For a subject that has such a significant impact on the day-to-day activities of companies and particulars, the field of cyber security happens to be surrounded by a series of misconceptions that might cause an overall loss of interest from both, general and knowledgeable audiences. Not only this is prejudicial because it could affect their performance in a negative fashion, but also because these wrong perceptions put them at risk from different perspectives.
Have you ever found yourself in the middle of a discussion about a trending subject where you notice that you are basically repeating ideas and statements that you have read online as your own? Maybe you found these in an opinion article, perhaps you saw a few comments about a controversial post and learned them by heart, but never stopped to properly digest the information and generate your own point of view?
This situation is most common than you would think, and it is precisely this kind of interaction, where the participants might or not be aware of their lack of knowledge, and they speak and state about a theme they do not know much about, using someone else’s words, and eventually convincing themselves it is a topic they know and understand, where misconceptions come from. Sometimes it is more dangerous to know a little part of the story but believe you know it all than knowing nothing but being aware of it.
However, this situation is easy to remediate with little time spent in research and analysis. Keep reading if you think cyber security might be one of these blurry, grey areas to you.
Main misconceptions and other perceptions about cyber security
- Only big companies are exposed to cyber threats: Cyberattacks target companies not only based on their size or revenue but also on other numerous factors of interest to them. This means that these kinds of incidents are unpredictable and should therefore be included within the risk analysis of the company, as their consequences could be detrimental to basically any firm.
- There is one magic solution to cyberattacks: The agents that represent a cyber threat evolve over time, learning from previous attacks, improving their methods, introducing new technologies, and doing more accurate studies of their targets. The solution to prevent these cyber-incidents cannot be a one-time thing, as it becomes more obsolete every day. Instead, it must evolve and adapt to the new threats in order to increase its ability to identify and neutralize them.
- All hackers represent danger: Hackers that practice ethical hacking legitimately attacks systems aiming to identify the weak spots that actual threat agents could take advantage of and use what they find to remediate the vulnerabilities of the structure/system.
- Risk assessments deliver full visibility to hazards: Audits are useful to identify potential threats, nonetheless, your resilience should be evaluated taking the context into account, as every individual/company’s response is affected by their particular susceptibility to risks based on their nature and characteristics.
What can I do to be better prepared in case of a cyber security breach?
The unpredictability of cyberattacks is one of the characteristics that make them so dangerous, nevertheless, being prepared with an optimal cyber security system can help you prevent menaces that would otherwise be extremely harmful to your company.
Knowing your weaknesses allows you to correct them, and an excellent way of improving your ability to identify said vulnerabilities is by taking ethical hacking and cyber security courses, as they focus on teaching you how to recognize your potential cyber security breaches and finally remediate them.
