Cyber Security (also known as Computer Security) are practices applied to the computer system and networks to protect it from cyber attacks specially in information critical systems like government databases and banks.Since everything is done using the internet nowadays it is very critical to protect the information of users as information is money in today's world.
Some common techniques applied to achieve Cyber Security are :-
1. Secure design - Security designing applies basic privilege rights to each part of the system so that even if someone is capable of accessing certain parts they only get the least information possible ,example- setting administrative rights in UNIX(also known as super user).
2. Secure code -This methodology applies all the security practices while building the system from scratch, for example, avoiding buffer overflow,integer overflow and code/command injections.
3. Secure Operating Systems -There exits specific methodologies that if followed produces a secure operating system.These methodologies not only considers internal functions of a system like memory management, but also the size,weight and hardware specifications of the system hence theoretically protecting it from corruption.
4. Secure Hardware -Monitors,keyboards,printers all the hardware devices can lead to compromises with information security.An example is - Monitors reflect their content on the environment that can be captured from almost 30 feet by using certain high tech devices,this is a technique used in spying.
Some famous Cyber Attacks-
1. In 1982 CIA exploded a Syrian oil pipeline by using a portion of the code called "logic code" ,causing huge fire that could be seen from space.
2. In 2004 cyber raids called 'Titan Rain" were discovered by Shawn carpenter that originated from China which infiltrated computer networks like NASA, Sandia National Laboratories.
3. Moonlight Haze is another cyber attack that hacked the military maps,troops information from the Pentagon.This act was accidentally discovered by US officials in 1988 but was actually going on for 2 years(believed to be originated in Russia).
4. In 2011 77 million credit card account information of Sony PlayStation users were stolen by a group of hackers leading to damage of 1-2 Billion dollars.
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