What does cyber security mean – Everyday services are digitized even faster. More and more services are produced, bought and used in an online environment. Companies often no longer build their IT infrastructure themselves, but buy it as a service. Investing in cyber security ensures the continuity and operation of services, as well as the safety of users’ data online.
Cyber security is about securing operations
Information processed in electronic form can be quickly shared for different purposes and for the use of different systems. With the help of cyber security measures, the transfer of information needed in different processes goes smoothly so that the information remains intact and the systems that use it handle it appropriately and safely.
What happened to information security and data protection?
Information security refers to the protection of information: ensuring the availability of information, its reliability and integrity. Information security can be seen in its simplest form, e.g. as firewalls, anti-virus software and passwords. Other physical operating environments also fall within the scope of information security. For example, property access control ensures that unauthorized persons do not have access to premises that they do not have business in. For the same reason, the access of different employee groups to some workplace systems can be restricted.
Information security also includes instructing and monitoring people’s information security. Data secure operation is a prerequisite for the implementation of data protection. Data protection is a strong fundamental right related to the protection and appropriate processing of personal data.
When operating in a digital environment and using e.g. cloud services, it is necessary to ensure that information security and data protection are constantly up to date. The cyber security reference framework is broad and it lives on all the time. There is a demand for many kinds of experts in this field.
Monitoring and analyzing the operating environment
One of the cornerstones of cyber security is the monitoring of the operating environment: monitoring of network traffic, vulnerabilities and update fixes, as well as life cycle management of systems. Ensuring fault tolerance and resiliency is also vital. Cyber Security Operations Center (CSOC) utilizes various technologies and produces continuous situational awareness, e.g. terminals, networks, servers and applications.
Activity modeling and preparation
Cybersecurity architecture describes the connections between systems and people. Modeling cyber security is like illustrating the domino effect. It describes the effects of triggering a potential risk, and how the damage can be limited and prevented.
In addition to testing the operational security of the digital environment, cyber-safe operation requires that the organization’s personnel know how to act in the right way in a cyber threat situation. Scenario exercises help to model possible abnormal situations and to find vulnerabilities in systems and procedures, and to fix them effectively.
The importance of identity management for cyber security is constantly increasing. The challenge of implementing comprehensive cyber security is to maintain a safe operating environment where the user experience is still smooth.
Cyber-safe development
In software development, we have moved from DevOps work to the Secure-by-Design world. DevSecOps takes cybersecurity into account already in the development phase. Broader knowledge of the operating environment is also a coder’s everyday life. Since cybersecurity is constantly becoming more diverse, the specialization opportunities for software developers are also constantly growing.
Cyber security management
The importance of cyber security expertise is also increasing in management positions in organizations. In the future, cyber security will play an increasingly decisive role in risk management and ensuring the continuity of operations. The decision-making ability of company management teams is improved when cybersecurity expertise is available and the cybersecurity situation is constantly monitored.
Technologies and functionalities related to cyber security are often very complex, and in order to utilize them in the right way, it is important that they are described in a user-oriented way. Since cyber security extends not only to the digital operating environment but also to people’s activities, effective cyber security management requires good interaction skills and communication skills.