Threats to the Cyberspace Environment-Free-Samples for Students

Question: Identify common emerging threats, attacks, mitigation and countermeasures in networked information systems. Answer: Identification of Threats and Attacks Standard controls are not adequate in order to stay protected from the aggressive and advanced threats. A multi-layered approach towards cyber security that make use of machine based learning and advanced system of analytics would be essential in order to defend themselves against multiple stage attacks [1]. These attacks includes: Ransomware, IoT Botnets, Phishing attacks, Machine Learning aided attacks. Ransomware: In the recent times, the holding of the data of the organizations has increased rapidly. The amount that was paid to the developers of malware shows the increasing penetration of this technology within the internet network. IoT Botnets: An enormous DDoS attack in the year 2016 had proved that the current systems were inefficient regarding the scope of the recently designed cyber-attacks [2]. Phishing attacks: The phishing is defined as a concept in which the hackers would send deceitful emails from verified accounts for the purpose of targeting businesses with the help of individual members of the staff [12]. Machine Learning aided attacks: According to a latest report by Intel Security firm, it has been reported that the technology of machine learning is majorly been used in order to launch attacks on social engineering. Potential Damages The attacks based on cyber security can have a major impact on the internet based network. The threats and attacks that are being posed on the cyber security could cause a major harm to the computer systems. Ransomware: This kind of attack if posed on a system could lead to loss of information if the affected user does not pay the required amount within the proper time [9]. IoT botnet: The IoT botnet could manipulate the other devices. These could be easily enabled by penetrating into a single connected device and thus transferring the virus from that device to other devices and thus gain vital information [11]. Phishing attacks: These kind of cyber-attacks is deceitful as the attacks would firstly pose itself as a trustful email and then it would make the systems vulnerable whenever the user would click on the email. Clicking on the email would enable the tagged attachment and it would start its functioning. It would release a malware that is capable of stealing valuable data. Machine Learning aided attacks: In these kind of attacks, when the hackers would be able to gain direct access to the public data, they could make use of tools for the complex analysis in order to pick targets in a precise manner [8]. Challenges/Issues Based on the attacks and threats that are being faced by cyber security, it can be said that there are various challenges and issues to the security of internet technology [6]. The main challenges or the issues faced by security firms are: Design: Security experts suggest that an effective measure for security is an important aspect of the cyberspace. The developers of the security of the cyberspace have mainly focused on the various features of cyberspace. Many of the future needs for security cannot be predicted, which could pose an extreme challenge for the designers [7]. Environment: Cyberspace has been regarded as the major evolving technology in the history of computers. Social media, big data, IoT, cloud computing, mobile computing are some of the technologies that have complicated the evolving environment of threats to the cyber security. Incentives: The structure for the incentives of the economy for cybersecurity could be regarded as distorted. Cyber related crimes are often considered as profitable, cheap and safe for the criminals. In contrast to that, the security of the networks could be expensive. The returns of economic investment are also unsure. Mitigation and Countermeasure Strategies The information based infrastructures that are shared across private and public domains have the capability of sharing various common attributes that are in relation with IT based deployments and the communication of data. The integration strategies for multi-networking often leads to different kinds of vulnerabilities [4]. This could be helpful in reducing the security features of an organization. The different kinds of mitigation and strategies of countermeasure are described as follows: Regular Backup: The regular backup of software and the configuration settings should be retained for a minimum period of three months. This process is extremely vital in order to diminish the data, which is encrypted or which could be deleted with the help of some ransomware [5]. Continuity of Business and Plans for Disaster Recovery: The plans are being tested, documented and then they are printed on a softcopy that could be stored in the online platform. Capabilities of System-Recovery: The capabilities for the recovery of the system can assist with the mitigation of the destructive malware, malicious files that are meant to penetrate into the systems and other threats that can affect the cyberspace [10]. Personnel Management: It could be defined as the ongoing examination for different users who have privileged access. It would disable every account of departing users and would thus be able to remind users of their obligations of penalties and security [3]. Conclusion Based on the above report, it could be concluded that cyber security is a major aspect in the field of computing. The threats to the cyberspace environment could yield vital results for the future prospect of business and other organizations. 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