All medium to large businesses and organisations today have moved towards digitizing their operations to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Computers and the internet have become a necessary element for a company’s success and operations and businesses are actively looking for employees fluent in using computers and technology.
Cloud computing has reduced the costs even further with all your work being now stored online, you no longer need to spend as much on storing data. This is why cyber security becomes a much more important issue. Training programs like Cyber security training in the USA and in other developed countries, one can see that the companies take cyber security very seriously as it has the potential to compromise the whole business and make sensitive information easy to steal.
Cyber Security Threat
The data breach is a situation wherein an unauthorized person, breaks into the system either through a loophole in the security system or through stolen credentials and steals or compromises valuable data. In more than 90 per cent of the cases, the data breach is due to the social engineering of known employees.
Social engineering refers to manipulating employees in giving up sensitive private information which can then be used to login illegally into a protected system or force the person the give access to the system. The threat of phishing and other such social engineering methods is the biggest reason behind data breaches in the past years.
In a digitized system, humans are the most vulnerable element and not every employee working in an organization is taught to identify malicious emails and how to properly deal with such emails.
These emails contain links or files which when opened compromises the system as it contaminates the computer with malware which then goes on to collect sensitive information from the system and can then spread itself across the entirety of the business organizations network.
All these imminent threats in the cyber world are pushing more and more people towards choosing the domain of cyber security as their profession. These professionals can also further take specialized courses and certifications to move up further in the career ladder. Some of such courses are discussed below.
Ethical Hacking
Program developers and coders nowadays are encouraged to indulge in ethical hacking to look for loopholes and bugs which can be exploited by malicious parties looking to infiltrate the company system. Certification in Ethical hacking allows your cyber security personnel to understand the nuances of system security, risk management and helps them stay 2 steps ahead of any threat.
Ethical hacking training ensures that your system security personnel are capable of responding to any threats and combating criminals who have somehow gotten access to your system. Ethical hacking allows your cyber security personnel to actively look for loopholes and fix them and thus keep your business and employees safe from cybercrimes. They constantly update your system against newer threats that are being discovered. Ethical hackers fight a constant war with malicious hackers in a bid to keep your system safe and ensuring that the malicious hackers cannot use a loophole in the system security to compromise the system and do data breach.
CISSP Certification
Offered by ISC2, CISSP or Certified Information Systems Security Professional is a certification program for IT security professionals. CISSP certification ensures that the cybersecurity professional is trained in various domains necessary for keeping a network and system safe from threats and ready for all probable risks.
A CISSP certified professional is able to design and define the security structure of your organization to provide better protection against threats and better preparedness to security risks.
CISSP deals with 8 domains which are essential in managing cybersecurity of an organization; Security and risk management, Asset security, Security architecture, and engineering, Communication and network security, Identity and access management, security assessment, and testing, Security operations, Software development security.
CISA Certification
CISA or Certified Information Systems Auditor is a certification offered by ISACA and is a leading certification for systems auditors to ensure that they adhere to a global standard of auditing of information systems. The CISA certification is a global benchmark in Information Systems Audit and makes the professional qualified to deal with information systems security, control and auditing the security protocols and ensuring the integrity of the information system.
CISA certification allows you to identify vulnerabilities and check whether the information system in question is complying with the required standards and rules of information systems security. It teaches you how to control and govern an IT system and helps you understand the implementation of information systems.
From implementation and maintenance to management and protection of the information system, CISA certification allows you to have complete understanding and control of the information system giving your information system a mark of trust with a CISA certified professionals at the helm.
Cyber Security Masters Program
A masters in Cyber Security helps you acquire much deeper skills and knowledge that was part of your bachelor’s degree. A cyber security masters program teaches you in-depth about data integrity, data recovery, disaster recovery, systems planning, and risk management.
Your technical skills are enhanced and emphasized on and you deal with advanced techniques and tools which ensure your familiarity with them and increases your understanding of organizational practices.
Cyber Security Masters Program touches upon systems security, risk management, asset management and building an information system for organizations. From ensuring systems security to detecting intrusion, the masters program is designed to make you proficient in cybersecurity and Information systems management.
The Human Error
Almost all data breaches and cybersecurity threats are a direct result of human error or more specifically user error. Employees in most organizations are ill-informed or not trained to deal with cyber security threats and in most cases fail to recognize a cyber security risk. Emails infected with malware compromised flash drives or falling victim to social engineering, all these ways open up the information system to malicious attacks.
As such it is important to spread awareness among employees, incorporate exercises and train your employees in identifying online threats and cybersecurity issues as soon as they see them. Recognizing a cybersecurity threat is the first step and training programs to spread awareness and create defense strategies against such threats is the best way to minimize human error and increase system security.
Disclaimer: This is featured content. No Deccan Chronicle Group journalist is involved in creating this content. The Group also takes no responsibility for this content.
