Intro to the series
Hi! Welcome to this new series of cybersecurity blogs called 'ZySec', In this series, we'll be exploring various concepts of cybersecurity, varying from operating systems, networking, cybersecurity fundamentals, Linux, programming, tools, etc. It's time we ignite our learning and understanding of the dynamic and ever-changing landscape of this eternal industry.
Day 1
Common security terminology
Compliance: practice of accepting a set of standards and ethics during operations to avoid fines and abide by laws.
Security framework: Guidelines used to build a secure systems both non-technical and technical
Security controls: Safeguards to reduce security risks
Security posture: Ability to manage defenses of critical assets and react to change.
Threat actor: an individual or a group possessing risk to a system's cybersecurity
Internal threat: a threat actor that has access to the internals of a system or organization before becoming one.
Network security: Practices done to keep networks secure
Cloud security: same but for cloud
Programming: Writing specific set of instructions for the purpose of automation, monitoring, etc.
Common attacks and their effectiveness
PIIs: Personally identifiable information
SPIIs: Sensitive Personally identifiable information
Phishing: Use of emails to trick people into revealing PIIs and SPIIs
Spear Phishing: Targeted phishing
Whaling: Target phishing for corporate bigshots
Vishing: Phishing but with voice messages
Smishing: Phishing but with SMS
Malware
Software designed to change, corrupt, steal or delete data on a network or computer.
Viruses: Malicious code written to destroy data on a computer or network.
Worm: Malware whose intent is to spread and infect as many computers in a network as it can through replication.
Ransomware: Software that encrypts a user's files and demands a ransom (a sum of money) for the decryption key.
Spyware: Software that quietly hides in the computer and records activity being done on it, and relays it to the threat actor.
Social engineering
Manipulation technique exploiting human error to gain access to data
Types:
Social media phishing: Phising attacks through social media sites, like through tweets and DMs
Watering hole attacks: attacking a website often visited by the target
USB baiting: leaving out a malicious badUSB for anybody to use and install and infect their network
Physical social engineering: Impersonation to gain unauthorised access to a physical location.
Social engineering principles
Authority: positive and powerful influence over an individual makes them more vulnerable.
Intimidation: Bullying, persuasion and other strategies.
Scarcity: used in e-commerce mostly, to fake that goods/services are exhausting quickly
Trust: Threat actors can form emotional bonds with targets to make them more vulnerable.
Urgency: pressurizing the target to persuade the target to respond quickly by putting in the constraint of scarce time.