Essay Introduction
Over the years, with the advancement of technology, we have also seen an increase in cyber-attacks. As organizations and institutions continue to strengthen their cybersecurity, cyber attackers also have been busy finding more sophisticated methods that can be used to breach these security measures. In this section of the research paper, the current and future trends within the field of cybersecurity will be analyzed.
Research Paper on Cyber Security
This section will particularly concentrate on two specific areas – the Public Sector and the Private Sector. This analysis will include the various cyber-attacks and how the complexity of these attacks has progressed over the years. There has been a constant evolution of technology over the years. As the new technologies have become more complex, with a huge impact on an organization, so have threats towards these technologies. Hackers/attackers have started using more sophisticated methods in hacking a network, software, database, etc., and the aftermath of these attacks is something that is getting more difficult to recover from.
Argumentative Essay Examples on Cyber Security
Even until as recently as 2014, there has been evidence that cybersecurity was a concern for the I.T. department. However, the breach at Sony in 2014 put cybersecurity at the top of organization concerns. Soon, cybersecurity became an enterprise-wide issue (Ismail, 2018). Over the years, human activity, slowly but steadily, has been migrating to cyberspace. Most of the services and functions that are imperative to individuals, organizations, etc., are highly dependent on the cyber world. As cited in Levite, Kannry, & Hoffman (2018), the total number of cyber insurance claims between 2016 and 2017 almost doubled, going from 5,955 to 9,017. Even though this does not indicate the magnitude of the threats, it shows the pace at which these threats and incidents are occurring. Also, as cited in an article written by Press (2018) in Forbes states that over 53,000 cybersecurity incidents were reported in 62 countries between March 2017 to 2018. This indicates that with the development of technology and the increased usage of the internet globally, cybersecurity issues and threats have also increased across the globe.
Thesis Statement for Cyber Security
Evolution of Technology and Cyber Threats in the Public & Private Sectors When Looking back about a decade ago, organizations were just coming to terms with how the cloud impacts I.T., And there are many significant changes that are still occurring today. Along with these, organizations in both public and private sectors are also seeing a shift in cyber threats as “many new forms of malware, ransomware, phishing, DDoS, SQL injections, cross-site scripting, etc., are becoming more common” (Ton, 2017).
Research Papers
Therefore, gone are the days when a simple firewall was enough to protect an organization against cyber criminals. There are many different threats that are evolving more quickly than others. Some of these threats that organizations should specifically be aware of are (O’Brien, 2018): Third-Party Attacks – Organizations in both the public and private sectors use third-party vendors today. When using such vendors, the possibility of the cyber threats that they bring to organizations goes unnoticed to a large extent.
In October 2018, Pentagon released a statement confirming that a breach was discovered on October 4 by an internal cyber-security team. It was also confirmed that the vulnerability that was exploited in this particular breach involved a third-party vendor whose name was never released. In this breach of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) systems, the records of 30,000 U.S. military and civilian workers were compromised (Reynolds, 2018).
Corporations service company (CSC) is a company that provides registration services to many Fortune 500 firms. In May 2018, it was reported that the personal information of over 5,600 customers was stolen by hackers through a vulnerable third party. CSC collects sensitive data for its clients, and this particular hack impacted the organization’s reputation greatly (CyberGRX – The Third Party Cyber Risk Exchange, 2018).
Titles for Cybersecurity Research
Nation-State Attacks – This is one of the biggest threats that we have seen in the recent few years. Nation-state attacks are alleged to be done by ‘state-backed cybercriminals,’ and they focus on hacking into ‘military or diplomatic data.’ However, these hackers are no longer targeting only government institutions but also private businesses and industrial facilities (Richards, 2018).
In early 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the details of a ‘nation-state cyber-espionage campaign targeting non-military entities such as universities, businesses, and government agencies’ (Grobman, 2018). The government alleged that nine hackers associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps gained access to intellectual property (I.P.) through a private organization. The I.P. from the private sector was going to be used to ‘strengthen competitive positions of their national economies,’ which cost the victim organization $3.4 billion to develop (Grobman, 2018).
Cyber Vandalism – An evolution in cyber vandalism has also been identified, where the risk of cyber vandalism is also increasing. One of the biggest issues, apart from the obvious, with cyber vandalism is that it is very difficult to understand the motive and benefit behind such attacks. Case Study: One of the cyber vandalism cases that gained national attention, including that of then-President Barack Obama, was the hacking of Sony Pictures computer systems in November 2014. The attacks, which had just started as system hacks, soon turned into threats against movie theaters that would replicate the 9/11 attacks.
The FBI, who was investigating this attack, called in cyber vandalism and blamed it on North Korea (IANS, 2014). Fight Against Cyber Threats: Many experts confirm that in order to fight cyber threats in both the public and private sectors, it is imperative that government agencies and private organizations work together. There is a need for these sectors to share information to proactively address cyber threats head-on. When working as independent entities, neither the public nor the private sectors have the whole picture. They lack visibility into what are kinds of implementations the other is doing in fighting against such attacks.
Another advantage is that public sector agencies have access to information that a private entity does not have access to. At the same time, the public sector does not have visibility into the various networks that are maintained by organizations (The Wall Street Journal, 2014). Apart from this, at an independent level, organizations and entities should build their systems, networks, etc., in such a manner that they are able to identify threats at the earliest to ensure there is no loss of information. They should also be aware, and beware, of cybercrimes and criminals, so that they can be prepared for any kind of attack. It is also important to keep an eye on internal threats as well and use two-factor authentications, perform regular audits, etc.
Research Paper Introduction to Cloud Computing
Cloud Computing: Cloud computing can be defined as ‘the delivery of computing services over the internet, which is referred to as the cloud’ (Microsoft, 2019). These services can be servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, intelligence, and more. Cloud computing gained its fame for its speed, flexible resources, and economies of scale.
History of Cloud Computing: The concept of cloud computing started with ARPANET in 1969, which is a predecessor of today’s internet. This technology sprang off the back of Mainframe Computing and was supposed to link computers that were separated by distance for both scientific and military purposes.
Conclusion
With the advancement of the internet towards the end of the 20th century, Salesforce.com was the first company that started offering software services over the internet, calling them Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). In the early 2000s, with the advancement in web capability, videos, music, multimedia, etc., were being hosted and delivered online. By 2006, people had started talking about the cloud, and by the end of 2009, cloud computing had begun to dominate the start-up and enterprise market, thus creating a niche for itself. Today, services like YouTube, Google, Netflix, etc., are run using cloud computing (Access Group, 2017).
