Cyber Security Tools

Nowadays, protecting yourself from malicious attacks on the internet is very crucial. Cyber security tools can help you. These tools can protect your data against unwanted access and provide you preventive measures against cyber attacks, including viruses, malware, hackers, phishing, and other network security attacks.

Whether you’re protecting yourself or your business operations, cyber security tools are a must, especially now that attackers are looming everywhere on the internet. Here’s why you need to equip yourself with these tools now.

Protect Your Data and System

Cyber security tools serve as your shield against potential cyber attacks. With these tools, you can safely browse through the internet by protecting yourself against unwanted programs. These tools can also stop threats that make you susceptible to cyber crimes, such as identity theft and hacking, so you can stop worrying about your data’s safety.

Increase Your System’s Productivity

Cyber security tools are essential since they protect you against programs that slow down and crash your system. When you increase your defenses with cyber security tools, you can avoid system downtime caused by these programs, allowing your system to work efficiently. Also, hackers and cyber criminals will not be able to take down your system easily if you have robust security.

Data Safety and Security

One of the main reasons you need cyber security tools is because you want to protect your data and your system. So your cyber security tool should be able to provide you all types of security you need to keep your data safe. Your computer has different parts, and each of these needs specific kinds of protection.

Disaster Recovery Plan

When running a business or a company, you must have a disaster recovery plan that will serve as your backup plan when unforeseen events take place. There are circumstances where you may lose all of your data when you encounter a disaster. Therefore, your cyber security tool should allow you to have a contingency plan so that you will be able to restore your operating systems quickly.

End-User Education

Your tools should be able to provide you an end-user education so that you can be aware of the different types of potential threats you can face. Your tools’ end-user training should include lessons about cyber security and its importance, as well as the different types of cyber threats and how you can prevent them.

Continuous Monitoring

A cyber security tool should regularly monitor your system, so you will know if your tools protect you adequately. Continuous monitoring will help you determine the tools that are becoming weak and ineffective so that you can update or replace them.

Incident Response Tool and Management Plans For Risks

Your cyber security tools should provide you different types of incident response tools, as well as risk management plans, on every possible threat and attack you may encounter on your computer system. These tools should help you face security breaches so that cyber attacks will not cause too much damage to your computer system.

There are several types of cyber security tools, and each one of them serves a different purpose. When choosing the right tool to get for you or your business, it’s also essential to get yourself acquainted with the various cyber security tools.

Antivirus Software

An antivirus is a cyber security software tool that helps you against viruses, bots, worms, scareware, and Trojan horses. The antivirus application scans each of your files for viruses and any suspicious patterns, malicious codes, and infected files. Upon detection, they are automatically separated from the clean files.

Spyware Detector Software

Spyware detection can protect you against spyware. Spyware is an unauthorized software that is installed into your computer systems against your will. This malicious program can record your data without you knowing, and it can record your routine and behavior patterns, which can be used by hackers for transactions under your identity. This crime is also known as identity theft.

Password Authentication Software

Password authentication software is for verifying identities, so you can use these tools to protect your accounts and devices from cyber criminals. This software saves you in many ways, such as creating strong passwords and also providing you biometric options so only you can access your data.

Firewalls

A firewall is one of the essential cyber security tools that you can use, and it serves as your first line of defense against cyberattacks. The firewall informs you when you enter an untrusted website, and it automatically prevents you from going into unsecured networks. It can also screen your messages to see if there is any malicious content, so they can be flagged as spam to prevent you from opening them.

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)

Public key infrastructure (PKI) assures you that you are transacting with responsible parties over the internet through data encryption keys. PKI also uses multi-factor authentication systems and digital signatures to ensure security. You can use PKI services for your online transactions, especially when you have an electronic business.

Incident Management Response Tools

Incident management response tools refer to the tools you need to detect, contain, assess, and respond ton your computer system’s vulnerabilities. These tools will help you come up with quick and fast ways to address security breaches. This may also include cyber security testing tools, monitoring tools, analyzing tools, and visualization tools.

Penetration Testing Tool

If you want to test your system’s vulnerabilities in cyber security, penetration testing can help you. Also known as pen testing, you can use this tool to evaluate your system by intentionally exposing it to potential threats. Pen testing includes a simulation of possible attacks, as well as how you will resolve them. Two of the most common tests used for penetration testing are static analysis tools and dynamic analysis tools.

Staff Training

For companies, staff training is considered a cyber security tool. Your employees should know the proper way of securing data and avoiding cyber attacks. You should educate your employees regarding the data policy and security measures that you have in your business.

Generally, cyber security tools are handy for everyone. Even if you only have a smartphone with you, it’s best to protect yourself from attackers. But, typically, these groups of people are the ones who need cyber security tools the most. Check out if you’re one of them.

Critical Infrastructures

Critical infrastructures are one of the many users of cyber security tools. They use a computer system to sustain the availability of resources and maintain order in society. Computer systems in shopping centers and hospitals also use cyber security tools, since they hold vital information about their customers, so they must keep these secure. Examples of which include shopping centers, hospitals, traffic light operators, etc.

Cloud Users

If you are a cloud user, you need to have cyber security tools in your cloud-based system. When you upload your files and data in a cloud-based system, you make yourself very susceptible to cyber threats and attacks. To prevent this from happening, you need to find the necessary tools to keep you safe and secure while using this system.

Gadget Users

If you own any digital device, such as laptops and smartphones, you need cyber security tools. Cyber criminals can gain access to your essential files any time they want without your knowledge. These criminals can hack into any of your devices and use your information for blackmail or extortion purposes. The most common cyber security tool for gadget users today is antivirus software.

Cyber-Physical Systems

Cyber-physical systems include appliances, printers, security cameras, sensors, televisions, and wi-fi routers. Suppose you are an owner of any of these appliances. In that case, you also need to protect yourself with cyber security tools so that hackers will not gain or access control to your devices, which they can use for their illegal activities.

Step 1: Get familiar with the core concepts of cyber security

To understand the use of these tools, you have to be familiar with cyber security concepts first. You should do research and know the terminologies that experts use in cyber security.

Step 2: Understand how cyberattacks and cyber damage can affect your cyber activities

You also have to learn the possible cyber attacks and damages that cyber criminals can do to your system. Being well informed about this matter allows you to prevent these attacks in the future and avoid significant computer damage.

Step 3: Install cyber security tools with the help of an expert

After you learn about cyber security concepts, ask for the help of an expert to install the necessary tools that you need for your computer.

Step 4: Use cyber security tools regularly

Make sure that you use your cyber security tools regularly to avoid encountering problems during your cyber activities. If you use a password when logging in, make sure that you log out of your computer so other people will not easily access your computer. To avoid malware and viruses on your computer, make sure that you do regular system scans to detect any program that can damage your computer.

Cyber security tools can offer you the following types of securities:

Application Security

Application security protects an application’s source codes during its development phase against any vulnerabilities such as injection attacks and data breaches. Although this type of protection is mainly used during the development processes, developers still use tools to protect the app even when they’re launched.

Operational Security

Operational security focuses on protecting sensitive information, such as a business’s analytical and risk management processes. Also known as procedural security, this will protect a company or organization by preventing unwanted operational data access.

Information Security

Information security focuses on preventing attacks against personal data, such as unauthorized access, and changes to personal data, disclosure of confidential data, destruction of information.

Network Security

Network security deals with the protection of your computer when you access networks. This security prevents any unauthorized access to occur and make changes to your computer system. Some examples of tools that provide network security include antivirus software, email security, firewalls, and a virtual private network (VPN).

A web-based cyberattack is an attack on a website or web application of an organization. Web-based attacks include injection attacks, DNS spoofing, session hijacking, phishing, brute force, denial of service, dictionary attacks, URL interpretation, file inclusion attacks, and man in the middle attacks. To prevent an attack from happening, you can use cyber security tools to protect your devices.

A system-based cyberattack is an attack intended to compromise a computer or its network. System-based cyber attacks include viruses, worms, Trojan horses, backdoors, and bots.

Virus

A virus is a self-replicating computer program that creates a copy of itself into a computer file without your knowledge. This malware is similar to a worm, except that you need to trigger the virus first before activating it.

Worm

A worm is like a virus because of its ability to self-replicate without your knowledge. Their only difference is that a worm does not need any activation processes, so they can immediately cause the system to crash.

Trojan Horse

Trojan Horse is a malicious program that appears to be a regular application at first. Still, it makes unexpected changes to your system and causes unusual activities that are not permitting.

Backdoor

Backdoor, as the name suggests, is an application that can be a source of vulnerability because it can bypass your authentication processes.

Bot

A bot is short for robot, which means that it is an automated process that runs automatically to execute unauthorized commands.

The different types of cyber attackers are cyber criminals, hacktivists, state-sponsored attackers, and insider threats.

Cyber Criminals

Cyber criminals are individuals or groups of people who use technology to their advantage to commit crimes. Cyber criminals stealing sensitive company information and personal data, so they can use it to extort money.

Hacktivists

Hacktivists are individuals or groups of people who work to carry out propagandas. These hacktivists have common beliefs or principles that they strongly believe in, such as political agenda, religion, or social ideology.

State-Sponsored Attackers

State-sponsored attackers are individuals or groups of people who are “hired” by countries who have a political, commercial, and military interest against another state.

Insider Threaths

Insider threats are threats caused by people within the organization or people who have a close connection with the organization. These threats can be caused due to a lack of employee satisfaction or a third party’s personal interests to the organization.

Insider threats refer to threats from within an organization. These security threats often come from employees within an organization, and they use their data for their intentions. Insider threats may be classified into:

Malicious Threat

A malicious threat causes potential harm to an organization’s structure or system. This threat can be in the form of system attacks, damages, ransomware, malware, and other types of risk to your system.

Accidental Threat

As the name suggests, accidental threats are made without the intention of doing it in the first place. The damages caused by these threats are unintentional, such as an employee deletion of essential data.

Negligent Threat

A negligent threat is caused by an employee’s negligence to follow company rules and policies. This threat happens when the employees do not follow the company’s guidelines in observing the application of cyber security in their system.

A disaster recovery plan serves as your backup plan when unforeseen events take place. There are many types of recovery plans, and here are the most common ones that companies and organizations use.

Data Center Disaster Recovery

Data center disaster recovery is a plan that involves the entire building where the data center is located. Even in the presence of natural disasters, the data center should still be working effectively to prevent its susceptibility from cyber attacks.

Cloud-based Disaster Recovery

Cloud-based disaster recovery is a plan that maximizes the use of a cloud provider’s data as a data center instead of the facilities that houses the data. With this recovery plan, your data files will not be physically destroyed during disasters. Because these files are located in a server, the only problem you can encounter with this is how you will retrieve it.

Virtualization Disaster Recovery

Virtualization disaster recovery is a plan where the main goal is to quickly and effectively reconstruct your physical server in case of a disaster. This plan is intended so a business can quickly recover in the event of an emergency and make downtime of the system minimal.

Disaster Recovery as a Service

Disaster recovery as a service is a plan that is usually cloud-based. This disaster recovery plan is provided to you by a trusted cloud-based administrator where site-to-site service is done more quickly. The server replacement service is done in case of disasters. In this case, you are provided a secondary hot site, so your data recovery is fast and efficient.

You can perform manual or automated tests for your system. This test results in the exposure of your system’s vulnerabilities in the operating system, services, and applications. It also exposes improper configurations and other behaviors of end-users. To find out the best technique that you can use to resolve these vulnerabilities, you can perform further tests, such as porous defenses vulnerabilities, risky resource management vulnerabilities, and vulnerabilities related to insecure interaction between components.

Incident response tools are typically used for managed detection and response (MDR) services, and there are several types of them.

Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS)

An intrusion detection system or IDS monitors servers and network activity in real-time. This cyber security monitoring tool identifies and issues you an alert when suspicious activity occurs in your system.

Network Traffic Analysis Tools

Network traffic analyzers are cyber security analyzing tools that can help you examine actual traffic within a network and its gateways. You can use this tool to track a particular activity or data process to determine which part of its flow is susceptible to attacks.

Threat Intelligence Security Research

Threat intelligence security research is a cyber security visualization tool that helps you visualize potential threats, motives, targets, and behavior. This tool also puts proper cyber security tools and controls so you can handle things quickly when there’s a breach in your security.

System Back-Up And Recovery Tools

You can use a system back-up and recovery tool to eliminate or minimize potential harm in your system by preventing data loss and damages, especially during emergencies.