Cyber Security Frameworks
Cyber Security Frameworks
Computer systems, network systems, and critical data are protected from outside attacks by
cyber security, which is described as a body or combination of technologies, procedures, and
practices. Frameworks are believed to be pre-defined structures that may be used several
times. In this post, we'll go over the significance of cyber security as well as a comprehensive
breakdown of the various cyber security frameworks.
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In today’s article we will discuss the importance of Cyber Security and a list of all Cyber
Security frameworks in detail:
Cyber Security is a body or a combination of technologies, processes, and practices that are
defined and designed to protect computer systems, network systems and vital data from
outside threats.
It regulates unauthorized access to the network. In the computing world, security generally
refers to Cyber Security and physical security.
What is a Framework?
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What is an Information Security Framework?
As discussed earlier, a framework is a defined structure or a set of rules and regulations that
the team can consume and build something useful. In the same way, Information Security
framework is nothing but documented processes. It is utilized to define policies and
procedures while implementing or managing information security controls within an
organization.
The following is a snapshot of all the list of Cyber Security Frameworks that exists and
explained in detail as we go through the article.
NIST
Understanding the above core elements will benefit the organization and the policies will be
built according to the problem areas itself.
COBIT:
ISO/IEC Standards:
1. This framework has been set by the International Standards Organization (ISO) and
International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).
2. The origin of this framework was the British Standard BS 7799 but later got into
several updates and modifications and finally got to ISO/IEC 27001:2013.
3. It caters towards high-level security management and implementation guide that
accepts industry-level best practices for Cybersecurity
4. The framework will the organization to consider all aspects of cybersecurity process
and involves the following:
1. Physical and environmental security
2. Access control and Access Management
3. IT security practices
4. Cryptography
5. Communications Security
6. Incident management and Compliance
5. Using this framework, it provides suggestions to hundreds of security controls that
can be implemented within the organizations which will be addressed. All the issues
will be addressed while risk management and evaluation
COSO:
2. This framework is built on the following core points, i.e. monitoring, controlling, auditing,
reporting etc
3. This framework has 17th core points which are categorized into five categories they are :
1. Control environment
2. Risk assessment
3. Control activities
4. Information & communication
5. Monitoring and Controlling
These concepts are combined and the policies are built which will be adopted by the
employees and also customize it according to the business structure which will eventually
help their functional and operational units.
NERC:
TCCYBER:
HITRUST CSF:
1. This framework was built by a private sector organization which caters towards
Healthcare and IT security industries. Evolution of these privately-held organizations
has helped to evolve the Common Security Framework.
2. This framework addresses how to improve security, risk-based implementing security
infrastructure, discuss alternate control options
Conclusion:
So far we have seen different types of security frameworks that are available in the current
market so that the organizations can leverage and start building up their security
infrastructure. But in reality, no one security framework is enough to build a real-time
security policy because every organization is different and it is a fundamental reason why
there are no common security frameworks that are set as a standard.
One has to make sure that as an organization one has to plan and develop Cyber Security
policies so that each and every level of employee is taken into consideration while developing
security protocols. If not each and every individual sees Cyber Security from a different
perspective and if that is the case the entire organization's security is in jeopardy.
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Also known as computer security, cybersecurity is the defense mechanism used to protect
connected computers, networks, and devices from a variety of cyberattacks or hacks made by
hackers.
In today’s business environment, cybersecurity is among the top priorities for business
leaders. A successful online attack or hack can result in the loss of valuable data, business
downtime,
and loss of customer loyalty. That can cause irreparable damage to any business enterprise or
a large corporation.
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Cyber Security Training.
No computer system or network, however secure and sophisticated, is safe from today’s
hackers who keep developing new ways of compromising computer systems. As a result,
cybersecurity tools are necessary to secure these networks from a variety of cyberattacks.
Cybersecurity tools monitor the IT environment and report any vulnerabilities or security-
related weaknesses that can be exploited by hackers.
They also prevent unauthorized access to confidential business data and report any suspicious
activity happening on the backend infrastructure. Cybersecurity tools can also set up secure
firewall protection to block unauthorized requests and secure the entire network – thus
preventing cyberattacks from being successful.
Thanks to the diverse forms of cyberattacks, there are different types of cybersecurity tools,
including:
Firewall tools
Encryption tools
Packet sniffers
Antivirus software
Additionally, you can choose to install either paid or open-source cybersecurity tools – or
tools that are a hybrid or mix of both. Here is our list of the top 10 cybersecurity tools that
you should evaluate for your IT infrastructure in 2020.
1. Wireshark
Wireshark is a free and open-source cybersecurity tool that can analyze network protocols
and can be used to enhance network security. Packet-sniffing in this console-based tool can
monitor your network in real-time, along with network traffic at different levels.
Cybersecurity professionals use this security tool to identify any network security weaknesses
by capturing and analyzing data packets.
Key features:
2. Metasploit
Available through free and paid versions, Metasploit uses penetration testing to identify any
vulnerability in the entire network or system – and can enable organizations to run security
tests and data analysis, which can enhance overall security. Popularly known as the hacking
tool, this security product is to test the security score of different systems, including web
applications, computer networks, servers, and much more.
Key features:
Vulnerability tools that enable dividing the penetration testing workflow into smaller
Web-based interface with Metasploit Pro that performs security assessments and
validations on databases
Among the earliest cybersecurity tools to be released in the market, Cain and Abel were
originally used to discover vulnerabilities in the Windows operating system. This tool can
also be used for recovering passwords and recording VoIP communications. Through
network sniffing, this penetration testing tool can crack encrypted passwords using brute
force attacks. Apart from recovering passwords, Cain and Abel can analyze routing protocols
in network systems to determine which data packets are prone to hacking.
Key Features:
Useful for decoding cached passwords, password boxes, and decryption of brute force
attacks
APR Poison Routing mechanism that allows sniffing on switched LANs and Man in
Kali Linux is among the most popular penetration testing tools with over 300 features for
website and server security. Suited for users with varying levels of knowledge in
cybersecurity, Kali Linux can be used to monitor network systems with one click. The tool is
particularly useful for securing databases from various cyber-attacks and online threats.
Currently maintained by Offensive Security, Kali Linux was initially developed as
BackTrack – a Linux-based distribution tool used for penetration testing.
Key Features:
Available with over 600 penetration testing tools, including Aircrack-ng for
monitoring Wi-Fi network security and Jack the Ripper for decoding passwords.
Supports both ARMEL and ARMHF systems that are compatible with ARM-derived
5. Intruder
Among the popular network vulnerability scanning tools, Intruder is a top-rated cloud-
powered cybersecurity tool that is suited for both small and large businesses. Along with a
30-day free trial version, Intruder is available with three premium plans – Essential, Pro, and
Verified. This security tool is effective at detecting weaknesses in your IT systems and
preventing data breaches. With over 9000 security checks, Intruder is useful in scanning your
IT system for any application bugs, CMS-related issues, missing patches, and weak
encryptions.
Key Features:
Intelligent scanning results that save time for your cybersecurity analysts
scripting
Jira
6. Bitdefender
Companies looking for complete IT security against cyberattacks can choose to go with the
Bitdefender total security tool that has been a global leader in cybersecurity systems since
2001. Used in over 38% of comprehensive security solutions, Bitdefender has a host of
security features, including social network protection, privacy firewall, secure online
banking, along anti-phishing features. Designed to stop malware attacks, Bitdefender
supports Windows, Android, and Apple devices.
Key Features:
Complete range of security solutions for individuals, homes, businesses, and personal
devices
File shredding
7. Aircrack-ng
Among the leading cybersecurity solutions for network defense, Aircrack-ng offers a
complete suite of security products that can assess Wi-Fi networks. Through capturing data
packets on networks, this tool provides functions such as exporting these data packets to text
files for further assessment. For Wi-Fi security, Aircrack-ng performs various actions
including monitoring data packet captures, attacking replay attacks and fake access points,
and testing Wi-Fi network cards and drivers.
Key Features:
Capture and injection feature necessary for assessing the overall performance of
network cards
Supported on Linux, Windows, OS X, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and eComStation
platforms
Scan visualizer feature that allows filtering, sorting, and visualizing of scanned data.
Support for WPA3 and OWE with rates of 802.11 n/ac – not limited to 54MB.
8. Mimecast
As a leading cloud-based cybersecurity tool, Mimecast offers higher cyber resilience with
enhanced email security, data protection, online threat intelligence, and web security – all on
a single platform. Mimecast is a suite of multiple security products and services that enable
email security, spam detection and blocking, cloud archiving, and more. This paid tool is
suited for small to medium businesses and enterprise.
Key Features:
Enhanced email security with protection from phishing attacks, ransomware, and
impersonation
9. Snort
Snort is another open-source tool used for detecting and stopping attempted intrusions on
computer networks. This tool supports Windows, Centos, FreeBSD, and Fedora platforms.
The Snort, an intrusion prevention tool, is capable of performing real-time analysis of
network traffic and packet logging. Suited for small to medium-sized businesses, Snort is
compatible with different types of operating systems and hardware configurations.
Key Features:
Performs protocol analysis along with matching data captured from traffic with a
10. Nessus
Trusted and used by over 30,000 global organizations, Nessus is a widely used security tool
that can detect website and network vulnerabilities. With its six sigma standard, Nessus has
the lowest rate of reporting false positives – at 0.32 defects every 1 million scans. Nessus has
the capability of detecting vulnerabilities, including software bugs, missing patches, and any
misconfigurations in operating systems and IT devices. The tool is available in both a free
trial and a professional paid version that includes a vulnerability scanning tool to detect
potential exploits.
Key Features:
Automatic live results for offline vulnerability assessment with every plugin update
Grouped View feature for similar vulnerabilities and issues in a single thread
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Conclusion:
Through this article, you have learned about the leading ten tools in the field of cybersecurity
along with the key features and benefits that they offer. While some are available in free and
open-source versions, others are premium software while the rest are a combination of both
free and paid versions. You have also learned about the different types of cybersecurity tools,
including penetration testing and vulnerability scanning tools, and how they work.
Depending on the type of cyberattack that they face, businesses can select the best
cybersecurity tools that work for their security needs. What do you think of this list of 10
cybersecurity tools? Do remember to leave behind your comments or thoughts.
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Trojan:
It is one of the most complicated threats when compared to others. On an analysis and
observation, most of the banking threats come from Trojan family itself. They are able to
hide from antivirus software and their primary purpose is to steal vital banking information
which ultimately compromises your bank account and transactions.
Virus:
I am sure most of them are aware of this term, it is one of the popular cyber security threat to
the computer systems. It is a piece of code or program which replicates itself and once it is
hosted on the computer system it will cause damage to the entire system. Most of the time it
is used for monetizing individuals. Hackers inject the virus in different forms and once the
systems are affected with the virus only the hackers will be able to allow access to the system
again. In order to clear the virus, they demand money from the users.
Worms:
It is considered to be one of the harmless threat to the computer system. But it replicates itself
and has a chance of spreading from one computer to another computer within the network
systems. Further, it will eat up the entire hard disk space as it replicates itself.
Spyware:
It is kind of a Malware, once the system is affected by this then the user activity or certain
activity of the user on the computer system can be spied. Based on your activity, the hacker
will scam you based on your interest. For example: if you have constantly browsed Xbox
products then the hacker will come up with a very convincing scam on Xbox and finally
cheat you.
Scareware:
It is one the tricky threat to the general users. Usually, once these scareware's find their way
to the computer system and once they are installed, it will immediately alert the user that and
show information that your system is actually infected with the number of viruses and prompt
you to buy anti-malware and antivirus software which are bogus most of the time.
Keylogger:
This is one of the powerful threat where most of the information is tracked. So based on your
keystrokes, keylogger will be able to keep a track of your activity. With the help of this
program, the hacker will be able to find out your personal information like username and
password.
Adware:
This is not a harmful threat but it is one of the annoying factors once you are affected. Once
this is installed, your computer will pop up a lot of ads ( shows both non-adult material and
adult material).
Phishing:
It is a fake website where the common users will be able to enter their username and
password within the login form and these details are not actually verified across the server
but these details are actually captured within the attacker controlled server. Thus it helps in
storing all the vital information from the users.
Bluesnarfing:
DDoS:
With this process, the attacker will divert a traffic to a certain website and causes the server to
collapse. During this time, it will be helpful for the attacker to obtain certain sensitive data.
This kind of trick is generally popular.
Browser Hijackers:
This can be considered to be a vital threat to the computer users. Using this trick, the attacker
will be able to control the user Browser session and will be able to manipulate their actions.
This is extremely dangerous when the user is trying to do an online transaction, the hijacker
will be able to take control on this and has an ability to change the account transfer
destination and the account details.
Virus Document:
A few years ago we were asked not to install any EXE files from the internet if you are not
sure of. Because within the installation of an unknown EXE file will also enable doors for a
lot of virus installations without the user notice. The same way nowadays with the help of
technology, hackers are able to send virus or malware with documents, such as PDF’s etc.
SQL Injection:
With SQL injection it will not harm the end user but it will cause unauthorized access to the
database and the hijacker will be able to gain access to all the vital information that is stored
in the database.
So we have different types of cyber security threats that we have gone through but all of
these threats can be prevented and has any real time solutions?
Yes, all of these threats can be mitigated by following certain rules and regulations and
maintaining security standards.
1. Inculcate a habit of not using passwords but start using passphrases. This will secure
the authentication and helps you stay safe.
2. Activate Windows firewalls so that the security barrier is raised to next level.
4. Stop installing cracked software, if not then it will open doors for a lot of spyware
installation.
5. If you are using online storage spaces like, Google Drive, Dropbox then please make sure
you encrypt your data by using online encrypted services. This way if these big companies
have face any data breach you don't have to worry about your data loss.
6. Secure your Wifi networks with secure passphrase rather than a password and make sure
the network is WPA2 encryption.
8. Secure your mobile phone's, always make a habit to download apps from Google Play
Store or Apple Store.
9. Please do not store your credit card or debit card details on websites.
10. If you got hacked, please do not panic, please consult an appropriate ethical hacker or
help from your IT team.
11. Never Trust emails, a lot of fake emails are sent out by hackers that you have won x
number of dollars. In reality, they use your personal information and try to hack into your
bank accounts and steal your hard earned money.
Conclusion:
So as the technology advancement has been observed we have also experienced a huge
amount of cyber security threats that are exposed to a single individual and at the same time
organizations are also affected. So one has to make sure that they understand that their
personal information is vital and at any cost, it shouldn’t be compromised. The individuals
should be educated and trained to use at least minimum security standards in their daily
chorus.
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Cyber Security Quiz
For Freshers
For Experienced
FAQ's
The digital world is surrounded by cyber-attacks, this requires a well-trained army of cyber
warriors who can foresee, detect and restrict the threats. The demand for Cyber Security
Professionals far exceeds the supply - creating exciting opportunities for individuals who are
willing to re-skill themselves for a career in cybersecurity.
It’s also expected that the Cybersecurity labor crunch is expected to hit 3.5 million
unfilled jobs by the end of 2023, and also the number of open positions will triple over the
next five years. This means that career opportunities for cybersecurity professionals are very
promising right now. Having said that, clearing a cybersecurity interview is not a simple task
as more knowledge is required to become a cybersecurity professional for handling
sophisticated threats.
For Freshers
For Experienced
FAQ's
3. What is a Botnet?
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2. What is Cryptography?
Threat: Someone with the potential to cause harm by damaging or destroying the
official data of a system or organization.
Cross-Site Scripting is also known as a client-side injection attack, which aims at executing
malicious scripts on a victim’s web browser by injecting malicious code.
It needs a human or another system to look It needs a regularly updated database with
at the results. the latest threat data.
6. What is a Botnet?
A Botnet is a group of internet-connected devices such as servers, PCs, mobile devices, etc.,
that are affected and controlled by malware.
It is used for stealing data, sending spam, performing distributed denial-of-service attack
(DDoS attack), and more, and also to enable the user to access the device and its connection.
CIA (confidentiality, integrity, and availability) triad is a model designed to handle policies
for information security within an organization.
Asymmetric encryption
Symmetric encryption
Speed: performs slower compared
performs faster
to symmetric encryption.
A firewall is a security system used to control and monitor network traffic. It is used for
protecting the system/network from malware, viruses, worms, etc., and secures unauthorized
access from a private network.
The steps required to set up and configure the firewall are listed below:
The terms Vulnerability assessment and penetration testing are both different, but
serve an essential function of protecting the network environment.
Vulnerability Assessment: It’s a process to define, detect, and prioritize the
vulnerabilities in computer systems, network infrastructure, applications, etc., and
gives the organization the required information to fix the flaws.
Penetration Testing: It is also called pen testing or ethical hacking. It’s a process of
testing a network, system, application, etc. to identify vulnerabilities that attackers
could exploit. In the context of web application security, it is most widely used to
augment a web application firewall (WAF).
Stored XSS Attacks - The attacks where the injected scripts are stored on the target
servers permanently. In this, the victim retrieves the malicious script from the server
when requests the stored information.
Reflected XSS Attacks - In this, the user has to send the request first, then it will start
running on the victim’s browser and reflects results from the browser to the user who
sent the request.
A three-way handshake process is used in TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) network for
the transmission of data in a reliable way between the host and the client.
It’s called a three-way handshake because three segments are exchanged between the server
and the client.
SYN: The client wants to establish a connection with the server, and sends a segment
with SYN(Synchronize Sequence Number) to the server if the server is up and has
open ports.
SYN + ACK: The server responds to the client request with SYN-ACK signal bits set
if it has open ports.
ACK: The client acknowledges the response of a server and sends an
ACK(Acknowledgment) packet back to the server.
HTTP response codes display whether a particular HTTP request has been completed.
1xx (Informational) - The request has been received, and the process is continuing.
2xx (Success) - The request was successfully received and accepted.
3xx (Redirection) - Further action must be taken to complete it.
4xx (Client Error) - Request cannot be fulfilled or has incorrect syntax.
5xx (Server Error) - The server fails to fulfill the request.
16. What are the techniques used in preventing a Brute Force Attack?
Brute Force Attack is a trial and error method that is employed for application programs to
decode encrypted data such as data encryption keys or passwords using brute force rather
than using intellectual strategies. It’s a way to identify the right credentials by repetitively
attempting all the possible methods.
Malware
SQL Injection Attack
Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
Denial-of-Service (DoS)
Man-in-the-Middle Attacks
Credential Reuse
Phishing
Session Hijacking
1. The Accidental Breach - The majority of data leakage incidents are accidental.
Ex: An entity may choose the wrong recipient while sending confidential data.
2. The Disgruntled or ill-intentioned Employee - The authorized entity sends
confidential data to an unauthorized body.
3. Electronic Communications with Malicious Intent - The problem is all electronic
mediums are capable of file transferring and external access sources over the internet.
A Traceroute is a network diagnostic tool, used for tracking the pathway of an IP network
from source to destination. It records the period of each hop the packet makes while its route
to its destination.
Employing the latest antivirus software which helps in blocking malicious scripts.
While authenticating to your banking site or performing any financial transactions on
any other website do not browse other sites or open any emails, which helps in
executing malicious scripts while being authenticated to a financial site.
Never save your login/password within your browser for financial transactions.
Disable scripting in your browser.
A port scanning is an application designed for identifying open ports and services accessible
on a host network. Security administrators mostly utilize it for exploiting vulnerabilities, and
also by hackers for targeting victims.
Some of the most popular port scanning techniques are listed below:
Ping scan
TCP connect
TCP half-open
Stealth scanning – NULL, FIN, X-MAS
UDP
DNS (Domain Name System) is a service that is used for converting user-friendly
domain names into a computer-friendly IP address. It allows websites under a
particular domain name that is easy to remember.
DNS monitoring is nothing but monitoring DNS records to ensure does it route traffic
properly to your website, electronic communication, services, and more.
Hashing is majorly used for authentication and is a one-way function where data is
planned to a fixed-length value.
Salting is an extra step for hashing, where it adds additional value to passwords that
change the hash value created.
25. What are the common methods of authentication for network security?
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a secure protocol that provides safer conversations
between two or more parties across the internet. It works on top of the HTTP to
provide security.
HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is a combination of HTTP and SSL to
provide a safer browsing experience with encryption.
In terms of security, SSL is more secure than HTTPS.
27. What is the difference between black hat, white hat, and grey hat
hackers?
A black-hat hacker is a person who tries to obtain unauthorized access into a system
or a network to steal information for malicious purposes.
White-hat hackers are also known as ethical hackers; they are well-versed with ethical
hacking tools, methodologies, and tactics for securing organization data. They try to
detect and fix vulnerabilities and security holes in the systems. Many top companies
recruit white hat hackers.
A grey hat hacker is a computer security expert who may violate ethical standards or
rules sometimes but does not have the malicious intent of a black hat hacker.
Self-learning security systems use pattern recognition, natural language processing, and data
mining to mimic the human brain.
SQL Injection (SQLi) is a type of code injection attack where it manages to execute
malicious SQL statements to control a database server behind a web application. Attackers
mostly use this to avoid application security measures and thereby access, modify, and delete
unauthorized data.
The following ways will help you to mitigate or prevent SQL injection attacks:
31. How will you keep yourself updated with the latest cybersecurity news?
The following ways will help you to keep up with the latest cybersecurity updates:
32. What is a DDOS attack and how to stop and prevent them?
The following methods will help you to stop and prevent DDOS attacks:
35. What is the difference between a false positive and a false negative in IDS?
Compared to both, a false positive is more acceptable than a false negative as they lead to
intrusions without getting noticed.
36 what is the difference between the Red Team and the Blue team?
The red team and blue team refer to cyberwarfare. Many organizations split the
security team into two groups as red team and blue team.
The red team refers to an attacker who exploits weaknesses in an organization's
security.
The blue team refers to a defender who identifies and patches vulnerabilities into
successful breaches.
1. Database hardening
2. Operating system hardening
3. Application hardening
4. Server hardening
5. Network hardening
A cybersecurity risk assessment refers to detecting the information assets that are prone to
cyber-attacks(including customer data, hardware, laptop, etc.) and also evaluates various risks
that could affect those assets.
The main objective of the OSI model is to process the communication between two endpoints
in a network.
ARP is a protocol specifically used to map IP network addresses to physical addresses, such
as Ethernet addresses.
It translates 32-bits addresses to 48-bits addresses and vice versa. This is needed because the
most common level of internet protocol(IP) we use today is 32-bits long and MAC addresses
are 48-bits long.
The key indicators of compromise that organizations should monitor are listed below:
Diffie-Helman: It’s a key exchange protocol where two parties exchange a shared
key that either one can use to encrypt/decrypt messages between them.
RSA: It’s asymmetric key encryption where it has two different keys. The public key
can be given to anyone and decrypted with another, which is kept private.
Information protection: It protects the data using encryption, security software, etc.,
from unauthorized access.
Information Assurance: It keeps the data reliable by ensuring availability,
authentication, confidentiality, etc.
Chain of custody refers to the probability of data provided as originally acquired and
has not been changed before admission into evidence.
In legal terms, it’s a chronological documentation/paper trail that records a proper
sequence of custody, control, analysis, and disposition of electronic or physical
evidence.
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Cybersecurity is now a trending word, technology, and a domain in the Information sector.
With every individual's activity going online ranging from social collaboration to financial
payments over the internet, there is a great scope for an alarming increase in risks that
compliment them. Digitalization of information also has a great downside of being
compromised upon. Let us now try to understand what cybersecurity is, and why is there a
need for such a thing to exist in the first place.
Cyber Security is the art of protecting the integrity of your network, programs, products, and
your data from being attacked, damaged or allow any sort of unauthorized access. There are a
certain set of techniques that get to the work of achieving all the above-mentioned criterion.
The core functionality as defined by these techniques is to ascertain that the information and
data are protected from any major cyber threats. Cyber Security comes in as an extension and
also accentuates the idea of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the National
Institute of Security Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity framework.
Now with this understanding of Cybersecurity, let us go through what are the risks that an
individual or an organization can go through if enough attention is not provided. There is a
wide range of attacks that affect your data which is available online. To counter these attacks,
vulnerabilities, and other variants, there is an increasing number of individuals getting
deployed into organizations with definitive skill sets. Let us go through the subsequent
sections of this article to get some better understanding of the same.
Table of Contents
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Since there is a heavy dependency on Computers in this modern day to store and transmit
confidential information related to people, customers, employees, and professionals, it
becomes even more critical to safeguarding the information that crosses the domains. Cyber
Security thus becomes a critical function that needs all the attention of an organization as it
needs to ensure many other businesses that rely on them. This also has to protect the
Computer systems from being stolen or damaged as well. Cyber Security thus helps in
securing data from thefts such as data theft or even data misuse, safeguards all your systems
from any malware or viruses.
The digital age has all our private information made public and also the vulnerable side of the
business is that these details might get compromised if the organizations that we trust do not
pay attention to any of the cyber-attacks. Recent incidents as like the Flickr accounts that got
compromised or the earlier incident of LinkedIn accounts getting compromised are the
greatest examples of why Cyber Security is so important for any business – to be very
precise. News stories related to data theft, ID theft, and data breaches also make the rounds,
which affects the routine lives of millions of customers.
Having said that, organizations are now taking further steps on improving their security
strategies, and also they are ensuring this for their own good. If they are not able to do this,
then they would go out of business when there are so many competitors looking for that ideal
chance to step over some organization to rebrand the whole business for themselves.
Alongside the preventive measures that are taken by the organizations, we as individuals
should also note down some points from this news and make sure that we do understand the
risks that are involved in putting our data online. Now that the point is pretty much clear that
Cyber Security is very much important for any organization to prevail doing business, let us
now take a quick look into further details as well.
And just so that it is clear, Cyber Security isn’t just about businesses and the Government but
it also includes us in some manner or the other – direct or indirect. Your devices contain most
of the vulnerable data on themselves which the hackers would always be willing to take a
look at. Those details can be your email list, your address, your friends’ addresses, names,
birthdates and many more. Just in case that a potential hacker gains control over your email
and contact details, then all he has to do is just send an email from your account to all your
contact list with an email subject “Hey So and So, Please click here!!!”. The others would
still think that it is a genuine email that has been received from a contact that they know and
they would click it and from then on, all the illegal things happen on their banking accounts,
emails, etc. With this, we need to have a social responsibility on what is being shared and to
who is it getting shared with actually.
What is a Cyber-attack?
Cyber-attacks may include the consequences that are listed down, all at once or only a few
out of these – but nonetheless, it’s an offensive crime that has been attempted to:
Host
Network
Keystroke
Computer and Wiretapping logging
Passive
Network Surveillance Fiber tapping Screen
Port scan Scraping
Backdoor
Network Host
Man-in-the- Buffer
Middle attack overflow
Denial-of-Service Man-in-the- Heap
Active attack Browser attack overflow
ARP Poisoning Stack
Ping flood overflow
Ping of Death Format string
Smurf attack attack
Viruses
Syntactic Worms
Attacks Trojan horses
Passive
Passive cyber-attacks generally use non-disruptive methods, just so that the hacker doesn’t
want to draw much of an attention towards this. The sole purpose to do a passive cyber-attack
is to gain unauthorized access to data without being detected.
Following are various kinds of passive cyber-attacks or threats that an individual or a group
of individuals can perform to disrupt the whole system altogether.
Computer and Network surveillance is generally referred to as monitoring of all the computer
activity and also on the data that gets stored on the hard-drive, or even on the data that gets
transferred to other destination (e.g. the Internet). This activity of monitoring will always be
done covertly and there’s absolutely nothing that can’t be monitored right now – It can be
done by your ISP (Internet Service Provider), your network teams that work in tandem with
other areas of business in your organizations, hackers etc.
Network:
Vast amounts of surveillance happen over the networked assets and are carried out involving
monitoring the data and traffic on the Internet. There are various ways by which the data that
gets transferred from one source to other destination in the form of packets be intercepted for
good. Let us now go through each and individual technique to understand the concept and
also on a side note, what could be done to not to fall prey in the hands of those malicious
hackers.
Host
A host is where the attack gets targeted for and has no specific meaning to it than what it
actually sounds like, as there are some ways by which an individual can hack into your
systems.
Active
Active cyber-attacks generally are offensive, blatant and brute force attacks that victim of
these attacks get aware of instantly. As by nature, active cyber-threats are more disruptive for
your organization’s business and also highly malicious. Hackers who get involved in active
cyber-attacks are least bothered about getting noted as the required damage would’ve already
happened by the time the attack is identified or the hacker himself / herself is identified.
Following are the examples of various kinds of active cyber-threats that an individual or a
group of individuals can perform to disrupt the whole system altogether.
Denial-of-service attack:
Spoofing:
Network
Following are the network related attacks that we will be discussing in further detail:
Man-in-the-middle: A Man in the Middle (mitm) attack is generally an attack where the
perpetrator gets in the middle of a communication between two parties to eavesdrop or
impersonate. Here the attacker secretly and covertly relays and also possibly alters the
communication that’s happening between two parties who tend to believe that they are
communicating with each other directly.
Man-in-the-browser: A Man in the Browser (mitb) is a form of the above discussed
technique (a man in the middle technique) where the perpetrator is a proxy Trojan horse
which infects a specific web browser, further taking advantage of the vulnerabilities in the
browser security to modify the transactions in the middle or insert newer set of transactions
gaining control over it.
ARP poisoning: Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) poisoning is a form of cyber-attack in
which a perpetrator modifies the MAC (Media Access Control) address and further attacks an
Ethernet LAN by modifying the target computer’s ARP cache with a forged request. This is
done by sending ARP messages into a local network.
Ping flood: Ping flood, also rather called ICMP flood is another kind of Denial-of-Service
(DoS) attack in which the perpetrator takes down the host’s computer by overwhelming it
with “echo request” (ping) packets. This causes the target to be inaccessible for normal
traffic anymore.
Ping of death: Ping of death or generally referred to with an acronym PoD attack is also
another kind of Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack where a perpetrator attempts to crash or
destabilize or freeze the targeted computer or service by transmitting malformed or
oversized packets using a simple ping command.
Smurf attack: The Smurf attack is a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack in which the
perpetrator attempts to send ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) packets with the
host’s spoofed IP address are broadcasted over the computer network using just an IP
broadcast address.
Host
Following are the attacks that can be seen over a particular host, let us see much in detail in
the following sections:
Buffer overflow: In the information security realm, a Buffer overrun or a Buffer overflow is
an anomaly where a program attempts to write data to a buffer which overruns the original
boundary of the buffer and thus writes over to the adjacent memory locations.
Heap overflow: A Heap overrun or a Heap overflow is again an anomaly like the Buffer
overflow which happens in the heap data area. A heap overflow can be exploited in a very
different manner in comparison to those on the stack-based overflows. On the heap area,
memory is dynamically allocated by the application or services in the run-time which
generally contains the program data.
Stack Overflow: A stack overflow or stack overrun is an anomaly that occurs when a program
attempts to write to a memory address on the program’s call stack outside of the intended
data structure, which is usually a fixed length buffer.
Format string attack: Format string attacks are used to exploit the system weaknesses to
crash a program or to run a set of malicious code on a given peculiar system. Such attacks are
executed when the application doesn’t validate the submitted input properly.
Syntactic attacks:
In conventional terms, an attack uses weapons like bombs or fire. If the same concept is
applied in the realm of Information Security or Network Security, a syntactic attack uses
viruses, worms or Trojans to disrupt or damage your organization’s services and systems.
Though there is a different classification made available under this category, the result is the
same. Introducing any of the following into the Host’s system will execute tons of malicious
code to make sure that the sensitive details are all grabbed and also eats on the Host’s
resources for doing all the operations that are required to gain illegal access to these details.
Viruses
Worms
Trojan horses
Hence, we have discussed the cyber attacks in very high-level terms and this should provide
us with enough insights on how to handle these in your own organizations.
As we have discussed in the earlier sections of this article, Cybersecurity refers to the Science
of protection of devices, processes, infrastructure (software, hardware) of an organization
from any kinds of cyber-attacks, data theft, identity theft or unauthorized access etc. With the
advent of newer technologies and also increasing interdependency of organizational systems
and networks, there is always a need to have an effective management and strategy to define
the security mechanisms for an organization. Hence it is predicted to grow by leaps and
bounds in the future years to come to cater to the needs of all the organizations that try to
plant themselves in this digitalization world.
Cybersecurity is an umbrella under which many other systems encompasses for their levels of
security. Let us now take a look at each and every one of them and also try to get some
introduction into those areas as well:
Information Security:
This denotes to the security that an organization has to apply for maintaining the safety
of their own data. This ensures that the data is protected against any data theft attacks,
unauthorized accesses, or any data breaches.
Network Security:
Network security talks in specific about the monitoring and prevention any
unauthorized access to data that an organization owns for its businesses. Both hardware
and software technologies could be put to use to achieve a safe network environment
for an organization – usage of reliable and usable Antivirus, Antispyware software etc.
Application Security:
The possibility of a malicious attempt that has been made to damage or disrupt an existing
computer system or a network of systems is called as a Cyber threat. The examples of cyber
threats include an attempt to access files, and steal or infiltrate data. By definition, a threat
can be treated as an opportunity or as a possibility. A CyberSecurity threat might be
identified by the damage that has already been done (from the data that has been stolen) or
the Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTP) that have been deployed.
Attacks on Confidentiality:
A network can be called secure if and only if the three basic security concepts namely
integrity, confidentiality and availability are ensured. With more advanced tools being
available, number of security incidents are also on the rise. With these tools, it also makes it
difficult to identify these threats any earlier until there is considerable damage being done to
your brand or organization.
Eavesdropping (Message Interception) is an example of attacks on confidentiality where
access to information is gained in unauthorized manner with the help of packet sniffers and
wiretappers. Files and programs are copied from the target computer system illicitly.
Attacks on Integrity:
Tampering is an example of attacks on integrity where the message flow is stopped, delayed
and the message is also modified optionally. The attacker might want to release these
messages later on as well. This attack can be carried over via unauthorized assumption of
other’s identity. Once such access is gained, the objects are either generated or distributed
under this gained identity access.
Attacks on Availability:
The organization’s hardware is targeted in such attacks where the hardware is destroyed (by
cutting down the fiber) or destroying the software. Software might also be attempted to
modify in subtle ways via alias commands as well. Corrupt packets of data might be
transmitted from gained access in the transit. These kinds of attacks gain access to lot of
confidential information, can abuse the network usage or the computing resources etc.
Social Engineering:
Social Engineering is defined as the range of cyber attacks achieved using human
interactions. These attacks are used via psychological manipulation of users into making
vulnerable security mistakes by giving away sensitive information. Social engineering attacks
can happen in more than one steps and might have to be planned way ahead in time.
Phishing Attacks:
Phishing attacks can be explained as those email or text messages that you would receive
creating a sense of urgency, fear or even curiosity in the minds of the victims. These email or
text messages would contain malicious links probing them to leak their rather sensitive
information.
Unpatched Softwares:
With more and more companies going towards BYOD concepts (Bring Your Own Devices)
to workplace, organizations are more likely to prone to cyber threats where these devices be
outdated or contain unpatched softwares. Such devices when attacked and join the
organization’s network, the organization on the whole falls prey to these kinds of cyber
threats.
Social media isn’t all about promoting your brand or organization’s name to the general
public but also is a cyber risk of losing all your organization’s data to hackers who always
look out for opportunities. One of the best examples to quote here is that one of your
employees don’t abide to your organization’s security policies and posts a good amount of
information, pictures online on social media. The hackers take this as an opportunity to
publish false Facebook posts with malicious links to gain access into the Organization’s
network to further steal, manipulate or alter sensitive information.
Advanced Persistent Threats (APT) are performed by experienced, skilled cyber criminals
who gain access into your Organization’s infrastructure using all the known loopholes gain
what’s required and also may evade detection for years together. There can be other
techniques used as like the Social engineering or Phishing attacks to plant a malware to
compromise your Organization’s network but may not breach until the individual is confident
that it is not detected. These malwares probe for the required network access with Command
and Control (CnC) servers to gain further instructions and / or malicious code.
In this section, we would discuss the need and also the requirement of such a template for the
organization. Is your organization already prepared to face any such unforeseen attacks and
how prepared are we to face such an attack is what can be understood right away. Having this
handy provides the organization a level of confidence in its existence if they are breached
later point in time (there is every possibility that they’ll be able to cope with it).
Risk Management:
By having such a strategy and a template defining what should be accessed by who and to
what time is that access be available for them, makes it very easy to understand the critical
data that is held by an organization. It also allows the individuals responsible in the
organization to know who may and can access it. It also allows them to analyze the risks from
all points of view, like the cyber risk, physical risk, and finally, a combined brand risk
associated with the breach of any of this information, assets, etc.
Generally, there are security advisors defined in every organization who would lean towards
all such activities, but there are several organizations that promote each individual taking
their own part of responsibility in getting things done. But, you must have a clear picture of
who owns these responsibilities, who overlook all the security practices, security
methodologies, etc. There are some tests that can be run to check the policies, tools, firewalls
are able to withhold any such unforeseen activities.
There can be competitors within your lines of business, but, when it comes to security, each
and every organization within your line of business should be aligned to a certain set of rules
and regulations. Instead of competing with our rivals on these cybersecurity methodologies,
there is always a scope to collaborate with them to gain a better understanding and also gain
mutual trust amongst each other so as to keep themselves in business much longer than what
they could for themselves all alone.
CyberSecurity culture:
Each organization should apply a sense of urgency in getting this done for themselves. This
will not only safeguard an organization but also imbibes a better understanding amongst all
the employees within it. It is better that such a culture be cultivated amongst the employees of
the organization, so as to keep them in business for a longer time. This also ensures that
things are done in the best possible manner to safeguard themselves and also the
organization.
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Conclusion:
In this article, we have gone through the details about cybersecurity and also the various
kinds of attacks that could possibly be employed to break down the services of a given
organization. Though there are some many ways to bring down your systems or services,
there is enough number of countermeasures that someone can employ to skillfully fight
against these attacks. We have classified these attacks as per the order, preference, damage
extent, and considering various other features. Hope these details are all that you were
looking for in this article.
Having gone through these details, we would expect that you make the right choice for
implementing an effective security strategy for your own organization. You can refer most of
the details here and based on the line of business that you belong, you could define a custom
security strategy to handle these attacks.
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Cybersecurity and Information security sound like the same words. But, there is a quite
difference between them. Although these terms are relatively used for the purpose of
safeguarding the network from data breach and the information breach. Some people like to
swap the two terms but few people like to keep the terms as specific. In simple words,
Information security and cybersecurity are closely linked, but not the same, though they are
usually thought synonyms and often used interchangeably.
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What is Data?
Not every data can be information. Data can be called as information when it is interpreted in
the context and provides meaningful information. For example, 2468 is data and if you find
that these are the even numbers, then it can be termed as information.
What is Information?
Yes, there is a significant difference between information and data. While not all information
can be data and not all data can be information. In simple, we can say Information is
processed data. So, then what is Information security?
Now let's see in this Cybersecurity vs Information Security article, Information security
defenition
What is Information security?
Information security is about protecting the information, typically considering the aspects of
Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability (CIA). The Center for Cyber and Information
security defines that information security is a process of protecting the information and the
information systems against unauthorized access, disruption, modification, or use for offering
confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
Availability: It refers to ensure reliable and timely access to the use of information.
What is Cybersecurity?
Cybersecurity is a practice of protecting the networks, devices, programs, and data from
cyber threats and also from unauthorized access. It secures the data and also the resources and
technologies that are used to store the data. Also deals with protecting the Information and
Communication Technology termed as ICT security.
The above image describes the relationship between Information security, Cybersecurity, and
ICT security.
The right side of the Venn diagram represents the Cybersecurity that includes the things that
are vulnerable through ICT. That means, it includes both forms of information, digital, and
physical things such as devices, networks, servers, etc.
The left side of the Venn diagram represents Information security that includes both analog
and digital information. Although IT security pertains to the protection of Information
Technologies. So, there is no practical difference between ICT security and IT security. In
that case, ICT security can be viewed as IT.
In the above Venn diagram, we can see that Cybersecurity involves everything that can be
accessed through cyberspace. So, the information is also present in the cyber area and
therefore, the part of the cyber area that has information will come under information
security.
According to ICT security, the alternative definition of Cybersecurity is anything that is not
protected by ICT security is managed by Cybersecurity.
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The term Cybersecurity has been in limelight for over few years because of the continuous
cyber attacks that have been happening. Well let us know what is Cyber Security in general
and understand what is the main use of its implementation.
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Cybersecurity is nothing but a standard process, a bunch of technologies used to implement
the standard processes defined to secure or to safeguard organization’s data and their network
of systems. The use of Cybersecurity is to make sure that there is not unauthorized access to
the confidential data. Also, the process also dictates that Cybersecurity is not only about
cyber safety it is also physical security as well.
Cybersecurity is an important aspect because the current business trends are all operating on
the data that the organizations have harvested for years. The economic growth of the
company is completely depended upon how well their operational structure is managed and
how well it is safeguarded against cyber attacks.
The main issue with Cyber Security is that it is not just one of a process where you define the
process and stop. In Fact, it is an evolutionary process which needs to be changed from time
to time.
NIST stands for National Institute of Standards and Technology. It is a standard process or a
framework that is set for all private sectors organizations that have to fulfill and safeguard
their data by preventing, detecting and responding to cyber attacks in the most efficient way.
By following the standard process, the organizations will be able to protect their data and
network of systems by external cyber attacks.
The entire cybersecurity framework actually is executed in three different levels and they are
as follows:
The implementation tiers actually define how much of the NIST security framework is put
into action and what else can be managed. The implementation tiers are categorized into 4
categories, they are as follows:
Within this implementation tier, the process that is followed is informal and users have
limited awareness about cybersecurity and have minimal cybersecurity coordination.
Tier 2: Risk-Informed:
Within this implementation tier, the process is explained to the management and gets an
approval for process implementation. But the process is not implemented and deployed at the
organizational level, it is just followed in certain areas where it needs the most.
Tier 3: Repeatable:
Within this implementation tier, the process is explained to the high-level management and
the process is implemented at the organizational level. The evaluation of the process happens
regularly where the implementation process is reviewed and updates are provided. It needs
formal regular followups.
Tier 4: Adaptive:
Within this implementation tier, the process is actively evaluated and cybersecurity
implementation is actually considered as a part of the organizational culture. The risk
management process gives out all the necessary details where all the users are educated about
the security policies that everyone should follow as a standard practice.
The following are the benefits of implementing NIST Cybersecurity Framework within your
organization:
* The framework acts as a standard process that every organization has to follow on.
By abiding by these standard processes, the organizations can actually understand,
structure and manage the risks associated with Cyber attacks. If these are not mitigated
at early stages then the organizations have to experience huge financial loss and trust
factor among the customers will be disturbed and permanently the organization’s
financial and economic growth in the market will be at risk.
* With the help of the framework, the organizations can actually foresee the risks
involved by identifying at an earlier stage.
* The standard process or policies include in user education as well. The policy dictates
that the users have to abide by few standards while using their electronic equipment
and have to make sure they don’t use any external hard drive without prior permission.
* WIth the process in place, we can actually establish the appropriate level of security
based on the organization's requirements.
The NIST Cybersecurity Framework is a perfect roadmap for the private sector or mid-level
organizations where they don't have a formal security process in place. That being said, to
implement this in the day to day life, the organizations have to understand the following core
concepts of a Cybersecurity framework.
Core
Implementation tiers
Profile
Out of three components, “Core” is one of the important framework components. During this
phase, the entire lifecycle of the security aspect is considered and organizations can actually
plan from scratch. Thus customizing security plans according to the business needs is spot on.
The “Core” components actually have 5 continuous steps that define the entire lifecycle they
are as follows:
Identify: During this stage, the organizations will understand and manage the
cybersecurity risks that can happen to the systems, data and the assets.
Protect: Based on the risks identified at the top, appropriate processes should be
developed and implemented. This process step will make sure that the infrastructure
services are appropriately deployed as per the plan.
Detect: With the help of right infrastructure services, this step continuously looks for a
suspicious activity and determines whether there is an actual threat to the systems.
Respond: Once an alert is alarmed, appropriate measures are taken into consideration
to mitigating the risk associated with the systems.
The above are the important stages where the security framework can be designed by any
organization. All of this happens by considering the business needs and the framework can be
customized based on the specific needs.
The government of India has released a set of instructions under a policy “ National Cyber
Security Policy” in the year 2013. The process talks about safeguarding your assets and data
in the best possible way. But as said cybersecurity process is not one-time setup process it is
an evolutionary process where the frequent revisions and amendments should be made at
regular intervals.
Most of our financial business and forecasting has completely gone online and the digital
wave has hit the country never before. So it makes sense to build your business online but at
the same time focus and allocate budgets to protect the same against cyber attacks.
All the banks are geared up for an extra level of security and few banks have already started
implementing a safe and secure way of handling the debit cards. Earlier, we used to get chip
free debit cards but now all the banks are going to chip-based debit or credit cards which ads
an extra layer of security and it fights against debit card cloning fraud.
If the customer’s queries or requests are not dealt in one month span, they can go file a
complaint against Banking Ombudsman scheme. This is more sort of a regulatory body
which oversees and makes sure the customers are always taken care of when they have not
received legitimate answers for their queries and compensations.
Conclusion:
As the businesses are growing day by day and moving towards the digital wave it is
mandatory to have a regulatory service or a set standard to make sure how to safeguard the
assets and data in the virtual world. The governments and financial sectors have identified a
need for having a regulatory body which strictly monitors the cybersecurity space but it is
mandatory that the organizations have to do their bit to contribute to the entire effort.
For this to implement in the perfect way and make sure the organization’s assets and data are
safeguarded all the time from cyber attacks then it is mandatory to have special forces or
talents to achieve this. It is mandatory to allocate a certain amount of budget to make this
happen and also continuously monitor and enhance the system. This is the only way to make
sure the business is completely protected against the cyber attacks.
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Cybersecurity is the most important factor to safeguard the data of an organization. Even if it
is a small scale or large scale company, everyone has to ensure that the company's data is safe
and secure. Yes, Cybersecurity is a practice of Safeguarding the computers, servers,
networks, electronic systems, mobile phones, and especially the data from malicious attacks.
The use of firewall protection for the company network is the best way to prevent cyber
attacks. The firewall prevents unauthorized users from accessing their websites, emails, and
other sources of information that can be accessed through the web. It is also important to get
installed the firewall software for an employee who is working with a company website.
Ensure your security software, web server, and the operating system to keep updated with the
latest versions. Anti-virus and Anti-malware protections are revised to achieve the target to
fight against security breaches. It is essential to install the updated security software on all
your devices and the network so that it helps to protect from the latest cyberthreats.
It is important to handle the unique and complex password that can help to avoid cyber
thieves from accessing the company information. We all know, a strong password contains
10 characters including numbers, symbols, lowercase, and uppercase but the thing is to
change the password regularly. This helps to avoid hackers to access the data.
Multi-factor authentication helps to protect the data by adding an extra layer of security to the
data that helps to avoid hackers to authenticate. Even if the hacker grabs your password, they
would be required to cross the second or third factor of authentication such as security code,
OTP, fingerprint, voice recognition like more. It gives an advanced security strategy to
safeguard your data and also allows you to distinguish among shared account users by
improving access control.
Regular Data Backup
Backing up the data has gained increased relevance in recent years. Cyberthieves often aim at
your data, so it is essential to back up your data files and stored in a safe location as per the
company’s security policies. It is important to safeguard data thoroughly protected,
encrypted, and frequently updated.
These days, companies take time to educate their employees regarding cybersecurity policies
and updates. Every employee has to be responsible to be aware of the company’s
cybersecurity policy. It is required to know the cyber threats faced by your company and the
importance of security measures with the real-time security breaches that have happened to
examine what are the consequences faced because of cyberattacks and how difficult to
recover the process.
Also, few companies are allowed to get feedback with a current corporate security system
and bring up new ideas on how to implement robust security with an efficient workflow.
Controlling third-party access is a crucial part of a security strategy. A third-party person can
have open access to your data and of course, it entails a higher risk of insider attacks. It is
essential to monitor the third-party actions to protect your data from breaches. It is important
to restrict third-party access to a certain area and note to deactivate the access whenever they
finish the work.
With just one click, you are responsible to enable a hacker to get access to your company’s
network. Yes, that’s why it is important to be cautious of links, attachments, and emails from
unrecognized senders. So never give personal or company details in response to emails, pop-
ups, attachments, and any other forms of communication that you don’t initiate. Your
company can help by employing the email authentication technology that blocks these
suspicious emails.
Privileged users can be one of the greatest assets of a company or one of the greatest threats
to data security. Yes, privileged account users have all the ways to corrupt your data. No
matter how you trust your employees, anything can happen. So, limit the number of
privileged users and make sure that the privileged accounts are deactivated immediately
whenever they are terminated. It is required to enable user activity monitoring solutions to
record any suspicious actions inside your network.
On wrapping up, these cybersecurity practices can help to strengthen your security system to
prevent data breaches. Every employee has to be loyal to your company and should not leak
the company data, confidential information, or any other intellectual property details for any
instances. It's the part of your responsibility to ensure safe online behaviour and to reach out
to your security department whenever you find anything suspicious in your network.
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Yes, this must be in your mind every moment you think about internet security tips. Keeping
your software up to date will decrease the chances of damage. The server and the operating
system can be running on the website on some potentially damaging page. It may be a forum,
for example. If there is any hole in the software, hackers can easily break into your system if
you don't keep it up to date.
If you want to secure your website, you need to know more about XSS. It attacks the injected
malicious JavaScript that may be on your pages. It steals the information then and sends it to
the attacker. The best security tips from hackers would be to always focus on your user-
generated content. Make sure that you always use those functions that explicitly make the
changes if such attacks appear.
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SQL injection
Secure your browser by knowing the enemy. This kind of attack is the one which uses a web
form field that is coming from URL parameter. Through such action, it gains the access with
a purpose to manipulate all your databases. How to prevent it? The best would be to use the
parameterized queries.
When talking about messages, they mostly happen through the emails in the category of
spam. Also, the first thing you need to know about those error messages is that they are often
phishing. Besides that, you need to be well aware how much information are you relieving
through messages. Never relieve some sensitive information, like passwords, PINs, card
numbers, etc.
When thinking about validation, you need to be sure that you are both validating your server
side and your browser. When it comes to a browser, it can easily catch some of the simple
failures (for example, mandatory fields which stay empty or in a situation where you enter the
text into some 'only numbers field'). Of course, such protection can be bypassed, but that is
when you need more serious validation-server validation.
Passwords:
When it comes to passwords, I think that all people who talk about the web security tips
know that passwords should be strong. But, how many people even know what a strong
password is? A strong password needs to have numbers and letters; it would be the best that
they are combined in between. The next thing I would recommend to you is to make some of
the characters big and some small. Insert some symbols for even better protection. And the
most important tip of all is to change your password in every three months (approximately)
and never to use the same password for different accounts.
File uploads:
Rarely someone thinks about this fact, but it is essential for you to remember it. Do you allow
some users to upload the files to your website? Have you known that it can be a huge website
security risk? If you want to stay on the right track and to follow the best cyber security tips
that will make you sure that you are safe, then you need to stop the users from uploading
those files. Be ready to execute them before the danger arrives. What is the danger here is
that if you allow someone to upload some suspicious files, you don't know anything about the
file extension, right? An image that doesn't look anyhow suspicious can be fake. But, what if
you have already received such file? The best option would be to rename it to be sure about
its extension. You can also change the file's permission. But, it would be the best to be aware
and to follow the internet security tips.
HTTPS:
Everyone knows about HTTPS. But, how much do you know about it exactly? We all know
that it is a protocol that has a purpose of providing the security through the whole internet.
What HTTPS does is that it guarantees to all the users that they are talking to some server
they wanted. Do you have some things that you want to keep private and secure? Then,
without any doubt, you need to use only the HTTPS while delivering those sensitive files,
data, or anything you need. What if you are already using it everywhere? Then the best would
be to take a step further and to check out HSTS. It is also known under a name Strict
Transport Security. With HSTS, you will calmly disallow all the potentially insecure
HTTPS.
OpenVAS - is the tool that is adored by most users. It is the best open source scanner that
exists nowadays.
Xenotix XSS Exploit Framework - is a tool coming from OWASP. OWASP doesn't make a
mistake, so you can definitely rely on this tool when it comes to the selection of the huge
number of XSS attacks. Xenotix XSS Exploit Framework will make you sure that your
Firefox, Chrome, or IE are not in danger, or if they are in danger, it will help you to solve the
problem.
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Freshers
Experienced
FAQs
A specific skill called pen-testing, otherwise known as penetration testing, is used in ethical
hacking to discover potential security problems at a company proactively. Candidates seeking
cybersecurity jobs with significant responsibility should be familiar with their aggregate form
and procedures, according to hiring managers. By being familiar with these common
interview questions, you can be more prepared for interviews for positions such as
penetration tester or penetration testing engineer.
This blog has covered the top-most interview questions in three categories:
1. Freshers
2. Experienced
3. FAQs
Malicious scripts get injected into otherwise innocent and trustworthy websites in Cross-Site
Scripting attacks. Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks take place when a hacker sends
malicious code, typically in a browser-side script form, to a separate end user using an
application online. These kinds of attacks can be successfully conducted everywhere an
online application incorporates user input without verifying or encoding it before using it to
produce output.
2. What are the different types of encryption?
The two main encryption types are symmetric and asymmetric. Symmetric encryption uses
keys, which allows users and information owners to both encrypt and decrypt data using the
same key. Asymmetric encryption uses a private key and a public key to safeguard more
sensitive data.
Looking forward to become a master in Cyber Security and SIEM Courses? Check out
the "Penetration Testing Training" and get certified today.
Penetration testing ensures the security of the data bank and guarantees the accuracy of all the
information contained in the software. Penetration testing assists a business in swiftly
identifying additional issues such as viruses, bugs, glitches, etc., in addition to providing
protection against hacker attacks.
Companies utilize a sort of testing called pen testing to find and stop security problems. This
aids businesses in proactively managing risks in their networks, systems, and programs
through a variety of techniques.
First, encryption modifies the sequence in which data appears from its original format to
prevent access from those without the necessary authorization. One passkey is used for both
encryption and decryption in symmetric encryption. In such instances, the owner and end-
user use the identical key and can encrypt and decode the data using the same password.
Owners of the software have a private pass key, and end users have a public pass key in
asymmetric encryption. This is done to separate high-level data from the available data that
the general public cannot access.
8. What is "Vulnerability"?
Every information security professional wants to get rid of the word "vulnerability" from the
IT system. A system might be compromised intentionally or unintentionally if certain
vulnerabilities were to be exploited.
To assess adherence to the security policies that the business has created and executed
To evaluate an employee's proactivity and understanding of the security environment
they are in.
To completely understand the potential impact of a significant security breach on a
business organization, as well as how soon they can respond to it and resume regular
business activities after being affected.
The process of identifying an external force attempting to get access to the software which is
unauthorized is known as intrusion detection. As the name suggests, any sort of unauthorized
access is reported as soon as it’s found so that the appropriate actions can be taken to stop the
incursion. It is similar to when some burglary gets detected and found and then an alert is set
off by the technology. The business shall check the software's intrusion detection technology
automatically during penetration testing to ensure it’s operating properly.
12. The terms "pen-testing" and "vulnerability testing" are frequently used
hand in hand. What distinguishes the two in particular?
With the aid of vulnerability testing, one is merely searching for any potential flaws in any IT
infrastructure component. In a pentest, a full-scale cyberattack or series of cyberattacks are
launched with the client's (or the requester's) express consent to identify any weaknesses that
the IT security team has not yet identified.
13. What kind of penetration is possible with the Diffie Hellman exchange?
One of the first public-key protocols was the Diffie-Hellman key exchange (DH), which
allows users to safely exchange cryptographic keys across a public channel.
With the help of this technology, poor ephemeral Diffie-Hellman parameters in detecting
SSL/TLS services can be accomplished.
The method of examining network traffic to spot any odd activities or unauthorized users is
known as data packet sniffing. With this, we could continuously watch over the security of
our networks. I would examine the data for any new threats to see if we could identify the
source or perpetrators.
Cross-site request forgery, as the name implies, preys on the degrees of trust built during an
authenticated user experience. In these cases, for instance, Web-based apps normally don't
run any kind of testing to make sure that a given request originally came from an
authenticated user; instead, the only type of verification is sent by the specific Web browser
at the end user is using. Here is how to avoid this from happening:
The cost of penetration testing varies from firm to company. In general, a quotation of
penetration testing rates is based on the security tester's pay, the cost of the tools used, the
scope of the project, etc. Additionally, due to market competition, some infosec organizations
charge less than others.
An incredible resource for vulnerability testing is USSD Remote Control. The special USSD
over GPRS signaling protocol is used by USSD Remote Control. This can be used to send
and receive data over GPRS with numerous devices. Utilizing USSD Remote Control for
penetration testing has numerous advantages.
The penetration tester can remotely manipulate many different devices thanks to USSD
Remote Control. Devices that aren't always online are included in this. A highly effective tool
that may be used to manage a variety of devices is USSD Remote Control. Additionally, it
enables the penetration tester to work remotely on numerous projects. For instance, the
penetration tester can check devices for vulnerabilities using USSD Remote Control.
Servers
Endpoints
Mobile devices and computers
Web applications
Cloud services
Hardware systems
Virtual private networks (VPN)
Transmission technologies
Public networks and wireless networks
Although we have been exclusively focused on using the term software to generalize.
To increase security, anything that can be compromised should undergo penetration testing.
Persistent/Stored XSS: This type of attack occurs when the malicious input is saved
on the target server, like a database, and then shown on the page where the end-user
provided their information (example, "Contact Us" form).
Reflected XSS: The Web-based program immediately returns any malicious user
input as an "Error Message." As a result, the Web browser considers this data to be
hazardous and does not save it in any way.
DOM-based XSS: This allows any client programming language (like Java) to
retrieve and maliciously alter the input from the user. Additionally, it has the ability to
subtly change a webpage's content, design, also structure. The objects of the types that
can be manipulated are:
o Document.URL
o Document.location
o Document.referrer
Several efficient strategies are used in penetration testing. One of the best tactics involves the
phases listed below:
STRIDE is an acronym made for the threat modeling system. It aids in categorizing all kinds
of cyberattacks into the below methods:
Spoofing
Tampering
Repudiation
Information disclosure
Denial of service (DoS)
Elevation of privilege
Many businesses frequently overlook the perimeter when it is about security. While most of
the time this is reasonable, failure to adequately safeguard your internal network might result
in the shutdown of your network due to breaches that frequently come from outside sources,
such as malware and phishing attacks.
10. Describe the differences between risk analysis and penetration testing.
While penetration testing involves lawfully assaulting the system to identify the software's
weaknesses, risk analysis basically studies all potential faults that could lead to issues with
the software. While penetration testing employs a more technical approach, risk analysis is a
more practical method of problem solutions.
A finance expert with some probability knowledge can perform a risk analysis; however, a
penetration tester needs to be an expert in information technology with knowledge of
computer programming and, ideally, hacking. When compared to penetration testing, risk
analysis is more practical.
11. During penetration testing, what are some of the common ports to focus
on?
Nmap tool can be used for the port scan. We've listed the common ports to focus on during
pen-testing:
12. In penetration testing, what are the functions of the Java applet popup?
Making a Java applet popup is an easy process. First, a Java program must be written by the
tester to serve as the popup. A file with the.html extension must then be created by the tester
and placed in the same directory as the Java program. The file must be in the same directory
as the Java program and end in.html.
Divide the file into two halves. The HTML code which is used to present the Java applet
popup is found in the second portion, while the first part provides the code that'll be used to
build the Java applet popup.
A pen-testing team may employ one of the following three threat model categories, which are
also crucial to note:
Cyber-Attacker-Centric
Software Application-Centric.
Digital Asset-Centric
What we discussed above is one of the examples of a Digital Asset-Centric Threat Model.
The following top network controls aid in enhancing an organization's network security:
Installing and using just the software and applications on the whitelist.
All active software and applications should receive regular updates.
Install the most recent security updates on your OS.
Reduce administrative rights.
Small chunks of HTML or XML called frames are used to create document content and
display it on a web page as if it were a part of the original document. Attackers may be able
to inject code straight onto users' screens of websites and applications by injecting malicious
frames into these responses, which might seriously harm those individuals personally, steal
their data, and even result in a loss of income for online businesses.
Do you want to know more about Ethical Hacking? Take a Look at this Ethical
Hacking Tutorial
Reconnaissance
Scanning
Vulnerability Assessment
Exploitation
Reporting
White box penetration testing, also known as crystal or oblique box pen testing, entails
providing the tester with complete network and system details, including network maps and
credentials. This contributes to time savings and lowers the overall engagement cost.
Static application security testing (SAST) is one of the methods of testing for security
vulnerabilities.
Systems are searched for known vulnerabilities using vulnerability scans and vulnerability
assessments. An environment is actively targeted for weaknesses during a penetration test.
While a vulnerability scan can be automated, different levels of skill are needed for a
penetration test.
Pen testing, often known as penetration testing, is a methodical procedure for identifying an
application's vulnerability. It is also known as vulnerability assessment and penetration
testing (VAPT).
8. Why is it necessary for us to stay within the pen test scope?
The scope of a penetration test can also affect how well it goes by affecting how many issues
are avoided. Simply said, a penetration test's scope informs the test team which objects can be
targeted and examined.
9. Is penetration a test?
In a penetration test (pen test), a computer system is subjected to a legitimate simulated attack
in order to evaluate its security. To identify and illustrate the financial effects of a system's
vulnerabilities, penetration testers employ the same resources, strategies, and methods as
attackers.
It can take one to three weeks to complete a penetration test. The length of a penetration test
varies on its kind, the kinds and numbers of systems it examines, and the quality of your
current cybersecurity.
Conclusion
So these are some of the questions that you need to be prepared with if you are sitting for a
pen-testing-based interview. This interview is normally given by a penetration tester,
penetration testing engineer, or fresher looking for a job in this field. Ethical hacking is a very
intricate field with high demand in the cyber world. We hope that this series of questions and
answers will help you with your interview. Please make a note that we do not claim these are
all the questions they ask. What is asked ultimately depends on the interviewer.
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Network Security?
Cybersecurity?
Why Cybersecurity?
Everyone is aware of how important security is in the digital age. Strong security is essential,
and frequent news headlines about high-profile hacks and data breaches prove this. But how
do information security, cybersecurity, and network security differ from one another?
There is undeniably some misunderstanding surrounding these terms, in part due to the
substantial overlap between them.
Information security can be dated to the beginning of human secret-keeping when tangible
files and documents were literally locked away. Network security became crucial to
safeguarding the electronic network infrastructure of these crucial systems once the business
world started employing computers. Everything changed with the introduction of the internet,
which added previously unimaginable technological capabilities while simultaneously
introducing new dangers and spawning a vital new economy.
So, which one is more crucial? While the first two are undoubtedly important for the practice
of keeping systems, information, and assets secure, cybersecurity currently dominates the
conversation.
Cybersecurity?
Why Cybersecurity?
A group of computers that are digitally interconnected and use a common set of
communication protocols to share resources that are stored on or made available by network
nodes is referred to as a computer network.
Therefore, if you have a computer network, there is a possibility that the data being
transferred via it will be leaked or interfered with in some way. To prevent this, we build
these network security protocols.
Networks can be open to the public or private, as those inside of a business. Access to data
must be authorized in a network that is under the control of a network administrator.
Gain essential skills to defend your organization from security threats by enrolling in our
Cyber Security Training.
Example: A person by the name of Ashok exists. Ashok now wants to send his coworker
John a message and speak with him. The communication contains confidential information
about the company and trade secrets that shouldn't be accessed or read by outside parties. He
uses email to deliver the message. Assume Evy that the communication has been read by a
stranger. Now that Evy has access to firm data, the organization could be in grave danger.
If the rival business learns about your sales data, client information, and business plans, there
will be financial damage.
We can seal the connection between Ashok and John to stop this from happening so that
trespassers cannot access it. The metaphorical lock represents network security.
Related Article: Why Network Security Needs to Have Big Data Analytics?
What is Cybersecurity?
We protect our data from fraudsters in the area of cyber security. Cybersecurity is the process
of preventing data breaches on computers, mobile devices, and other electronic device
components.
Cyber-security could refer to the use of computer networking, software, or other technologies
to protect against online dangers. It keeps up the variety of practices used to protect the
integrity of networks, programs, and data from unauthorized access.
Why Cybersecurity?
To illustrate how cyber security procedures protect us against data breaches and unauthorized
views, let's look at an example.
Tarun is a client who consistently makes online purchases from a particular website. Tarun
kept her personal information, including her email address, address, and credit card details,
for easier and quicker buying. The min server contained the necessary data. One day, Tarun
got an email from her online store announcing that she was qualified for a special discount
coupon. To get the promo code, she had to input the login information for her purchasing
website. She assumed it was an account check at the time, so it didn't appear suspicious to
her. She had no idea how dangerous her situation would be. Tarun was completely floored
when a sizable sum of money was taken out of her account.
Since a third party gained access to her information and appeared to be the company's owner,
Tarun did in fact receive a fake email from the shopping website.
Tarun had access to a variety of Cyber Security tools that she could have used to defend
herself.
Cybersecurity strategies include those that help protect various digital systems, networks,
data, and components against unauthorized digital access.
Pros:
Safeguard data
Block cyberattacks
The internet is where the majority of network attacks originate. Expert hackers exist in this
field, and viral attacks also exist. They can play around with a lot of the network's
information if they are negligent. These attacks cannot harm PCs thanks to network security.
Access levels
Different users are granted access at different levels by the security software. After the user
has been authenticated, the authorization approach is used to determine whether the user has
the right to access a certain resource. Some shared papers might have been password-
protected for security. The program is aware of who has access to which resources.
Centrally organized
Cons:
Expensive setup
A network security system's installation can be somewhat pricey. It can be expensive to buy
the software, install it, etc., especially for smaller networks. Here, a network of computers
that can store a vast amount of data is being discussed rather than a single computer. As a
result, the cost of security will undoubtedly increase. It must not be disregarded at all costs!
It takes time
Some networks' installed software can be challenging to use. Every time you update a
document, you must authenticate using two passwords to provide double protection.
Additionally, the passwords must contain letters, numbers, and other special characters in
order to be unique. Before choosing a password, the user may need to type a number of
sample passwords, which takes a long time.
Large-scale network management is a difficult task. It calls for highly qualified specialists
that can tackle any arising security issues. Employing a network administrator is necessary to
guarantee the network's smooth operation. To fulfill the criterion, he needs to receive proper
training.
Cybersecurity offers a number of benefits. Your company will prosper when it is protected
from all network-related dangers and reaps the following advantages:
Pros:
The greatest way to improve the efficiency of data and its network is through cyber security;
to lessen the number of malicious attempts to access your computer, use firewall software.
A data leak is significantly less likely thanks to cyber security. Restrict resource access based
on user roles and tasks or network connections by utilizing DLP techniques in conjunction
with a web server, firewalls, and other access control techniques and technologies.
Greater conformity
Integrated security measures are required under several regulations. Running a global
business while managing sensitive customer data, such as credit cards or social security
numbers is achievable. for instance. Your system can be subject to European data privacy
laws. Such information needs to be safeguarded against theft and illegal access.
Terrorist organizations and other enemies may steal or even leak important government
information as a result of weak cyber security. Nations that ignore this problem will
experience quick and severe economic and political consequences.
Cons:
The use of a cyber security system has a number of disadvantages. First, even when you take
drastic efforts, cyber security has its limitations. If only a few employees have access to the
proper credentials, for instance, employee or corporate data may be compromised.
Additionally, there are the following issues with cyber security:
When done alone, the cost of installing and maintaining a cyber security system is exorbitant.
Both having staff that are informed about cyber security and integrating hardware and
software are crucial.
If you don't have the right people in place to complete the implementation, you can end up
spending a lot of money. Additionally, because threats are always evolving, you'll need to
stay current with new cyber security laws as they become available. Having a full-time IT
team isn't always feasible if your business is tiny or has the necessary resources.
Procedure Restriction
The company's total productivity could be harmed by the installation of cyber security. For
instance, businesses may implement suitable restrictions by requiring employees to use
complicated credentials for each session or two-factor authentication while accessing a
system from home.
When choosing the steps to take in your firm, it would be prudent to take the drawbacks of
cyber security into account. For instance, if you don't take enough security measures to
safeguard your computer systems and data, access to them may be prohibited.
It safeguards the
It safeguards the
information traveling
information stored on
through the network.
servers and devices.
Network security guarantees
Data Cybersecurity ensures that
that only the data in transit
all digital data is protected.
is protected. Everything in
Anything in cyberspace is
the network domain is
protected.
protected by it.
Conclusion
Network security is a subset of cyber security that is concerned with protecting an
organization's IT infrastructure and limiting access to it. Cyber security is a subset of
information security that deals with the security of data during storage and transport. Both
terms are frequently used in connection with one another, however, network security is one
component of information/cyber security, whereas cyber security is a term used in a much
broader sense.
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Table of Contents
What is Penetration Testing?
Tools
Tools
This test's objective is to protect sensitive information from outsiders like hackers who might
get unauthorised access to the system. Once the flaw has been found, it is leveraged to access
sensitive data via exploiting the system.
A pen test is another name for a penetration test, and an ethical hacker is another name for a
penetration tester. Through penetration testing, we can identify a computer system's, online
application's, or network's weaknesses.
A penetration test will reveal whether the system's current defensive mechanisms are
effective enough to thwart security intrusions. Reports on penetration tests also include
preventative steps that can be performed to lessen the chance of the system being
compromised.
If you want to enrich your career and become a professional in Penetration Testing, then enroll in
"Penetration Testing Course Training". This course will help you to achieve excellence in this
domain.
Penetration testing is crucial to ensuring security since financial sectors including banks,
investment banking, and stock trading exchanges want their data to be protected.
If a software system has already been compromised and the business needs to know if any
dangers are still there in the system to prevent hacks in the future.
The types of penetration testing include those depending on the target's knowledge, the
position of the penetration tester, or the locations where it is carried out. There are three
different kinds of penetration testing:
1. Black Box: In situations where the attacker is fully unaware of the target, black box
penetration testing is used. The pen tester uses automated tools to find flaws and
2. White Box: White box penetration testing is when the target is completely disclosed to the
penetration tester. The IP addresses, security measures in place, code samples, operating
system specifics, etc. are all completely known to the attacker. It requires less time than black
about the target. In this case, the target data, including IP addresses and URLs, will be
The first step for a penetration tester is often to learn as much as they can about the target.
Then he scans the system to find any potential weaknesses. And then he starts to attack. After
an attack, he evaluates each vulnerability and associated risk. Finally, a thorough report
describing the penetration test findings is delivered to higher authorities.
Depending on the company and the type of penetration test, penetration testing can be
divided into a number of phases.
The planning stage is the first. Here, the assailant learns as much as they can about the victim.
Data examples include IP addresses, domain information, mail servers, and network
topology. The scope and objectives of a test, as well as the systems to be tested and the
testing techniques to be applied, are also defined during this phase. This is where an
experienced penetration tester will spend the most of their time; this will aid in the
subsequent phases of the assault.
The attacker will engage with the target in an effort to find vulnerabilities based on the
information gathered in the first phase. This makes it easier for a penetration tester to execute
attacks utilising system flaws. Tools including port scanners, ping tools, vulnerability
scanners, and network mappers are used at this phase.
The discovery phase of web application testing might be either dynamic or static:
Finding insecure routines, libraries, and logic implementation is the goal of static scanning.
In contrast to static analysis, where the tester passes different inputs to the application and
This is the most important step and must be completed carefully. The actual harm is caused at
this stage. For an attack to be launched on the target system, a penetration tester has to
possess a specific set of abilities and methods. Using these methods, an attacker will attempt
to obtain the data, infiltrate the system, launch dos assaults, etc. to determine the degree of
vulnerability of the computer system, application, or network.
[ Check out Types of Cyber Attacks ]
The ultimate aim of the penetration test is to gather evidence of the exploited vulnerabilities.
This stage primarily takes into account all the previous processes as well as an assessment of
the risks and vulnerabilities that may be present. Pen-testers occasionally offer some helpful
suggestions to implement in this step to raise security levels.
This is the last and most crucial action. The penetration test results are gathered into a
thorough report in this step. Typically, this report contains the information below:
Depending on the organisation and the kind of penetration test being undertaken, these phases
may occasionally vary.
There are many different types of tools used in penetration testing, however, the key Pentest
tools are:
1. Acunetix
Acunetix WVS provides security experts and software engineers with a variety of
breathtaking capabilities in a simple, uncomplicated, and extremely durable device.
2. Astra Pentest
Astra Pentest is a security testing service that may be used by any company in any industry.
Every vulnerability is found and the most effective repair is recommended thanks to a
sophisticated vulnerability scanner and a group of skilled and motivated pen-testers.
Dynamic dashboard.
Business logic problems, price manipulation, and privileged escalation vulnerabilities are
Utilize the login recorder addon from Astra to look behind the logged-in page.
3. Intruder
Powerful vulnerability scanner Intruder identifies cybersecurity flaws in your digital estate,
clarifies the risks, and aids in their correction before a breach may happen. It's the ideal
solution for assisting with the automation of your penetration testing operations.
Your complete IT infrastructure has been subjected to over 9,000 automated checks.
Checks for cross-site scripting and SQL injection at the infrastructure and web layer.
AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, API, Jira, Teams, and more have many integrations.
The Pro package from Intruder has a 30-day free trial period.
To enable penetration tests, testers should obtain the necessary information from the
organisation.
Pen Testers should behave responsibly while thinking and acting like genuine hackers.
It is important for penetration testers' work to be reproducible so that developers may easily
correct it.
The dates when the test will start and end should be determined in advance.
During software testing, a tester should be accountable for any loss of the system or
information.
Check out Top Penetration Testing Interview Questions and Answers that help you grab high-
paying jobs
Excel and other tools are needed for manual Tools for automation testing are centralised
testing to be tracked. and uniform.
Sample outcomes in manual testing differ from Results from Automated Tests are consistent
test to test. across all tests.
Conclusion
The programme or system should be tested by testers who pretend to be hackers, and they
must determine whether the code is created securely. If a security policy is effectively
applied, a penetration test will be successful. To increase the efficacy of penetration testing,
policy and technique should be considered.