FUNDAMENTALS OF CYBERSECURITY I

(CYB 102)

LECTURE NOTES
COMPILED BY DR. A.O. AKINWUNMI

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 MODULE ONE: INTRODUCTION TO CYBERSECURITY

MODULE OBJECTIVES
This module is aimed at:
(i) introducing students to basics of cybersecurity.
(ii) fostering understanding of students of what cybersecurity is all about and provide
background knowledge of cybersecurity.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the module, students should be able to have the foundation knowledge of
cybersecurity, identify its importance, benefits, crime and threats.

UNIT ONE: WHAT IS CYBERSECURITY

INTRODUCTION
Cybersecurity is the protection of internet-connected systems such as hardware, software and data
from cyber-threats. Individuals and enterprises use the application to protect computers, networks,
programs and data from attack, damage or unauthorized access. According to Cisco,
Cybersecurity is the practice of protecting systems, networks, and programs from digital attacks.
It entails techniques and methods for securing or protecting digital infrastructure from cyber
attacks. It is the practice of securing networks, systems and any other digital infrastructure from
malicious attacks. Cyber security refers to the protection of information systems (hardware,
software and associated infrastructure), the data on them, and the services they provide, from
unauthorised access, harm or misuse. This includes harm caused intentionally by the operator of
the system, or accidentally, as a result of failing to follow security procedures.
With cybercrime damages projected to exceed a staggering $6 trillion by 2021, it’s no wonder
banks, tech companies, hospitals, government agencies and just about every other sector are
investing in cybersecurity infrastructure to protect their business practices and the millions of
customers that trust them with their data.
Cybersecurity is concerned with making cyberspace safe from threats, namely cyber-threats. The
notion of “cyber-threat” is rather vague and implies the malicious use of information and
communication technology (ICT) either as a target or as a tool by a wide range of malevolent
actors.
Cyber-attacks are usually aimed at accessing, changing, or destroying sensitive information;
extorting money from users; or interrupting normal business processes. In a computing context,
the term security often refers to cybersecurity. Organization and user’s assets include connected
computing devices, personnel, infrastructure, applications, services, telecommunications systems,
and the totality of transmitted and/or stored information in the cyber environment. Cybersecurity
strives to ensure the attainment and maintenance of the security properties of the organization and
user’s assets against relevant security risks in the cyber environment.

Why is cybersecurity important?

We live in a connected world in which we all depend on the Internet and several digital or computer
-based system for survival and interactions, hence we are exposed to cyberattacks. With an
increasing number of users, devices and programs in the modern enterprise, combined with the
increased deluge of data much of which is sensitive or confidential hence the importance of
cybersecurity continues to grow. The growing volume and sophistication of cyber attackers and
attack techniques compound the problem even further. At an individual level, a cybersecurity
attack can result in everything from identity theft, to extortion attempts, to the loss of important

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data like family photos. Everyone relies on critical infrastructure like power plants, hospitals, and
financial service companies. Securing these and other organizations is essential to keeping our
society functioning.
Objective of Cybersecurity
The main objective of cybersecurity includes: protection of system/networks against unauthorized
access and data alteration from within; and defense against intrusion from without. As commonly
used, the term “cybersecurity” refers to three things:
a. A set of activities and other measures, technical and non-technical, intended to protect
computers, computer networks, related hardware and software devices, and the information they
contain and communicate, including software and data, as well as other elements of cyberspace,
from all threats, including threats to national security;
b. The degree of protection resulting from the application of these activities and measures;
c. The associate field of professional endeavour, including research and analysis, aimed at
implementing those activities and improving their quality.

What are the elements of cybersecurity?

The cybersecurity field can be broken down into several different sections, the coordination of
which within the organization is crucial to the success of a cybersecurity program. These sections
include the following:

a. 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.
b. Information or data security or InfoSec, protects data in any form from being accessed,
modified, shared, or deleted by the wrong people.
c. Network security is concerned with the network infrastructure of an organization that
guards against unauthorized access or data from being intercepted.
d. Cryptography focuses on methods to hide and un-hide information so that data is only
readable or usable by authorized people. This requires familiarity with all types of
encryption and hashing algorithms.
e. Disaster recovery/business continuity planning: Disaster recovery (DR) and business
continuity (BC) are closely related practices that support an organization's ability to remain
operational after an adverse event. The goal of BCDR is to limit risk and get an
organization running as close to normal as possible after an unexpected interruption. These
practices enable an organization to get back on its feet after problems occur, reduce the risk
of data loss and reputational harm, and improve operations while decreasing the chance of
emergencies.
f. Operational security: 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:
i. Detect when something has gone wrong
ii. Implement preventative measures against cyber attacks
iii. Make sure there are back-ups in case a system is compromised and data
is lost

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 iv. Track changes to a system
v. Come up with disaster recovery plans in advance
vi. Create documents and organization policies for all of the above
g. Cloud security refers to the new field of making sure resources uploaded into the cloud are
secure. Companies and users are constantly moving more resources into the cloud, and
professionals in this field need to be familiar with implementing security in this
environment.
h. 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.
i. Physical security refers to physical measures put in place to protect computing
infrastructure from physical attack or unauthorized access to the infrastructure.
j. End-user education: Security education is a growing area in itself! This domain
acknowledges that the most securely designed technologies are only as strong as the people
who use them. User education teaches best practices for people to protect themselves
against cyber threats. Security training also happens in large organizations, where
employees are educated and updated on the organization’s security policies and practices.
This domain can also include the career development and training of new security
professionals as well.

Maintaining cybersecurity in a constantly evolving threat landscape is a challenge for all

organizations. Traditional reactive approaches, in which resources were put toward protecting
systems against the biggest known threats, while lesser known threats were undefended, is no
longer a sufficient tactic. To keep up with changing security risks, a more proactive and adaptive
approach is necessary. Several key cybersecurity advisory organizations offer guidance. For
example, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recommends adopting
continuous monitoring and real-time assessments as part of a risk assessment framework to defend
against known and unknown threats.

What are the benefits of cybersecurity?

The benefits of implementing and maintaining cybersecurity practices include:

• Business protection against cyberattacks and data breaches.

• Protection for data and networks.
• Prevention of unauthorized user access.
• Improved recovery time after a breach.
• Protection for end users and endpoint devices.
• Regulatory compliance.
• Business continuity.

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• Improved confidence in the company's reputation and trust for developers, partners,
customers, stakeholders and employees.

Evolution of Cybersecurity

When ENIAC, the first modern computer, was brought online in 1945, cybersecurity wasn’t a
word you could find in the dictionary. The only way to interact with the building-sized computers
of the era was to be physically present, so virtual threats weren’t a risk, and access control was a
matter of physical security.

Cybersecurity developed as a distinct field throughout the 1960s and 70s and exploded into the
public consciousness in the late 1980s, after a series of events that highlighted just how dangerous
a lack of security could be. Continuing to grow throughout the 90s, cybersecurity is now a core
part of modern life. Let’s explore the brief history of this field!

Origins

When you hear the word hacker, you probably think of a mysterious individual sitting alone in a
dark room, watching information scroll by on multiple windows as they conduct nefarious deeds.

The media often takes creative liberties when depicting hackers. It may surprise you to learn that
the origin of the ‘modern hacker’ was a counterculture of people tinkering with technology or
finding new ways of sharing information. Hacking is not innately tied to breaking into computers.
In fact, an early instance of hacking in 1963 involved hacking a phone system to make long-
distance calls for free. Hacking is the act of working within the confines of a system to produce
unintended behavior. That behavior ranges from cracking passwords to saving a spaceship’s air
system using spare parts.

The 1960’s

The more connected we are, the more important cybersecurity is, and the widespread adoption of
time-sharing in the 60s was a big increase in connectivity. Computers of the era were expensive
and bulky; timesharing let multiple people use a single large computer at the same time, which
meant that precautions were needed to prevent unauthorized access to files and to the computer
itself. Computing time was expensive in those days! The solution of protecting accounts with
passwords has persisted to modern times.

The 1970’s

The creation of ARPANET, the earliest form of the internet, gave hackers a lot to think about and
explore. ARPANET was a testing ground for new technologies, and the hacker and technical
communities busied themselves with developing and prototyping new technologies, including
email. There were a few adventures into the development of malware (short for malicious
software), including Creeper and Reaper, the first computer worms, but these were academic
exercises more than anything else.

I'M THE CREEPER; CATCH ME IF YOU CAN

The message you would have seen if you received a visit from Creeper!

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In this era of rapid development and experimentation, the security of the technology being
developed was not a concern. The widespread view of ARPANET as a cooperative academic
endeavour and the absence of well-established best practices meant that the motivation and means
to design secure systems and software were limited. However, people were starting to think about
security. A 1975 paper titled The Protection of Information in Computer Systems presented
principles and concepts that would become critical to cybersecurity in the future.

The 1980’s

The 1980s were a chaotic time; the Internet was formed in 1983, and the adoption of the Internet
Protocol Suite by ARPANET and other networks added more potential targets and attackers to the
mix. The first “real” malware emerged during this time, as did the public panic around The Cold
War. Tools and techniques developed during this era would become common in modern
cybersecurity; dictionary attacks used stolen lists of passwords and exploited weak default
credentials, while decoy computer systems trapped attackers.

The late 80’s gave two major events.

• The first was the discovery that a hacker working for the KGB gained access to sensitive
documents from the U.S. military.
• The second was the creation of the world’s truly serious piece of malware: the Morris
Worm. It was originally written to map the size of the internet but quickly grew out of
control, choking computers with multiple copies of itself, and clogging the network as it
kept replicating.

These incidences exploited unsecured default settings; default passwords like “admin” ensured a
system or piece of software was easily exploitable.

The 1990’s

The 1990s are widely considered to be the era of viruses. Computers that connected to the internet
became more common in households and this increased access. This led to unskilled script
kiddies — individuals who download a piece of code and run it without having to write any code
themselves. They can use that code to launch attacks they don’t understand in order to vandalize
or destroy targets for fun.

The unfocused, scattered attacks of the era led to the rise of the anti-malware industry, evolving
from a curiosity to a core part of modern cybersecurity. Cybersecurity, as a whole, started to be
taken much more seriously. Large companies made public pushes to improve the security of their
products. Household computers were often targeted by the rampant malware of the era,
demonstrating the consequences of poor cybersecurity to their owners.

The 2000’s

More and more data became digitized — particularly monetary transactions. As the script kiddies
of the 90s grew up and gained more experience, the scale of threats shifted, and attackers started
having larger targets beyond vandalism and destruction. Credit-card breaches, hacktivism, and

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holding corporations’ systems for ransom became increasingly common, as malicious hackers
realized there was real money to be made from cybercrime.

Hundreds of millions of sets of credit card data were breached over the course of the decade.

The threats of data breaches and ransomware attacks forced large businesses to improve their
cybersecurity programs. Being hacked was no longer just a matter of vandalism; it could lead to
extended downtime, loss of customer loyalty, lawsuits, and fines from regulatory bodies.

The 2010’s

During the 2010s, the scale of threats continued to grow: Attacks by nation-states increased in
frequency, and they carried out infiltration and surveillance campaigns and deployed
cyberweapons to attack strategic objectives. Malicious hacker groups targeted major corporations
and government organizations, stealing data and launching ransomware attacks, and the growing
number of smart devices in circulation gave these groups an entirely new type of target.

The most dangerous of these new threat actors are known as APTs: Advanced Persistent Threats.
Often funded by nation-states, APTs possess resources and determination far beyond what smaller
threat actors might have access to. While lesser threat actors might be capable of launching
cyberattacks against a target, APTs are capable of running entire cyber-campaigns, attempting to
infiltrate their target across multiple domains simultaneously.

Large-scale cybersecurity incidents became more and more

common: WannaCry and NotPetya caused global damage, the Equifax and Yahoo! breaches
revealed hundreds of millions of pieces of personal information, and countless companies and
organizations were hit by ransomware attacks, bringing their operations grinding to a halt.

The Present

With the world as connected as it is, cybersecurity is about protecting people as much as it is about
protecting computers. People are fallible, and, like computers, we have vulnerabilities that can be
exploited: Emotional manipulation and social engineering are powerful tools, used by hackers to
gain access to secure systems. Many of the systems we rely on run on computers, and the stakes
for protecting them have never been higher. Attacks on those computers can disrupt transportation,
power, economy, healthcare, communication, and even lives.

With computers so integrated into our lives, it’s crucial that we protect them. In cybersecurity, we
must learn from our mistakes, applying the lessons learned in the past to prevent attacks in the
future. This is the domain of security researchers and ethical hackers: Finding and fixing
vulnerabilities before they can be exploited, and helping to make us and our computers as safe as
possible.

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References

i. Cisco (2021) What is cybersecurity? Available at:

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/security/what-is-cybersecurity.html#~types-
of-threats Accessed 04/05/2021

ii. TechTarget (2021) What is Cybersecurity? Everything you need to know. Available
at: https://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/cybersecurity Accessed:
19/05/2021

iii. Aaron Hurst (2021) Cybersecurity: Creating and rolling out an effective cyber
security strategy Available at:

https://www.information-age.com/creating-rolling-out-effective-cyber-security-
strategy-123494607/

iv. https://www.codecademy.com/courses/introduction-to-
cybersecurity/articles/evolution-of-cybersecurity

Unit Activity

Watch the video on Youtube link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inWWhr5tnEA

and make a Microsoft powerpoint presentation from the video