Cybersecurity vs. Cyberattacks

In week 9, we learned about incident responses, which document the aftermath of a threat. After an attack, it's essential to start an incident response, which helps prevent future risks from happening to the system. It's always important to document the ongoings of the incident, but making up a plan after the attack is critical in understanding what to do if it happens again. Incident response is an essential procedure for both small and large businesses. Attacks can happen at any point, and if not taken seriously, could lead to some harsh consequences. So, starting any documentation is essential to save the business from damage. An incident response will help conclude the attack by understanding what happened and how it was resolved.

In week 8, we learned about Cybersecurity Automation. Automation is a security method that performs scans and configurations to stop attacks from damaging or accessing the system. It uses technologies like AI and tools like SOAR to identify and secure vulnerabilities before any more damage is taken to the system. Not only does it do the job, it does the job by itself and rarely with any human interaction. Automation defeats the human user's purpose and removes the risks of human error. It's known that human error is the number one source of an attack gaining access to the system. Automation uses its technology to learn the vulnerability, learn the attack, and then use its resources to stop the attack. It keeps the system secure and safe for the user to use, and they do not have to worry about attackers getting access to their information.

In week 7, we learn a lot about different attacks that could affect our devices. However, one thing that stuck out to me the most was GPS spoofing. I had no idea this was a thing, and how crazy it can hijack any vehicle. It can be used in harmless ways, but is mainly known for the many harmful ways it can cause, including panic in certain countries. GPS spoofing is when a fake device takes over an actual GPS connection and changes the course entirely. For example, the fake GPS device can take over the course of a drone's path, causing it to go to a different location rather than the actual destination it was supposed to go to. There have been known attacks with GPS spoofing, which can be intercepted with the right technology.

In week 6, we learned two different security methods that help filter and block malicious entities from our devices. Blacklisting and whitelisting both have the goal of protecting our devices, but they have two different methods of protecting our devices. Blacklisting plays the part of blocking entities like websites and emails that have malicious codes in them that could hurt a user's device. Whitelisting has a pre-approved listing that allows entities full access to the users and blocks other entities with malicious codes. Blacklisting is built to block websites, applications, and emails that contain malicious codes. It denies access to the user and provider to keep the device safe. Blacklisting already knows which entities are blocked, so it pays the most attention to safer websites rather than dangerous websites. Whitelisting, on the other hand, has a pre-approved list that, by default, blocks users when trying to access these hazardous entities. It also automatically pre-appro...

In week 5, we got to learn more about cryptography. Cryptography is a secure way of hiding your data using code. It encrypts the required data to be hidden so that when a cyberattack happens and they gain unauthorized access, the plain text will be hidden with random words, letters, or shapes. Cryptography can hide all personal information by encrypting and can only be decrypted if the user or others have an encryption key. The key is used to decrypt the texts and give access to the user who is using the key. Cryptography plays an essential part in cybersecurity and hardening your devices. When enabled, it takes your data and encrypts it to save it from cyberattacks. For example, if I were to put in my payment method, the numbers would come out as Iew81#24$dae!. With the encryption key, the user or others who gain the key can decrypt the text and give full access to the plain text. The encryption key is given to the owner of the data and can be shared with others as long as the user se...

In week 4, we learn more about how to analyze data in the everyday things we use. These everyday things could be our emails, websites, or even networks to connect to the internet. To analyze our data, we can use data analytics, which examines data to help us conclude the information in the application or system.  Data analytics analyzes raw data to find newer information or configured steps to find the information we are looking for in the data. The process starts by defining the research question or the objective they are trying to achieve. The data is then collected from different sources, and then clean data is collected by removing duplicates and standardizing structures. Once the data is clean, the user can analyze the data using the information it gained, which can help support them with the question or objective.