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Introduction :

Information security is the practice of protecting information by mitigating information risks. It involves
the protection of information systems and the information processed, stored and transmitted by these
systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification or destruction. This includes
the protection of personal information, financial information, and sensitive or confidential information
stored in both digital and physical forms. Effective information security requires a comprehensive and
multi-disciplinary approach, involving people, processes, and technology.

Information Security is not only about securing information from unauthorized access. Information
Security is basically the practice of preventing unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption,
modification, inspection, recording or destruction of information. Information can be a physical or
electronic one. Information can be anything like Your details or we can say your profile on social media,
your data on mobile phone, your biometrics etc. Thus Information Security spans so many research areas
like Cryptography, Mobile Computing, Cyber Forensics, Online Social Media, etc

Why we use Information Security?

We use information security to protect valuable information assets from a wide range of threats,
including theft, espionage, and cybercrime. Information security is necessary to ensure the
confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information, whether it is stored digitally or in other forms
such as paper documents. Here are some key reasons why information security is important:

1. Protecting sensitive information: Information security helps protect sensitive information from
being accessed, disclosed, or modified by unauthorized individuals. This includes personal
information, financial data, and trade secrets, as well as confidential government and military
information.

2. Mitigating risk: By implementing information security measures, organizations can mitigate the
risks associated with cyber threats and other security incidents. This includes minimizing the risk
of data breaches, denial-of-service attacks, and other malicious activities.

3. Compliance with regulations: Many industries and jurisdictions have specific regulations
governing the protection of sensitive information. Information security measures help ensure
compliance with these regulations, reducing the risk of fines and legal liability.

4. Protecting reputation: Security breaches can damage an organization’s reputation and lead to
lost business. Effective information security can help protect an organization’s reputation by
minimizing the risk of security incidents.

5. Ensuring business continuity: Information security helps ensure that critical business functions
can continue even in the event of a security incident. This includes maintaining access to key
systems and data, and minimizing the impact of any disruptions.
Information Security programs are build around 3 objectives, commonly known as CIA – Confidentiality,
Integrity, Availability.

1. Confidentiality – means information is not disclosed to unauthorized individuals, entities and


process. For example if we say I have a password for my Gmail account but someone saw while I
was doing a login into Gmail account. In that case my password has been compromised and
Confidentiality has been breached.

2. Integrity – means maintaining accuracy and completeness of data. This means data cannot be
edited in an unauthorized way. For example if an employee leaves an organisation then in that
case data for that employee in all departments like accounts, should be updated to reflect status
to JOB LEFT so that data is complete and accurate and in addition to this only authorized person
should be allowed to edit employee data.

3. Availability – means information must be available when needed. For example if one needs to
access information of a particular employee to check whether employee has outstanded the
number of leaves, in that case it requires collaboration from different organizational teams like
network operations, development operations, incident response and policy/change
management.
Denial of service attack is one of the factor that can hamper the availability of information.

Uses of Information Security :


Information security has many uses, including:

1. Confidentiality: Keeping sensitive information confidential and protected from unauthorized


access.

2. Integrity: Maintaining the accuracy and consistency of data, even in the presence of malicious
attacks.

3. Availability: Ensuring that authorized users have access to the information they need, when they
need it.

4. Compliance: Meeting regulatory and legal requirements, such as those related to data privacy
and protection.

5. Risk management: Identifying and mitigating potential security threats to prevent harm to the
organization.

6. Disaster recovery: Developing and implementing a plan to quickly recover from data loss or
system failures.

7. Authentication: Verifying the identity of users accessing information systems.

8. Encryption: Protecting sensitive information from unauthorized access by encoding it into a


secure format.
9. Network security: Protecting computer networks from unauthorized access, theft, and other
types of attacks.

10. Physical security: Protecting information systems and the information they store from theft,
damage, or destruction by securing the physical facilities that house these systems.

Definition of privacy
Privacy, in short, is the right to be free from interference or intrusion — the ability
to be left alone without being watched. Information privacy refers to the right to
have control over how your personal information and data are collected, stored,
and used. Privacy policies are in place to protect sensitive information and
safeguard your identity. Privacy is often about using sensitive information
responsibly. Organizations are required to be transparent about what forms of
data they intend to collect, the purpose of the data collection, and where and
with whom it is to be shared. As the user, you have to accept these terms and
conditions; therefore, you have the right to control your shared information.

Importance of data privacy


Privacy is one of the most important consumer protection issues as technology
continues to expand, more information is digitalized, and more measures exist to collect
data. Businesses and apps often store data, such as this information:

• Name
• Birthdate
• Address
• Email
• Phone number
• Credit card or bank details
• Information on health and activities

Nonrepudiation provides proof of the origin, authenticity and integrity of data.


It provides assurance to the sender that its message was delivered, as well as
proof of the sender's identity to the recipient. This way, neither party can deny
that a message was sent, received and processed.

Nonrepudiation is like authentication, particularly with respect to


implementation. For instance, a public key signature can be a nonrepudiation
device if only one party can produce signatures.

some ways to prevent network attacks:

• Install antivirus software


• Create strong passwords
• Enforce security policies
• Use firewalls
• Use a virtual private network (VPN)
• Use access control
• Use an intrusion detection and prevention system (IDPS)
• Use security information and event management (SIEM)

Other network security measures include:

• Antivirus and anti-malware software


• Cloud security
• Email security
• Application security
• Intrusion prevention system (IPS)
• Data loss prevention (DLP)

Non-repudiation is a legal concept that refers to a service that provides proof


of the origin and integrity of data. It's a security mechanism that's used in
business-to-business transactions to establish the sender, the receiver, and
the contents of the file that is transmitted.
Non-repudiation can also refer to:

• A non-repudiation password: A service that provides assurance of the integrity


and origin of data.
• The property of agreeing to adhere to an obligation: More specifically, it is the
inability to refute responsibility. For example, if you take a pen and sign a (legal)
contract your signature is a nonrepudiation device.
• A situation where a statement's author cannot successfully dispute its
authorship or the validity of an associated contract: In law, this term is often seen
when the authenticity of a signature is being challenged.
• Verifies sender's identity and message source: Confirms message validity and
legitimacyA buffer is a temporary area for data storage. When more data (than
was originally allocated to be stored) gets placed by a program or system
process, the extra data overflows. It causes some of that data to leak out into
other buffers, which can corrupt or overwrite whatever data they were holding.
• In a buffer-overflow attack, the extra data sometimes holds specific instructions
for actions intended by a hacker or malicious user; for example, the data could
trigger a response that damages files, changes data or unveils private
information

Security is an essential part of any transaction that takes place over


the internet. Customers will lose his/her faith in e-business if its
security is compromised. Following are the essential requirements
for safe e-payments/transactions −

• Confidentiality − Information should not be accessible to an


unauthorized person. It should not be intercepted during the
transmission.
• Integrity − Information should not be altered during its
transmission over the network.
• Availability − Information should be available wherever and
whenever required within a time limit specified.
• Authenticity − There should be a mechanism to authenticate a
user before giving him/her an access to the required
information.
• Non-Repudiability − It is the protection against the denial of
order or denial of payment. Once a sender sends a message,
the sender should not be able to deny sending the message.
Similarly, the recipient of message should not be able to deny
the receipt.
• Encryption − Information should be encrypted and decrypted
only by an authorized user.
• Auditability − Data should be recorded in such a way that it
can be audited for integrity requirements

Measures to ensure Security


Major security measures are following −

• Encryption − It is a very effective and practical way to


safeguard the data being transmitted over the network.
Sender of the information encrypts the data using a secret
code and only the specified receiver can decrypt the data using
the same or a different secret code.
• Digital Signature − Digital signature ensures the authenticity of
the information. A digital signature is an e-signature
authenticated through encryption and password.
• Security Certificates − Security certificate is a unique digital id
used to verify the identity of an individual website or user.
• Network vulnerabilities are weaknesses within an organization’s hardware or software
infrastructure that allow cyberattackers to gain access and cause harm. These areas of
exposure can range from poorly-protected wireless access all the way to misconfigured
firewalls that don’t guard the network at large.

A buffer is a temporary area for data storage. When more data (than was
originally allocated to be stored) gets placed by a program or system process, the
extra data overflows. It causes some of that data to leak out into other buffers,
which can corrupt or overwrite whatever data they were holding.
In a buffer-overflow attack, the extra data sometimes holds specific instructions
for actions intended by a hacker or malicious user; for example, the data could
trigger a response that damages files, changes data or unveils private information

A buffer overflow, also known as a buffer overrun, is a security anomaly that occurs when data is written
to a buffer beyond its allocated memory. This can cause the program to overwrite adjacent memory
locations, which can corrupt or overwrite the data in those locations.
A network protocol is a set of rules that govern how data is processed and formatted. Protocols are like a
common language for computers, allowing them to communicate with each other even if they have
different hardware and software.

Here are some examples of network protocols:

Internet Protocol (IP)

A protocol for routing and addressing packets of data so they can reach their destination across
networks.

Telnet

A client/server application protocol that provides access to remote systems' virtual terminals. It defines
how to log in to another computer and execute commands.

Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)

A protocol that devices use to communicate problems with data transmission. It's also used to send error
messages and operational information about network conditions.

Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)

A protocol that connects an IP address to a fixed physical machine address in a local area network (LAN).

Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)


An internet standard protocol used to monitor and manage network devices connected over an IP. It
works with an SNMP manager or software client sending SNMP GET requests to SNMP-enabled devices.

Other types of network protocols include:

Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)

Domain Name System protocol (DNS)

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)

Post Office Protocol (POP)

Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP)

In cybersecurity, spoofing is a cybercriminal activity where someone pretends to be a legitimate source


to gain access to personal information, steal money, or spread malware.

Spoofing can take many forms, such as:

Spoofed emails, IP spoofing, DNS spoofing, GPS spoofing, Website spoofing, Spoofed calls.

Spoofing occurs when cyber criminals take advantage of vulnerabilities in technology or its
implementation. For example, GPS spoofing tricks a receiver into sending fake location data to other GPS
devices.

Here are some examples of spoofing:

Fake job offers

Fake banking-related messages

Fake lottery messages

Money refund scams

Password reset messages

Here are some ways to detect spoofing:

If the display name appears to be real, but does not match the “From” address, it is an indication of
email spoofing

Mail is most likely fake if the “Reply-to” address does not match the original sender's address or domain.
A Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack is an attack meant to shut down a

machine or network, making it inaccessible to its intended users. DoS

attacks accomplish this by flooding the target with traffic, or sending it

information that triggers a crash. In both instances, the DoS attack

deprives legitimate users (i.e. employees, members, or account holders)

of the service or resource they expected.

Victims of DoS attacks often target web servers of high-profile

organizations such as banking, commerce, and media companies, or

government and trade organizations. Though DoS attacks do not

typically result in the theft or loss of significant information or other

assets, they can cost the victim a great deal of time and money to handle.

There are two general methods of DoS attacks: flooding services or

crashing services. Flood attacks occur when the system receives too

much traffic for the server to buffer, causing them to slow down and

eventually stop. Popular flood attacks include:

• Buffer overflow attacks – the most common DoS attack. The concept is

to send more traffic to a network address than the programmers have

built the system to handle. It includes the attacks listed below, in

addition to others that are designed to exploit bugs specific to certain

applications or networks
• ICMP flood – leverages misconfigured network devices by sending

spoofed packets that ping every computer on the targeted network,

instead of just one specific machine. The network is then triggered to

amplify the traffic. This attack is also known as the smurf attack or ping

of death.

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