Cyber Security and Technology (Essay Sample)

CYBER SECURITY AND TECHNOLOGY NAME OF STUDENT NAME OF SCHOOL SUBMITTED TO DATE Cyber security and technology Introduction Cyber security refers to a legal activity conducted with a main aim of preventing or controlling criminal activities that may be associated with the use of computers and information technology. "Governments, organizations, and commercial interests want people to have access to the Internet and all that it offers but not to be harmed by it. Achieving security is, in turn, leading to the question of how to characterize the Internet under international law." O’Connell, (2012). Such activities protect data and information from unintended or unauthorized person from access, modification or destruction. According to Powell (2005), "the security of the entire internet is affected by the security measures used by all individual internet users." Being developed by human, the internet exposes organizational and personal data to a number of security risks usually associated to cybercrimes and thus monitoring and control is of significance. According to Kongson (2015), "To protect business information assets against internal and external threats, organizations should implement controls to monitor, measure and respond to security vulnerabilities.” Categories of cyber crimes According to the Grabosky & Smith (1998), there are nine major categories of cyber-attacks. They include: theft of telecommunications services, communications in furtherance of criminal conspiracies, telecommunications piracy, dissemination of offensive materials, electronic money laundering and tax evasion, electronic vandalism, terrorism and extortion, sales and investment fraud, illegal interception of telecommunications and electronic funds transfer fraud. However, different individuals may group them distinctively depending on certain characteristics. Due to the current high level of technological advancement, there has been a need to protect and ensure unique protection of companies’ assets and information from loss and exposure to information to unauthorized person. A number of organizational have been exposed to cyber crimes such as fraud, industrial espionage and denial of service among other which have led to organizational downfall. Loss of organization assets and important information has also been a major drawback recently in most of the establishments. Actors, targets, methods, and impacts Individuals may gain access to unauthorized telecommunication services through fraudulent behaviors, impersonating technicians and use of software that enhance unauthorized access. Capturing calling cards and Counterfeit or illicit programming has also been employed to gain access to calling card accounts. Such acts as phishing exposes the user to risk by imitating the procedures and information that an individual uses to enter into an application or a website. During the process, the user unknowingly enters credentials in the belief that the information will be used to log in into a site or provide a certain feedback but in return, the credential are used by a malicious individual at the receiving end to steal or commit a crime against the user. Intervention is therefore important so as to enlighten individuals and reduce the mobile phishing. Cyber-criminal enterprises vary in size and typically involve individuals working within the same areas, though sometimes they may not know each other even in real life. They depend on Internet relay Chats (IRC), ICQ, web based forums and jabber for recruitment of prospective partners and for communication purposes. The most common targets of cybercrimes are financial institutions and their clients. According to an article published on cybercrimes, "Data stolen in cybercrime attacks is often circulated on the black market where it is made available for purchase via forums and automated web shops." The actors can also select their target on the basis on specif...