See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: [Link]

net/publication/338385940

What is Cybersecurity: The Reality of Modern Threats

Article · January 2020

CITATIONS READS

0 2,387

3 authors:

Nimesh Kasun Ekanayake Hashan Madushanka Karunarathna

General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University
14 PUBLICATIONS   3 CITATIONS    4 PUBLICATIONS   0 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Ravindu Miyuranga
General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University
2 PUBLICATIONS   0 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

UPDATED FRAMEWORK FOR A SMART, SECURE AND CONVENIENT ONLINE BANKING IN SRI LANKA View project

Fundamental Security Myths in Cyber Security Domain View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Nimesh Kasun Ekanayake on 04 January 2020.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 What is Cybersecurity: The Reality of Modern Threats

EMNK Ekanayake#1, GAHM Karunarathne2, and GRM Gunarathne3

1,2,3
Department of Information Technology, General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University, Sri Lanka
# Ekanayake EMNK; <nimesh.ekanayaka7@[Link]>

Abstract— Cybercrime encircles the criminal acts that Implementing effective cybersecurity measures is
involve computers and networks. Thus, “Cybercrime” is a especially difficult nowadays as a result of there are a lot of
broad term that describes everything from electronic devices than individuals, and attackers are getting more
hacking to denial-of-service attacks that cause e-business innovative.
websites to lose cash. Cybercrimes are basically criminal
activities where computers, networks or electronic
information technology devices are the source, tool, target A. Treat Actors
In fact, there's a chance to spot different threat actors who
or place of crime. Cybercrimes are effected by way of
unlawful access into another database, unlawful may undermine the integrity of the protection status of your
interception, data interference, system interference, misuse device:
of devices, forgery and electronic scams. This paper tries
to provide a clear understanding of varieties of cybercrime 1) Cybercriminals: They attack systems and steal data for
and basic prevention techniques which will facilitate profit.
internal auditors to assess whether or not an organization
has adequate defenses against cybercrime. For households 2) Hackers: There are two types of hackers.
or people, understanding cybercrime guides us not to fall i. Professional hackers who work to benefit
prey to specific cybercrimes like identity theft and cyber corporations by improving security.
fraud. ii. Malicious hackers who are skilled criminals aiming
for financial gain by means of obtaining access to the
Keywords— Cybersecurity, Cybercrime, Cyberattack, bank account, personal passwords, faking antivirus,
Prevent Cyberattacks and blackmailing.

I. INTRODUCTION 3) Hacktivists: Who is politically, religiously or socially

motivated with the aim to reveal contentious truth
In today’s automated world the special attention ought to
be addressed to the cybersecurity of your data and activity concerning their opponents.
online. the days when network security was connected
4) Cyber Terrorists: This kind isn't common yet, however,
solely to big companies and institutions are gone.
Nowadays, every and each person can be a possible victim with the more evolution of digitalization, there's an
of cyberattack regardless of the status and monetary excellent likelihood cyber-terrorist may replace the
standard notion of terrorism and become the global
resources on the bank account.
challenge.
It's important to bear in mind the intense cybersecurity
issues presently affecting technology. Therefore, this 5) Nation-states: They are launching cyberattacks against
article will reveal some important factors concerning other countries.
cybersecurity and cyber protection in modern reality so as
to Illustrate the entire spectrum of possible threats.
B. Protection Layers of Cybersecurity
A successful cybersecurity approach has multiple layers of
II. WHAT IS CYBERSECURITY protection[1] spread across the computers, networks,
Cybersecurity is the practice of protecting any internet- programs, or data that one intends to keep safe. In a
connected systems, networks, software and different types company, the people, processes, and technology should all
of data from cyberattacks. These cyberattacks are typically complement each other to make an effective defense from
aimed toward accessing, changing, or destroying sensitive cyberattacks. A unified threat management system will
information; extorting money from users; or interrupting automate and accelerate key security operations functions:
traditional business processes. detection, investigation, and remediation.
1) People: Users should perceive and go with basic data strategies are deployed by cybercriminals. There are
security principles like selecting sturdy passwords, being perpetually new strategies proliferating, and a few of those
cautious of attachments in email, and backing up data. categories overlap, however, these are the terms that you
are most likely to hear discussed.
2) Processes: Organizations should have a framework for
the way they manage each attempted and successful
cyberattacks. One well-respected framework will guide
you. It explains how you'll be able to determine attacks,
defend systems, detect and respond to threats, and recover
from successful attacks.

3) Technology: Technology is crucial to giving

organizations and individuals the computer security tools
required to safeguard themselves from cyberattacks. three
main entities should be protected:
i. Endpoint devices like computers, smart devices, and
routers.
ii. Networks.
iii. The Cloud.

Common technology used to defend these entities include

next-generation firewalls, DNS filtering, malware
protection, antivirus software, and email security solutions.

(source: a cartoon by Michal Maslin for the Instagram

III. IMPORTANCE OF CYBERSECURITY
account the New Yorker[4])
In today’s connected world, everybody benefits from
advanced cyber defense programs. At an individual level, a A. Malware
cybersecurity attack may end up in everything from identity Short for malicious software, malware can refer to any kind
theft, to extortion attempts, to the loss of vital data like of software, despite how it's structured or operated, that "is
family photos. everybody depends on essential designed to cause harm to a single pc, server, or network,"
infrastructures like power plants, hospitals, and monetary as Microsoft puts it. Worms, viruses, and trojans are all
service firms. Securing these and other organizations is types of malware, distinguished from each other by the
crucial to keeping our society functioning. means by which they reproduce and spread. These attacks
could render the pc or network inoperable, or grant the
Everyone conjointly advantages from the work of cyber attacker root access in order that they can control the
threat researchers, just like the team of 250 threat system remotely.
researchers at Talos[2][3], who investigate new and
B. Phishing
emerging threats and cyberattack strategies. They reveal
new vulnerabilities, educate the general public on the Phishing is a technique by that cybercriminals generate or
importance of cybersecurity, and strengthen open source create fake emails to fool a target with the intention of
tools. Their work makes the internet safer for everybody. taking some harmful action. The recipient may well be
tricked into downloading malware that is disguised as a
very important document, as an example, or urged to click
IV. WHAT IS CYBERATTACK on a link that takes them to a pretend web site where they're
A cyberattack is an assault launched by cybercriminals going to be asked for sensitive information like bank
using one or more computers against single or multiple usernames and passwords. Many phishing emails are
computers or networks. A cyberattack may maliciously relatively crude and emailed to thousands of potential
disable computers, steal data, or use a breached computer victims, however, some are specifically crafted for valuable
as a launch point for different attacks. Cybercriminals use target individuals to undertake to get them to part with
useful information.
a range of strategies, together with malware, phishing,
ransomware, denial of service, among other methods. C. Denial of service
A denial of service attack may be a brute force technique to
V. TYPES OF CYBER ATTACKS undertake to prevent some online service from operating
To achieve cyberattacks goals of gaining access or properly. As an example, attackers may send so much
disabling operations, a variety of various technical traffic to a web site or so many requests to a database that
it overwhelms those system's ability to perform, making actors are using remote execution exploits (like
them inaccessible to anybody. A distributed denial of EternalBlue) or Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) brute
service (DDoS) attack uses an army of computers, typically force attacks, which permit them to avoid interaction with
compromised by malware and under the control of the users.
cybercriminals, to funnel the traffic towards the targets.

D. Man in the Middle B. Economic expenses

Every year it causes billions of dollars to deal with the
A man in the middle attack (MITM) is a technique by that
attacks. Thus, once the businesses are hacked, they
attackers manage to interpose themselves in secret between
typically lost an enormous part of their financial resources
the user and a web service they are attempting to access.
For example, an attacker would possibly set up a Wi-Fi moreover as customer loyalty.
network with a login screen designed to mimic a hotel
network; once a user logs in, the attacker can harvest any C. The domino effects
data that the user sends, including banking passwords. It takes just one pc to compromise the entire network.
Hackers may simply spread malware (or different
E. Cryptojacking infections) from one pc to another by means of using
Cryptojacking is a specialized attack that involves exploits or collecting credentials and hijacking legitimate
obtaining someone else's pc to do the work of generating tools like PsExec and the Windows Management
cryptocurrency for you (a process referred to as mining in Instrumentation Command-line (WMIC).
crypto lingo). The attackers will either install malware on
the victim's pc to perform the required calculations or D. It is not easy to get rid of malware after the attack
typically run the code in JavaScript that executes within the Needless to mention that the cleanup process may take
victim's browser. months because of the restoration of machines and
F. SQL injection checking the network for any signs of left malware.
However, some viruses (like WannaCry and QakBot) may
The SQL injection is a means by that an attacker can exploit
leave some backdoors and scheduled tasks that might
a vulnerability to gain control of a victim's database. Many
reinstall themselves after some time.
databases are designed to conform commands written in the
Structured query language (SQL), and plenty of websites
that take data from users send that data to SQL databases. E. Companies’ built-in system tools could be used against
During a SQL injection attack, a hacker can, for example, the companies itself
write some SQL commands into a web form that is Rather than dropping malicious files onto the disk,
requesting name and address information; if the web site criminals are abusing legitimate tools like macros,
and database are not programmed properly, the database PowerShell scripts, PsExec, and WMIC to execute their
would possibly attempt to execute those commands. attacks. This "living off the land" approach helps attackers
hide in plain sight by achieving persistence, execution and
G. Zero-day exploits lateral movement using otherwise valid applications. With
Zero-days are vulnerabilities in a software system that have no malware concerned, security that depends on identifying
nevertheless to be fixed. The attack is named as Zero-day and blocking malicious files is useless. that may justify the
because once a patch is released by the system developer, failure of anti-virus and next-generation av solutions to
each day represents fewer and fewer computers open to safeguard the pc from the cyberattacks.
attack as users download their security updates. Techniques
for exploiting such vulnerabilities are typically bought and VII. CYBERATTACKS ARE PREVENTABLE
sold on the dark web — and are generally discovered by It looks like an enormous cyberattack happens each day
government agencies that polemically may use them for around the world. So, however, do you shield yourself? you
their own hacking purposes, instead of releasing will not believe it, however other than having a good
information regarding them for the common benefit. firewall and antivirus installed, there are some easy ways
in which to confirm that you just do not fall victim to a
cyberattack:
VI. WHY CYBER ATTACKS ARE DANGEROUS
Needless to mention that except for the leaking of
1) Keep Your Secrets, Secret: Do not share your personal
information, damaging the data and undermining the
information online[5] unless you're sure that you are
reputation of the user, cyber-attacks have a lot of deepening
the notion of threats and dangerous effects. Some of them dealing with a secure web site. the simplest way to tell if
the site is safe or not is to look for an "s" within the URL
are:
(or web address) for the site you are visiting. an unsafe
A. It is quite contagious website} can begin with http:// whereas a secure site can
begin with [Link]
the device could be hacked even without clicking on
malicious links or email attachments. Nowadays, threat
 2) Just Do Not Click: Don't click links in emails[6]. though No Other,” Network Solutions Incorporated, 2018. [Online].
you think that you know who the e-mail is from. Also, do Available: [Link]
not download files. the sole exception to this rule is that if intelligence-like-no-other.
you're expecting somebody to send you a link or a file. If [3] Cisco, “Cisco Talos,” Cisco. [Online]. Available:
you have got spoken with them within the real world and [Link]
understand where the link can lead or what the file will
contain, then it's okay. For any other circumstance, simply [4] M. Maslin, “Cyber Attack Cartoon by Michal Maslin.” New
do not click. If you receive an email from a bank or credit Yorker Instagram.

card company that makes you surprise, close the e-mail and [5] Norton, “11 ways to help protect yourself against cybercrime,”
type the bank or credit card company's address directly into Norton, 2018. [Online]. Available:
your web browser. Better yet, call the company and ask [Link]
them regarding the message. [Link].

[6] Safety4See, “How to prevent cyber attacks from happening,”

3) Keep Your System Up to Date: Hackers live for
Safety4See, 2019. [Online]. Available:
computers that are out-of-date and haven't had security
[Link]
updates or patches installed in an exceedingly long time. happening/.
They've studied ways in which to gain access to your
computer, and if you haven't installed updates or security
patches, then you are opening the door and alluring them
in[5][6]. If you'll enable automatic updates on your
computer, do it. If not, then make it a practice to instantly
install updates and patches as shortly as you're notified that
they're available. Keeping your computer system updated
is one of your strongest weapons against cyberattacks.

4) Always Have a Backup: If all else fails, having a backup

of all of your files ensures that you simply will be back to
normal in no time. The rule of thumb is that you simply
should create a backup anytime you make a modification to
your computer, like adding a brand-new program or
changing settings, or a minimum of once per week. The
backup ought to even be kept separate from your computer.
Back your files up to the cloud or a removable hard drive,
then if your data does end up encrypted, you'll simply
restore from your backup and be okay.

VIII. CONCLUSION
Though not all individuals are victims of cybercrimes,
they're still in danger. Crimes by computer vary, and that
they don’t always occur behind the computer, however they
executed by a computer. The hacker’s identity is ranged
between 12 to 67 years old. The hacker might live 3
continents faraway from its victim, and that they wouldn’t
even know they were being hacked. Crimes done behind
the computer are the 21st century’s downside. With the
technology increasing, criminals don’t ought to rob banks,
nor do they need to be outside in order to commit any crime.
Cybercriminals have everything they need at their
fingertips. Their weapons aren’t guns anymore; they attack
with mouse cursors and passwords.

REFERENCES
[1] Cisco, “What Is Cybersecurity?” [Online]. Available:
[Link]
[Link].

[2] N. S. Incorporated, “WHY TALOS: Threat Intelligence Like

View publication stats