Journal Entry #1

As we advance further into the digital age, more and more businesses, government organizations, and even critical infrastructure programs are relying- at least in part- on computers to keep them running. Closer to home for many of us is the are social media platforms that many of us use on a daily basis; Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Pinterest, the list goes on- and on each of these platforms, we willingly share our personal information (pictures, what we’re doing and where we’re doing it, who we’re with).  Because of this, we are now faced with a new kind of threat to the security of both our country and our own privacy in the form of cyber attacks and to combat this, we use cybersecurity. According to SBIR.gov,  “Cybersecurity… is the body of technologies, processes and practices designed to protect networks, computers, programs and data from attack, damage or unauthorized access.”  Cyber attacks can come in many forms: from DDoS, to credit card skimming, to fraud, but the way we combat these all follow the same steps just implemented in a slightly different way. First, we identify where the risks are: for credit card skimming, it could be an unattended POS. Then, we come up with some way to secure what’s at risk, in the Point of Sale (POS) system, we can add security stickers to ensure the back plate stays in place. Then, we look to see if it’s working. Has the POS  been compromised/ are customers still having their cards stolen? Reassess, and strengthen the security measures. These same steps can be applied to any security threat whether it be from an employee within a business, or a foreign entity trying to find a way in to our power plants. Identify the risks, find a way to thwart them, reassess, and the cycle continues. For average people, our security is mainly up to others in terms of software we use to interact with the world. We trust them to put stock in cybersecurity and to keep our information safe, but ultimately it’s up to us to make smart decisions about who we give our information to and how much we put out on the internet, because nothing really ever leaves the internet once it’s out there.

• References
  Introduction to Cyber Threats. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.sbir.gov/tutorials/cyber-security/tutorial-2