The Different Types of Cybersecurity

Introduction

Cybersecurity has become a prominent aspect of every business landscape. Without a robust cybersecurity posture, it is challenging to carry out a good business running online or deliver quality services. According to a research report, the cybersecurity market is growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.57% between 2022 and 2027. As per the forecast, we will witness a cybersecurity market cap of 203.5 billion USD by 2027. All these facts clearly explain that the demand for cybersecurity is witnessing an up-thrust in the years to come. Let us understand the various types of cybersecurity available in the IT world.

The Different Types of Cybersecurity

For understanding how overall cybersecurity works at an enterprise level, it is essential to understand each of the cybersecurity types & the security measures they include.

Network Security

Enterprise networks often become the target of cybercriminals. It is because most enterprise-level attacks occur on the enterprise network. Cybercriminals look for network vulnerabilities and design flaws and try to penetrate them. That is where network security professionals use specialized tools like Next Generation Firewalls (NGF), Identity and Access Management (IAM), Network Access Control (NAC) tools, Snort, Wireshark, etc. They help to monitor & secure the network perimeter. Network security also involves vulnerability penetration testing in networks using tools like Nexpose, Nessus, etc. Network security professionals should also develop network architecture with advanced and multi-layer network threat prevention technologies such as Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS), Sandboxing, Next-Gen Antivirus, and Content Disarm and Reconstruction systems. Enterprises should also deploy network security professionals to perform network analysis, monitoring, and spontaneous network security orchestration.

Cloud Security

With the increase in cloud adoption, every enterprise is leveraging the cloud in one way or the other. Cloud-based services like Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), or Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) have become prominent because of their pay-as-you-go model. This ever-increasing use of the cloud also lures attackers and cybercriminals to breach the data & cloud storage or discover and exploit vulnerabilities in those systems. Cloud security is another popular types of cyber security. Thus, cybersecurity comes with a new branch of security that protects cloud systems from cyber threats. Cloud security includes security strategies like controls, policies, protection principles & services that help prevent the entire enterprise cloud deployment (data, hosted applications, network infrastructure, etc.) against cyber threats. Even all cloud providers also deliver enterprise-grade security to cloud systems and military-grade encryption to cloud data. Some third-party supplementary solutions also help prevent the cloud ecosystem against breaches. Modern cloud security professionals also deploy behavioural analyzed ML algorithms and AI-driven tools to identify threats and notify the cloud providers in advance about any imminent coming threat.

Endpoint Security

It is another vertical or type of cybersecurity that focuses on securing the entry points or endpoints, such as laptops, desktops, IoTs, and smartphones, that remain connected to the enterprise network and servers. Companies use tools like Sophos to monitor & prevent unnecessary services from running in these endpoints. Endpoint security solutions & systems shield these endpoints on a network or even within the cloud from various cyber threats. Again the zero-trust security model is the most prescribed entry point security model. It helps secure end-user devices through security controls like biometrics & passwords or advanced threat prevention tools such as anti-phishing and anti-ransomware.

Mobile Security

It is another type of cybersecurity that deals with securing mobile devices. According to some reports, 91 percent of corporate employees use at least one mobile app. Another stat shows that 70 percent of employees retain their phones in front of their eyes at work. It shows that corporate professionals use mobile phones & most of them use them for official purposes. Even companies gift smartphones to senior management for various working purposes. Thus, it is necessary to prevent smartphones from exposing data and business plans to cybercriminals. Enterprise-grade mobile security averts the owner from jailbreaking or rooting. Companies can also set security policies on what Instant Messengers (IMs), apps, or services to use. Enterprises also deploy security solutions like Mobile Device Management (MDM) that will automatically ensure that only compliant smartphones & other mobile devices get access to corporate networks or assets.

IoT Security

The Internet of Things (IoT) has become popular because it helps automate various tasks in mills, factories, industries, and enterprises. With the help of sensors and IoT devices, enterprises can perform numerous tasks without human intervention. Along with productivity benefits, it also exposes enterprises and manufacturing units to cyber threats. Thus, securing these IoT systems also plays a significant role in corporate security. It prevents cybercriminals from using the internet and performing nefarious actions such as infecting corporate networks or using these IoT systems as bots for DDoS attacks. To protect IoT systems, security professionals discover and classify all connected IoT devices. Then they perform auto-segmentation to control & monitor network activities and employ Intrusion Prevention Systems to detect & prevent exploits against vulnerable IoT systems. The security professionals also ensure that the IoT firmware is patched, up-to-date, and free from bugs.

Application Security

It is one of the popular types of cyber security. Apps, especially web apps, are at the forefront of any business or brand. Since the apps interact the most with the end-user, they have a high attack surface and are prone to cyber-attacks. That is where enterprises come up with application security as another vertical of cybersecurity. Application security engineers and professionals follow the OWASP to identify and deal with web application security. Since 2007, OWASP has been releasing lists of the top 10 threats that are critical web applications. It tells about some well-known web application vulnerabilities like misconfiguration, SQL injection, CSRF, broken authentication, cross-site scripting etc. OWASP also discusses preventing these threats and preparing a robust security posture while developing web applications.

Zero Trust Security

It is one of the popular types of cyber security. Most legacy security mechanisms are perimeter-focused. They drive on the policy of creating walls around the organization's valuable assets using tools like firewalls, anti-malware, antivirus, etc. However, such an approach cannot withstand complicated network attacks and internal threats. Off-premises corporate assets, i.e., storing corporate data and solutions on the cloud, can become dangerous to overall security. That is where zero-trust takes a more granular approach to protect enterprise resources and business user data. The Zero Trust Security principle asks for strict identity verification for every device and person. It runs on the concept that the model will distrust every individual or device within the network perimeter and consider them a threat until it gets authenticated, authorized, and continuously validated to access or use the resources. Any device accessing the enterprise resource over a private network needs immediate identity verification. The model assumes that there isn't any traditional or bounded network edge. The network can reside locally or spread across the cloud.

The Evolution of the Cyber Security Threat Landscape

Like security postures are evolving with the complexity of technology, the threat landscape is also maturing. With the evolving threat landscape, enterprises need advanced protection against cybercriminals. Let us understand some well-known cyber-attacks posing a massive threat to enterprise assets and infrastructures.

1. Gen V Attacks: With the continually evolving landscape of cyber threats, we are witnessing new generations of cyber threats. To date, we can categorize cyber threats into five different generations. These categorizations depend on the threat impact. We have come up with solutions to mitigate them.

   • Gen 1 (Virus-based attacks): It came in the late 1980s. They attack standalone systems. That is why lots of antivirus-making companies have come up since then.
   • Gen 2 (Network-based attacks): With the rise of the internet, cybercriminals found this technology fascinating to attack other users remotely. Jeff Mogul of Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC) proposed the firewall and packet filtering concepts in 1989. Numerous companies developed firewalls to identify and block such attacks.
   • Gen 2 (Network-based attacks): With the rise of the internet, cybercriminals found this technology fascinating to attack other users remotely. Jeff Mogul of Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC) proposed the firewall and packet filtering concepts in 1989. Numerous companies developed firewalls to identify and block such attacks.
   • Gen 3 (Application vulnerability exploitation): After the rise of the internet, applications were growing to perform different tasks on PCs and online. Exploiting flaws in various applications led to the mass adoption of intrusion prevention systems (IPS).
   • Gen 4 (Payload-based attack): Malware-based attacks and payloads became popular with the advancement in programming and increasing technological complexities. They were able to bypass signature-based defences. That is where anti-bot and sandboxing solutions popped up to discover and isolate novel threats.
   • Gen 5 (Mega threats): These are the latest generation of cyber threats that target a large scale and covers more attack surface. For such multi-vector attacks, advanced threat prevention tools with ML-based algorithms for behavioural analyses become a top priority solution.

2. Supply chain attacks: Supply chain attacks are modern cyber threats that exploit trust relationships between third-party vendors or external company tie-ups. They are popularly known as third-party or value-chain attacks. Attackers manipulate the trust relationship, which can be a vendor relationship, partnership or relationship with third-party software vendors. Supply Chain attacks are also vulnerable because no companies write modern software from scratch. Many companies use open-source code and third-party APIs.

3. Ransomware attacks: Ransomware is a specially-designed malware code that stains one or multiple target computers & their files by encrypting all data with strong encryption. Then, it prevents the system's owner from accessing the files/data. It will then instruct the system's owner/organization to pay a ransom (usually in cryptocurrencies) for decrypting those data. Modern ransomware has multiple levels of attack vectors. They are called double-extortion and triple-extortion ransomware.

4. Phishing: Phishing is another major cyber threat that comes as a part of social engineering attacks where cybercriminals & attackers create fake links to lure the target user to visit a counterfeit link. Then they drive them to a fake web page (usually a login page) that looks legitimate to the target user. Once the user provides their credentials to that fake login page, the attacker gets those credentials & tries to access the target user's account.

5. Malware: Malware, also known as malicious software, are programs that cybercriminals design to exploit a server, computer, mobile devices, endpoint devices, networks, etc., purposefully. Malware is an umbrella term comprising other malicious programs such as ransomware, virus, Trojan horse, worms, adware, etc. Attackers deliver malware as links, email attachments, or via flash drives.