data with Parties You’ve Interacted With
Securing Data at Parties You Haven’t Interacted With
Securing Data by Not Connecting Hardware with Unknown Pedigrees
Chapter 5: Passwords
Passwords: The Primary Form of Authentication
Avoiding Simplistic Passwords
Password Considerations
Creating Memorable, Strong Passwords
Knowing When to Change Passwords
Changing Passwords after a Breach
Providing Passwords to Humans
Storing Passwords
Transmitting Passwords
Discovering Alternatives to Passwords
Chapter 6: Preventing Social Engineering Attacks
Don’t Trust Technology More than You Would People
Types of Social Engineering Attacks
Six Principles Social Engineers Exploit
Don’t Overshare on Social Media
Leaking Data by Sharing Information as Part of Viral Trends
Identifying Fake Social Media Connections
Using Bogus Information
Using Security Software
General Cyberhygiene Can Help Prevent Social Engineering
Book 3: Securing a Business
Chapter 1: Securing Your Small Business
Making Sure Someone Is In Charge
Watching Out for Employees
Dealing with a Remote Workforce
Considering Cybersecurity Insurance
Complying with Regulations and Compliance
Handling Internet Access
Managing Power Issues
Chapter 2: Cybersecurity and Big Businesses
Utilizing Technological Complexity
Managing Custom Systems
Continuity Planning and Disaster Recovery
Looking at Regulations
Deeper Pockets — and Insured
Considering Employees, Consultants, and Partners
Looking at the Chief Information Security Officer’s Role
Chapter 3: Identifying a Security Breach
Identifying Overt Breaches
Detecting Covert Breaches
Chapter 4: Recovering from a Security Breach
An Ounce of Prevention Is Worth Many Tons of Response
Stay Calm and Act Now with Wisdom
Bring in a Pro
Recovering from a Breach without a Pro’s Help
Reinstall Damaged Software
Dealing with Stolen Information
Recovering When Your Data Is Compromised at a Third Party
Chapter 5: Backing Up
Backing Up Is a Must
Backing Up Data from Apps and Online Accounts
Backing Up Data on Smartphones
Conducting Cryptocurrency Backups
Backing Up Passwords
Looking at the Different Types of Backups
Figuring Out How Often You Should Backup
Exploring Backup Tools
Creating a Boot Disk
Knowing Where to Back Up
Knowing Where Not to Store Backups
Encrypting Backups
Testing Backups
Disposing of Backups
Chapter 6: Resetting Your Device
Exploring Two Types of Resets
Rebuilding Your Device after a Hard Reset
Chapter 7: Restoring from Backups
You Will Need to Restore
Wait! Do Not Restore Yet!
Restoring Data to Apps
Restoring from Full Backups of Systems
Restoring from Incremental Backups
Dealing with Deletions
Excluding Files and Folders
Understanding Archives
Restoring Using Backup Tools
Returning Backups to Their Proper Locations
Restoring to Non-Original Locations
Never Leave Your Backups Connected
Restoring from Encrypted Backups
Testing Backups
Restoring Cryptocurrency
Booting from a Boot Disk
Book 4: Securing the Cloud
Chapter 1: Clouds Aren’t Bulletproof
Knowing Your Business
Knowing Your SLA Agreements with Service Providers
Building Your Team
Creating a Risk Management Plan
When Security Is Your Responsibility
Avoiding Security Work with the Help of the Cloud
Chapter 2: Getting Down to Business
Negotiating the Shared Responsibility Model
SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, AaaA!
Managing Your Environment
Managing Security for Devices Not Under Your Control
Applying Security Patches
Looking Ahead
Chapter 3: Developing Secure Software
Turbocharging Development
Automating Testing during Development
Running Your Applications
Like DevOps but for Data
DevSecOps for DataOps
Meeting the Challenges of DataSecOps
Understanding That No Cloud Is Perfect
Chapter 4: Restricting Access
Determining the Level of Access Required
Understanding Least Privilege Policy
Implementing Authentication
Introducing the Alphabet Soup of Compliance
Maintaining Compliance and CSPM
Controlling Access to the Cloud
Getting Certified
Chapter 5: Implementing Zero Trust
Making the Shift from Perimeter Security
Examining the Foundations of Zero Trust Philosophy
Dealing with Zero Trust Challenges
Chapter 6: Using Cloud Security Services
Customizing Your Data Protection
Validating Your Cloud
HSM: Hardware Security Modules for the Big Kids
KMS: Key Management Services for Everyone Else
Setting Up Crypto Service Gateways
Book 5: Testing Your Security
Chapter 1: Introduction to Vulnerability and Penetration Testing
Straightening Out the Terminology
Recognizing How Malicious Attackers Beget Ethical Hackers
Understanding the Need to Hack Your Own Systems
Understanding the Dangers Your Systems Face
Following the Security Assessment Principles
Using the Vulnerability and Penetration Testing Process
Chapter 2: Cracking the Hacker Mindset
What You’re Up Against
Who Breaks into Computer Systems
Why They Do It
Planning and Performing Attacks
Maintaining Anonymity
Chapter 3: Developing Your Security Testing Plan
Establishing Your Goals
Determining Which Systems to Test
Creating Testing Standards
Selecting Security Assessment Tools
Chapter 4: Hacking Methodology
Setting the Stage for Testing
Seeing What Others See
Scanning Systems
Determining What’s Running on Open Ports
Assessing Vulnerabilities
Penetrating the System
Chapter 5: Information Gathering
Gathering Public Information
Mapping the Network
Chapter 6: Social Engineering
Introducing Social Engineering
Starting Your Social Engineering Tests
Knowing Why Attackers Use Social Engineering
Understanding the Implications
Performing Social Engineering Attacks
Social Engineering Countermeasures
Chapter 7: Physical Security
Identifying Basic Physical Security Vulnerabilities
Pinpointing Physical Vulnerabilities in Your Office
Book 6: Enhancing Cybersecurity Awareness
Chapter 1: Knowing How Security Awareness Programs Work
Understanding the Benefits of Security Awareness
Knowing How Security Awareness Programs Work
Recognizing the Role of Awareness within a Security Program
Disputing the Myth of the Human Firewall
Chapter 2: Creating a Security Awareness Strategy
Identifying the Components of an Awareness Program
Figuring Out How to Pay for It All
Chapter 3: Determining Culture and Business Drivers
Understanding Your Organization’s Culture
Identifying Subcultures
Interviewing Stakeholders
Partnering with Other Departments
Chapter 4: Choosing the Best Tools for the Job
Identifying Security Ambassadors
Knowing the Two Types of Communications Tools
Exploring Your Communications Arsenal
Chapter 5: Measuring Performance
Knowing the Hidden Cost of Awareness Efforts
Meeting Compliance Requirements
Collecting Engagement Metrics
Measuring Improved Behavior
Demonstrating a Tangible Return on Investment
Recognizing Intangible Benefits of Security Awareness
Knowing Where You Started: Day 0 Metrics
Chapter 6: Assembling Your Security Awareness Program
Knowing Your Budget
Choosing to Implement One Program or Multiple Programs
Gaining Support from Management
Devising a Quarterly Delivery Strategy
Deciding Whether to Include Phishing Simulations
Planning Which Metrics to Collect and When
Branding Your Security Awareness Program
Chapter 7: Running Your Security Awareness Program
Nailing the Logistics
Getting All Required Approvals
Getting the Most from Day 0 Metrics
Creating Meaningful Reports
Reevaluating Your Program
Redesigning Your Program
Considering Breaking News and Incidents
Chapter 8: Implementing Gamification
Understanding Gamification
Identifying the Four Attributes of Gamification
Figuring Out Where to Gamify Awareness
Examining Some Tactical Gamification Examples
Putting Together a Gamification Program
Promoting the Program
Index
About the Authors
Connect with Dummies
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Book 3 Chapter 5
TABLE 5-1 A Comparison of Full, Incremental, and Differential Backups
Book 3 Chapter 7
TABLE 7-1 Restoration Processes
Book 4 Chapter 1
TABLE 1-1 Risk Levels
Book 4 Chapter 2
TABLE 2-1 Responsibilities per Service
List of Illustrations
Book 1 Chapter 2
FIGURE 2-1: A DDoS attack.
FIGURE 2-2: A man-in-the-middle interception.
FIGURE 2-3: Ransomware demanding ransom.
Book 2 Chapter 3
FIGURE 3-1: Network setup in which the work router communicates through the hom...
FIGURE 3-2: Network setup using separate routers for work and home.
Book 2 Chapter 4
FIGURE 4-1: A (slightly edited image of) a one-time credit card number generato...
FIGURE 4-2: One-time password for Snapchat generated by the app Authy — an exam...
FIGURE 4-3: A secure website.
FIGURE 4-4: Email with a link to a phony page.
FIGURE 4-5: A website as seen in a Tor browser, with the Tor circuit informatio...
Book 2 Chapter 5
FIGURE 5-1: A password manager.
FIGURE 5-2: Secure Folder, the secure area app provided by Samsung for its Andr...
FIGURE 5-3: A phone fingerprint sensor on a Samsung Galaxy S9 in an OtterBox ca...
FIGURE 5-4: An RSA SecureID brand one-time password generator hardware token.
Book 2 Chapter 6
FIGURE 6-1: A phishing email.
FIGURE 6-2: Example of a baiting message.
FIGURE 6-3: An example of an Instagram account impersonating me, using my name,...
Book 3 Chapter 1
FIGURE 1-1: Inbound access is one major difference between businesses and indiv...
Book 3 Chapter 3
FIGURE 3-1: A ransomware screen from an overt infection.
FIGURE 3-2: A defaced website (ostensibly by the hacker group known as the Syri...
FIGURE 3-3: The Microsoft Windows Task Manager.
FIGURE 3-4: An example of communication problems while streaming video. Note th...
FIGURE 3-5: Internet connections configured to use a proxy. If you do not use a...
FIGURE 3-6: The modern version of the notorious Blue Screen of Death that appea...
FIGURE 3-7: This pop-up window from adware malware attempts to scare people int...
Book 4 Chapter 1
FIGURE 1-1: Map applications, APIs, data storage, and IoT devices.
FIGURE 1-2: Color maps help visualize your risk landscape.
FIGURE 1-3: Simple spreadsheet heatmap shows the highest risk.
Book 4 Chapter 2
FIGURE 2-1: Responsibilities based on cloud service types.
Book 4 Chapter 3
FIGURE 3-1: Comparing the waterfall and agile software development methods.
FIGURE 3-2: Moving testing into coding essentially moves it left.
FIGURE 3-3: Software is made up of various components.
FIGURE 3-4: DataSecOps is the collaborative method of data analytics developmen...
Book 4 Chapter 4
FIGURE 4-1: A role-based security system grants access based on responsibilitie...
FIGURE 4-2: Limit access to trusted employees.
FIGURE 4-3: The CASB system sits between your users and your cloud access contr...
FIGURE 4-4: Certification leads to better B2B information security trust.
FIGURE 4-5: The five pillars of SOC 2 certification.
Book 4 Chapter 5
FIGURE 5-1: Using more than one type of authentication increases security.
FIGURE 5-2: Even though people are involved, communication exists between endpo...
FIGURE 5-3: The happy story of public key/private key cryptography.
FIGURE 5-4: Privileges decrease as access to sensitive data increases.
FIGURE 5-5: The NAC and CASB systems can have the same policies when it comes t...
FIGURE 5-6: Sample data flow pattern shows how simple this process can be.
Book 4 Chapter 6
FIGURE 6-1: Fobs, often placed on keyrings, provide one-time tokens without the...
FIGURE 6-2: A simple drag-and-drop interface lets you move and share files usin...
FIGURE 6-3: A typical HSM, with tamper-resistant tape.
FIGURE 6-4: A scytale revealed a message when leather was wrapped around a spec...
FIGURE 6-5: OpenDNSSEC flow diagram.
FIGURE 6-6: The SSH daemon feeds data into the syslog, which is sent to the SIE...
Book 5 Chapter 4
FIGURE 4-1: Netcraft’s web server version utility.
Book 5 Chapter 6
FIGURE 6-1: Using LUCY to start an email phishing campaign.
FIGURE 6-2: Sample email phishing template options in LUCY.
Book 6 Chapter 6
FIGURE 6-1: A sample quarterly awareness program interspersing topics.
Book 6 Chapter 7
FIGURE 7-1: Consolidated metrics dashboard.
FIGURE 7-2: Mobile device loss.
FIGURE 7-3: Phishing results bar graph.
Guide
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
Index
About the Authors
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Introduction
Computer and network security is a complex subject and an ever-moving target. Protecting your information means understanding the threats that are out there, and knowing how to defend against them. Whether you’re securing a business network, cloud data, personal computer, or smart device, the techniques and tools outlined in Cybersecurity All-in-One For Dummies can help.
About This Book
Cybersecurity All-in-One For Dummies provides the guidance, instruction, and tools you need to protect your information from cyberthieves and other ne’er do wells.
The book describes common cyberattacks and how to defend against them. You also gain insight into the bad guys who perform the attacks. Leading cybersecurity experts detail the actions you can take to enhance your personal cybersecurity and that of your small or big business. You see how to protect your devices, and data stored on a network and on the cloud.
This book provides essential instructions for testing the security of your systems. And when you’re ready to create and implement a security awareness program to help reduce potential damage caused by social engineering, physical, phishing, and other attacks, this book has got you covered.
A quick note: Sidebars (shaded boxes of text) provide details that may be of interest but are not crucial to understanding the topics being covered in the main text. Feel free to read them or skip them. You also can skip over paragraphs accompanied by the Technical Stuff icon, as text marked with this icon provides more detail about theory or other aspects of the topic covered in a section.
Foolish Assumptions
Here are some assumptions about you and why you’re picking up this book:
You want to secure your personal or business data and systems against cyberattack.
You are an aspiring information technology (IT) or security professional, or you have some background in managing or working directly in the information security field.
You’re familiar with basic computer, network, and information security concepts and terms.
You have access to a computer and a network on which to use these techniques and tools.
You have the go-ahead from your employer or your client to perform the hacking techniques described in this book.
Disclaimer: This book is intended solely for information technology (IT) and information security professionals to test the security of their (or their clients’) systems in an authorized fashion. If you choose to use the information in this book to hack or break into computer systems maliciously and without authorization, you’re on your own. Neither the authors nor anyone else associated with this book shall be liable or responsible for any unethical or criminal choices that you might make and execute using the methodologies and tools that are described in this book.
Icons Used in This Book
This important information merits repeating — and is worth remembering.
This icon flags information that is a little deeper or more conceptual than the main text. If you’re in a hurry, feel free to skip these paragraphs.
This icon flags actions that can make life easier when you’re working to secure your data and systems.
Take heed of information flagged with this icon to save yourself from problems down the road.
Beyond the Book
In addition to the material in the print or e-book you’re reading right now, this product comes with some access-anywhere goodies on the web. Check out the free Cheat Sheet for information on combatting social engineering attacks, selecting from password-cracking utilities, and creating a security awareness interview. To get this Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and search for “Cybersecurity All-in-One For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the Search box.
Where to Go from Here
You don’t have to read this book from cover to cover, but you can if you like! If you want to find information on a specific aspect of cybersecurity, take a look at the table of contents or index, and then turn to the chapter or section that interests you.
For example, if you want to understand the most common cybersecurity attacks and the people to defend against, turn to Book 1. If you’re interested in enhancing your personal cybersecurity, see Book 2. To secure business data stored on your network and in the cloud, see Books 3 and 4. To test your business’s vulnerability and increase security awareness throughout your organization, see Books 5 and 6.
No matter where you start, you’ll find the information you need to secure the information stored on your personal and business devices, on networks and on the cloud. Good luck!
Book 1
Cybersecurity Basics
Contents at a Glance
Chapter 1: What Exactly Is Cybersecurity?
Cybersecurity Means Different Things to Different Folks
Cybersecurity Is a Constantly Moving Target
Looking at the Risks Cybersecurity Mitigates
Chapter 2: Getting to Know Common Cyberattacks
Attacks That Inflict Damage
Is That Really You? Impersonation
Messing around with Other People’s Stuff: Tampering
Captured in Transit: Interception
Taking What Isn’t Theirs: Data Theft
Cyberbombs That Sneak into Your Devices: Malware
Poisoned Web Service Attacks
Network Infrastructure Poisoning
Malvertising
Exploiting Maintenance Difficulties
Advanced Attacks
Some Technical Attack Techniques
Chapter 3: The Bad Guys You Must Defend Against
Bad Guys and Good Guys Are Relative Terms
Bad Guys Up to No Good
Cyberattackers and Their Colored Hats
How Cybercriminals Monetize Their Actions
Not All Dangers Come From Attackers: Dealing with Nonmalicious Threats
Defending against These Attackers
Chapter 1
What Exactly Is Cybersecurity?
IN THIS CHAPTER
Understanding the difference between cybersecurity and information security
Showing why cybersecurity is a constantly moving target
Understanding the goals of cybersecurity
Looking at the risks mitigated by cybersecurity
To improve your ability to keep yourself and your loved ones cybersecure, you need to understand what cybersecure means, what your goals should be vis-à-vis cybersecurity, and what exactly you’re securing against.
While the answers to these questions may initially seem simple and straightforward, they aren’t. As you see in this chapter, these answers can vary dramatically between people, company divisions, organizations, and even within the same entity at different times.
Cybersecurity Means Different Things to Different Folks
While cybersecurity may sound like a simple enough term to define, in actuality, from a practical standpoint, it means quite different things to different people in different situations, leading to extremely varied relevant policies, procedures, and practices. Individuals who want to protect their social media accounts from hacker takeovers, for example, are exceedingly unlikely to assume many of the approaches and technologies used by Pentagon workers to secure classified networks.
Typically, for example:
For
individuals,
cybersecurity
means that their personal data is not accessible to anyone other than themselves and others they have authorized, and that their computing devices work properly and are free from malware.
For
small business owners,
cybersecurity
may include ensuring that credit card data is properly protected and that standards for data security are properly implemented at point-of-sale registers.
For
firms conducting online business,
cybersecurity
may include protecting servers that untrusted outsiders regularly interact with.
For
shared service providers,
cybersecurity
may entail protecting numerous data centers that house numerous servers that, in turn, host many virtual servers belonging to many different organizations.
For
the government,
cybersecurity
may include establishing different classifications of data, each with its own set of related laws, policies, procedures, and technologies.
The bottom line is that while the word cybersecurity is easy to define, the practical expectations that enters people’s minds when they hear the word vary quite a bit.
Technically speaking, cybersecurity is the subset of information security that addresses information and information systems that store and process data in electronic form, whereas information security encompasses the security of all forms of data (for example, securing a paper file and a filing cabinet).
That said, today, many people colloquially interchange the terms, often referring to aspects of information security that are technically not part of cybersecurity as being part of the latter. Such usage also results from the blending of the two in many situations. Technically speaking, for example, if someone writes down a password on a piece of paper and leaves the paper on a desk where other people can see the password instead of placing the paper in a safe deposit box or safe, that person has violated a principle of information security, not of cybersecurity, even though those actions may result in serious cybersecurity repercussions.
Cybersecurity Is a Constantly Moving Target
While the ultimate goal of cybersecurity may not change much over time, the policies, procedures, and technologies used to achieve it change dramatically as the years march on. Many approaches and technologies that were more than adequate to protect consumers’ digital data in 1980, for example, are effectively worthless today, either because they’re no longer practical to employ or because technological advances have rendered them obsolete or impotent.
While assembling a complete list of every advancement that the world has seen in recent decades and how such changes impact cybersecurity is effectively impossible, we can examine several key development areas and their impacts on the ever-evolving nature of cybersecurity: technological changes, economic model shifts, and outsourcing.
Technological changes
Technological changes tremendously impact cybersecurity. New risks come along with the new capabilities and conveniences that new offerings deliver. As the pact of technological advancement continues to increase, therefore, so does the pace of new cybersecurity risks. While the number of such risks created over the past few decades as the result of new offerings is astounding, the areas described in the following sections have yielded a disproportionate impact on cybersecurity.
Digital data
In the last few decades, dramatic changes have occurred in the technologies that exist, as well as who use such technologies, how they do so, and for what purposes. All of these factors impact cybersecurity.
Consider, for example, that when many of the people alive today were children, controlling access to data in a business environment simply meant that the data owner placed a physical file containing the information into a locked cabinet and gave the key to only people the owner recognized as being authorized personnel and only when they requested the key during business hours. For additional security, the data owner may have located the cabinet in an office that was locked after business hours and which itself was in a building that was also locked and alarmed.
Today, with the digital storage of information, however, simple filing and protection schemes have been replaced with complex technologies that must automatically authenticate users who seek the data from potentially any location at potentially any time, determine whether the users are authorized to access a particular element or set of data, and securely deliver the proper data — all while preventing any attacks against the system servicing data requests, any attacks against the data in transit, and any of the security controls protecting the both of them.
Furthermore, the transition from written communication to email and chat has moved tremendous amounts of sensitive information to Internet-connected servers. Likewise, society’s move from film to digital photography and videography has increased the stakes for cybersecurity. Nearly every photograph and video taken today is stored electronically rather than on film and negatives — a situation that has enabled criminals situated anywhere to either steal people’s images and leak them, hold people’s valuable images ransom with ransomware, or use them to create turmoil in people’s personal lives by creating fake profiles on dating sites, for example. The fact that movies and television shows are now stored and transmitted electronically has likewise allowed pirates to copy them and offer them to the masses — sometimes via malware-infested websites.
The Internet
The most significant technological advancement when it comes to cybersecurity impact has been the arrival of the Internet era, and, more specifically, the transformation of the Internet from a small network connecting researchers at a few universities to an enormous worldwide communication system utilized by a tremendous number of people, businesses, and organizations. In recent years, the Internet has also become the conduit for communication both by billions of smart devices and by people remotely connecting to industrial control systems. Just a few decades ago, it was unfathomable that hackers from across the globe could disrupt a business, manipulate an election, create a fuel shortage, pollute drinking water, or steal a billion dollars. Today, no knowledgeable person would dismiss any such possibilities.
Prior to the Internet era, it was extremely difficult for the average hacker to financially profit by hacking. The arrival of online banking and commerce in the 1990s, however, meant that hackers could directly steal money or goods and services — which meant that not only could hackers quickly and easily monetize their efforts, but unethical people had strong incentives to enter the world of cybercrime.
Cryptocurrency
Compounding those incentives severalfold has been the arrival and proliferation of cryptocurrency over the past decade, along with innovation that has dramatically magnified the potential return-on-investment for criminals involved in cybercrime, simultaneously increasing their ability to earn money through cybercrime and improving their ability to hide while doing so. Criminals historically faced a challenge when receiving payments since the account from which they ultimately withdrew the money could often be tied to them. Cryptocurrency effectively eliminated such risks.
In addition, not only has the dramatic rise in the value of cryptocurrencies held by criminals over the past few years enriched many crooks, providing evildoers with the resources to invest in enhancing their cyber-arsenals, but also the public’s perception of cryptocurrency as a quick way to get rich has helped scammers perpetuate all sorts of social engineering–based cybercrimes related to cryptocurrency investing.
Furthermore, the availability and global liquidity of cryptocurrency has helped criminals launder money obtained through the perpetration of all sorts of crimes.
Mobile workforces and ubiquitous access
Not that many years ago, in the pre-Internet era, it was impossible for hackers to access corporate systems remotely because corporate networks were not connected to any public networks, and often had no dial-in capabilities. Executives on the road would often call their assistants to check messages and obtain necessary data while they were remote. In later years they may have connected to corporate networks via special dial-up connections using telephone-line–based private lines for extremely limited access to only one or two specific systems.
Connectivity to the Internet, of course, created risk, but initially most firewalls were set up in ways that did not allow people outside the organization to initiate communications — so, short of firewall misconfigurations and/or bugs, most internal systems remained relatively isolated. The dawn of e-commerce and e-banking, of course, meant that certain production systems had to be reachable and addressable from the outside world, but employee networks, for example, usually remained generally isolated.
The arrival of remote access technologies — starting with services like Outlook Web Access and pcAnywhere, and evolving to full VPN and VPN-like access — has totally changed the game.
The dramatic reduction in the cost of cellular-based high-speed Internet access and the availability of mobile data plans supporting data limits sufficient enough to allow effective full-time use have dramatically reduced the need for utilizing public Wi-Fi connections. Risks that one might have deemed reasonable to take a few years ago in order to achieve various business aims have become unnecessary, and as such, policies and procedures regarding public Wi-Fi access must be updated.
Smart devices
Likewise, the arrival of smart devices and the Internet of Things (the universe of devices that are connected to the Internet, but that are not traditional computers) — whose proliferation and expansion are presently occurring at a startling rate — means that unhackable solid-state machines are being quickly replaced with devices that can potentially be controlled by hackers halfway around the world.
Globalization has also meant that cheap Internet of Things (IoT) devices can be ordered by consumers in one country from a supplier in another country halfway around the world — introducing without any oversight all sorts of unknown hardware into personal and corporate environments.
Big data
While big data is helping facilitate the creation of many cybersecurity technologies, it also creates opportunities for attackers. By correlating large amounts of information about the people working for an organization, for example, criminals can more easily than before identify ideal methods for social engineering their way into the organization or locate and exploit possible vulnerabilities in the organization’s infrastructure. As a result, various organizations have been effectively forced to implement all sorts of controls to prevent the leaking of information, and the practices of many organizations have invited all sorts of accusations around data misuse and inappropriate protections from both employees and outsiders.
The COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic served as a watershed moment in the history of cybersecurity. By forcing people to stay home in environments that are unprecedentedly isolated from one another, the novel coronavirus dramatically — and likely permanently — changed the way people in the Western world work, thereby yielding multiple, significant impacts on cybersecurity.
In the short term, the pandemic created all sorts of cybersecurity problems. Organizations that had no work-from-home infrastructures in place, or had such infrastructure but only for a limited portion of their employee populations, were suddenly faced with having to enable people to work from home — often without the ability to prepare users, policies, procedures, and technologies in advance. Many such businesses could not distribute laptops or security devices fast enough to prevent work stoppages, and as a result, relied on users to utilize their personal devices for work purposes without any additional security layers added.
Likewise, few organizations offered their employees separate Internet connections or separate routers for their remote workstations, so remote workers were nearly always sharing physical and logical networks with their other personal devices and possibly with their children who may have been gaming and/or attending virtual school. The security risks of doing such is discussed in detail in Book 2, Chapter 3.
Compounding COVID-19–inflicted cybersecurity problems was the fact that while many employers did provide some forms of endpoint security software, many did not, and even those that did rarely addressed any hardware-based risks. To this day, for example, many employers have no idea what router models their employees are using for remote access or when such devices were last updated.
Another major cybersecurity concern created by the pandemic has been that communications between employees shifted from conference rooms to remote meetings, opening the doors for hackers to disrupt communications or steal confidential information. The problems were so bad that a new term “zoom bombing” was coined in 2020 to refer to the practice of mischievous folks joining and wreaking havoc in virtual meetings to which they were never invited.
Of course, the fact that people who would otherwise work together in the same location are suddenly unable to communicate quickly in person has also opened the door for many social engineering attacks. For example, a CFO who receives an email from the boss asking that the company pay a certain party for services cannot verify the validity of the request as the CFO has done many times in the past by walking ten feet to the boss’s office to confirm that the boss actually sent the message.
Likewise, people working in homes in which children are in virtual school, or quarantined, or simply living, often suffer from far more interruptions than they would had they been working in an office setting. Interruptions often lead to mistakes, and mistakes often lead to cybersecurity problems. The stress of remaining socially isolated for long periods of time also increases the odds of people making dangerous cybersecurity errors.
At a macro level, the sudden shift to work-at-home arrangements has meant that many cybersecurity professionals are increasingly overwhelmed, a problem further exacerbated by organizations having to reallocate resources — sometimes shifting both people and money from security projects to efforts to ensure continuity of operations.
And, of course, being confined to their homes has afforded many hackers more time to work on their crafts as well, perhaps contributing to the significant rise in the number of zero-day attacks and other newer forms of cybersecurity attacks seen since the pandemic’s onset. Book 1, Chapter 2 dives into many of the common cyberattacks that are out there.
Entire books have been written on the impact of technological advancement. The main point to understand is that technological advancement has had a significant impact on cybersecurity, making security harder to deliver and raising the stakes when parties fail to properly protect their assets. In addition, unforeseen developments, such as pandemics, can bring sudden, huge technological changes that carry with them tremendous cybersecurity dangers.
Social shifts
Various changes in the ways that humans behave and interact with one another have also had a major impact on cybersecurity. The Internet, for example, allows people from all over the world to interact in real-time. Of course, this real-time interaction also enables criminals all over the world to commit crimes remotely. But it also allows citizens of repressive countries and free countries to communicate, creating opportunities for dispelling the perpetual propaganda utilized as excuses for the failure of totalitarianism to produce quality of lives on par with the democratic world. At the same time, it also delivers to the cyberwarriors of governments at odds with one another the ability to launch attacks via the same network.
The conversion of various information management systems from paper to computer, from isolated to Internet-connected, and from accessible-only-in-the-office to accessible from any smartphone or computer has dramatically changed the equation when it comes to what information hackers can steal. And the COVID-19 pandemic has brought many of these issues to the forefront.
Furthermore, in many cases in which technological conversions were, for security reasons, not initially done, the pressure emanating from the expectations of modern people that every piece of data be available to them at all times from anywhere has forced such conversions to occur, creating additional opportunities for criminals. To the delight of hackers, many organizations that, in the past, wisely protected sensitive information by keeping it offline have simply lost the ability to enjoy such protections if they want to stay in business. No modern example portrays this as well as the sudden global shift to remote working arrangements in 2020.
Social media has also transformed the world of information — with people growing accustomed to sharing far more about themselves than ever before — often with audiences far larger than before as well. Today, due to the behavioral shift in this regard, it is trivial for evildoers from anywhere to assemble lists of a target’s friends, professional colleagues, and relatives and to establish mechanisms for communication with all those people. Likewise, it is easier than ever before to find out what technologies a particular firm utilizes and for what purposes, discover people’s travel schedules, and ascertain their opinions on various topics or their tastes in music and movies. The trend toward increased sharing continues. Most people remain blindly unaware of, and unconcerned with, how much information about them lives on Internet-connected machines and how much other information about them can be extrapolated from the aforementioned data.
All these changes have translated into a scary reality: Due to societal shifts, evildoers can easily launch much larger, more sophisticated social engineering attacks today than they could just a few years.
Economic model shifts
Connecting nearly the entire world has allowed the Internet to facilitate other trends with tremendous cybersecurity ramifications. Operational models that were once unthinkable, such as that of an American company utilizing a call center in India and a software development shop in the Philippines, have become the mainstay of many corporations. These changes, however, create cybersecurity risks of many kinds.
The last 20 years have seen a tremendous growth in the outsourcing of various tasks from locations in which they’re more expensive to carry out to regions in which they can be accomplished at much lower costs. The notion that a company in the United States could rely primarily on computer programmers in India or in the Philippines or that entrepreneurs in New York seeking to have a logo made for their business could, shortly before going to bed, pay someone halfway around the globe $5.50 to create it and have the logo in their email inbox immediately upon waking up the next morning, would have sounded like economic science-fiction a generation ago. Today, it’s not only common, but also in many cases, it is more common than any other method of achieving similar results.
Of course, many cybersecurity ramifications result from such transformations of how people do business.
Data being transmitted needs to be protected from destruction, modification, and theft, and globalization means that greater assurance is needed to ensure that back doors are not intentionally or inadvertently inserted into code. Greater protections are needed to prevent the theft of intellectual property and other forms of corporate espionage. Code developed in foreign countries, for example, may be at risk of having backdoors inserted by agents of their respective governments. Likewise, computer equipment may have backdoors inserted into hardware components — a problem the U.S. government is struggling with addressing as this book goes to print.
Hackers no longer necessarily need to directly breach the organizations they seek to hack; they merely need to compromise one or more of the organizations’ providers. And such providers may be far less careful with their information security and personnel practices than the ultimate target, or may be subject to manipulation by governments far less respectful of people’s rights than are the powers-that-be in the ultimate targets’ location.
Political shifts
As with advances in technology, political shifts have had tremendous cybersecurity repercussions, some of which seem to be permanent fixtures of news headlines. The combination of government power and mighty technology has often proven to be a costly one for ordinary people. If current trends continue, the impact on cybersecurity of various political shifts will continue to grow substantially in the foreseeable future.
Data collection
The proliferation of information online and the ability to attack machines all over the world have meant that governments can spy on citizens of their own countries and on the residents of other nations to an extent never before possible.
Furthermore, as more and more business, personal, and societal activities leave behind digital footprints, governments have much easier access to a much greater amount of information about their potential intelligence targets than they could acquire even at dramatically higher costs just a few years ago. Coupled with the relatively low cost of digital storage, advancing big data technologies, and the expected eventual impotence of many of today’s encryption technologies due to the emergence of quantum computing and other cutting-edge developments, governments have a strong incentive to collect and store as much information as they can about as many people as they can, in case it is of use at some later date. It is more likely than not, for example, that hostile governments may have already begun compiling dossiers on the people who will eventually serve as president and vice president of the United States 25 years from now.
The long-term consequences of this phenomenon are, obviously, as of yet unknown, but one thing is clear: If businesses do not properly protect data, less-than-friendly nations are likely to obtain it and store it for use in either the short term, the long term, or both.
Election interference
A generation ago, for one nation to interfere in the elections of another was no trivial matter. Of course, such interference existed — it has occurred as long as there have been elections — but carrying out significant interference campaigns was expensive, resource-intensive, and extremely risky.
To spread misinformation and other propaganda, materials had to be printed and physically distributed or recorded and transmitted via radio, meaning that individual campaigns were likely to reach only small audiences. As such, the efficacy effects of such efforts were often quite low, and the risk of the party running the campaign being exposed was relatively high, and often carried with it the potential for severe repercussions.
Manipulating voter registration databases to prevent legitimate voters from voting and/or to allow bogus voters to vote was extremely difficult and entailed tremendous risks; someone “working on the inside” would likely have had to be nothing short of a traitor in order to have any real significant on election results. In a country such as the United States, in which voter registration databases are decentralized and managed on a county level, recruiting sufficient saboteurs to truly impact a major election would likely have been impossible, and the odds of getting caught while attempting to do so were likely extremely high.
Likewise, in the era of paper ballots cast in person and of manual vote counting, for a foreign power to manipulate actual vote counts on any large scale was impractical, if not impossible.
Today, however, the game has changed. A government can easily spread misinformation through social media at an extremely low cost. If it crafts a well-thought-out campaign, it can rely on other people to spread the misinformation — something that people could not do en masse in the era of radio recordings and printed pamphlets. The ability to reach many more people, at a much lower cost than ever before, has meant that more parties are able to interfere in political campaigns and can do so with more efficacy than in the past. Similarly, governments can spread misinformation to stir up civil discontent within their adversaries’ nations and to spread hostility between ethnic and religious groups living in foreign lands.
Insecure mail-in ballots as used throughout the United States during the 2020 presidential election aggravated mistrust. And, with voter registration databases stored electronically and sometimes on servers that are at least indirectly connected to the Internet, records may be able to be added, modified, or deleted from halfway across the globe without detection. Even if such hacking is, in reality, impossible, the fact that many citizens today believe that it may be possible has led to an undermining of faith in elections, a phenomenon that we have witnessed in recent years and that has permeated throughout all levels of society. Even Jimmy Carter, a former president of the United States, expressed at one point that that he believed that full investigation into the 2016 presidential election would show that Donald Trump lost the election — despite there being absolutely no evidence whatsoever to support such a conclusion, even after a thorough FBI investigation into the matter. Statements and actions from the other side of the political aisle — including the terrible chaos at the U.S. Capitol after the 2020 presidential election — showed clearly that concerns about election integrity, and the perception that elections might be manipulatable through cyberattacks and other technology-based techniques, are bipartisan. It is also not hard to imagine that if online voting were ever to arrive, the potential for vote manipulation by foreign governments, criminals, and even political parties within the nation voting — and for removing the ballot auditability that exists today — would grow astronomically.
In an indication of how much concern is growing around potential election manipulation, consider that a decade ago, the United States did not consider election-related computer systems to be critical infrastructure, and did not directly provide federal funding to secure such systems. Today, most people understand that the need for cybersecurity in such areas is of paramount importance, and the policies and behavior of just a few years ago seems nothing short of crazy.
Hacktivism
Likewise, the spread of democracy since the collapse of the Soviet Union a generation ago, coupled with Internet-based interaction between people all over the globe, has ushered in the era of hacktivism. People are aware of the goings-on in more places than in the past. Hackers angry about some government policy or activity in some location may target that government or the citizens of the country over which it rules from places far away. Likewise, citizens of one country may target entities in another country with whose policies they disagree, or whose government they consider a national adversary.
Greater freedom
At the same time, repressed people are now more aware of the lifestyles of people in freer and more prosperous countries, a phenomenon that has both forced some governments to liberalize, and motivated others to implement cybersecurity-type controls to prevent using various Internet-based services.
Sanctions
Another political ramification of cybersecurity pertains to international sanctions: Rogue states subject to such sanctions have been able to use cybercrime of various forms to circumvent such sanctions.
For example, North Korea is believed to have spread malware that mines cryptocurrency for the totalitarian state to computers all over the world, thereby allowing the country to circumvent sanctions by obtaining liquid money that can easily be spent anywhere.
Thus, the failure by individuals to adequately secure their personal computers can directly impact political negotiations.
New balances of power
While the militaries of certain nations have long since grown more powerful than those of their adversaries — both the quality and quantity of weapons vary greatly between nations — when it comes to cybersecurity the balance of power is totally different.
While the quality of cyberweapons may vary between countries, the fact that launching cyberattacks costs little means that all militaries have an effectively unlimited supply of whatever weapons they use. In fact, in most cases, launching millions of cyberattacks costs little more than launching just one.
Also, unlike in the physical world in which any nation that bombed civilian homes in the territory of its adversary can reasonably expect to face a severe reprisal, rogue governments regularly hack with impunity people in other countries. Victims often are totally unaware that they have been compromised, rarely report such incidents to law enforcement, and certainly don’t know whom to blame.
