The only thing which is permanent in this world is change. Without change, our world will not exist. Changes are necessary and inevitable, as changes are the consequences of circumstances. No one can avoid changes and one always have to adapt to these changes. This theory of change also encapsulates the computer world. Especially when it comes to computer security, changes are a must.
Threats then and now
There is a constant tug of war between hackers and attackers, new tricks and tactics every day. Cyber security is becoming complicated, if you study malware’s and attacks before 10 years, they were really simple like Trojan horse. Cybercrime today is literally a threat for a countries economy. It is as dangerous as a terrorist attack or maybe, even more, dangerous.
Hackers then and now
Ten years back, hackers used to access personal user data, used to delete them or update them. Now hackers work in a team with dedicated goals and specific plans to achieve some target like stealing financial data, secret government data, shutting down servers. Etc. So let us take a look at major changes that have been done to deal with such issues.
Authentication Upgrade
The authentication process is highly improved now, right from basic verification process like fingerprint scanning, and up to advanced verification processes like voice recognition. Precise authentication is not only practised by the government but also by private companies and organisations. This has helped to prevent security breaches.
Professional Hacking
Professional hacking has reached to another level now, hacking groups and agencies have replaced traditional hackers. Initially, these groups have notoriously proved themselves worth such jobs by hacking websites, applications.etc. Now these groups are working directly or indirectly with government organisations and private sectors like banking and finance.
Hacking teams have been deployed by countries to gain supremacy over the other countries. To disable vulnerable attacks and to attack other countries IT sector. These are simply soft attacks and defence.
Encryption Techniques
The importance of keeping your data secure and safe is a task today. You never know who is accessing your computer or phone silently. Encryption has always been a big barrier for hackers as it takes some time to detect the encryption technique which has been applied and if the technique is incorrect, then again hackers have to backtrack it. So protecting your sensitive data can be done via encryption and it has proved the best technique till date for securing and transferring data.
Improved Breach Detection
As the name suggests, breach detection techniques are the ones which detect any breach which has occurred in the overall system. Now detecting breach does not mean that you are not being hacked, breach simply means that someone is entering your territory. Now the amount of damage trespasser can do depends on immediate actions taken by the authorities. But yes, breach detection techniques have improved now and are able to detect breach precisely. The sooner the breach is detected, the better it is to take appropriate actions.
So there are two different things, one is to defend your territory by not letting someone enter and the other is to take action if someone succeeds to enter.
This tug of war between hackers and attackers will keep going on and on, it’s like the saviour and the evil. You just need to take care that you don’t get into the mess in between their game.
