Introduction To Cybersecurity - A Beginner's Guide To Cybersecurity World

Have you ever think about how secure your data is ? Cybercrime is a global issue nowadays. So, cybersecurity has become essential. Hence, I decided to start a blog “Towards Cybersecurity” which contains cybersecurity, hacking and networking related post. My main Goal to start this blog is more and more people learn and aware about cybersecurity, hacking and networking related concepts. So, Let’s Begin the journey.

I am here to guide you through the world of cybersecurity. Cybersecurity is a huge field with topics ranging from the highly technical to basic concepts that everyone who uses computers, smartphones, tablets or any other digital device which is connected to the internet should know. These days, knowledge of cybersecurity is becoming more important for everyone.This is my first blog so here you learn the basic things that you should be aware about cybersecurity.

Before we begin, let me just list out the topics I’ll be covering in this post.

    The history of Cybersecurity
    Why we need Cybersecurity ?


The history of Cybersecurity
Around fifty years ago words like viruses, malware, worms trojan horse, spyware, adware weren't even a part of information technology (IT) vocabulary. The origin of cybersecurity came into existence because of the development of viruses. But how did we get there ?

How did we get there ?
In 1970's, Robert (Bob) Thomas who was a researcher for BBN Technologies in Cambridge created the first computer worm (Virus). He realized that it was possible for a computer program to move across a network, leaving a small signs wherever it went. he named the program "Creeper" and designed it to travel between Tenex terminals on the early ARPANET, printing the message "I'M THE CREEPER : CATCH ME IF YOU CAN".
 
An american computer programmer Ray Tomlinson, the inventor of email, was also working for BBN Technologies at that time. He saw this idea and like it. He did an act of attempting to repair something with the program and made it self-replicating the first computer worm. He named the program Reaper, the first antivirus software which would found copies of the Creeper and delete it.

Where are we now ?
After Creeper and Reaper, cyber-crimes became more powerful. As computer software and hardware developed, cybersecurity attacks also increase. In 1986, the Russians were the first who implement the cyber power as a weapon. Marcus Hess, a German citizen, hacked 400 military computers, including processors at the Pentagon. He intended to sell all secrets to the KGB but an American astronomer, Clifford Stoll  caught him before he sell secrets to the KGB.

In 1988, an American computer scientist, Robert Morris, wanted to check the size of the internet. he wrote a program for testing the size of the internet. This program went through networks, entered into Unix terminals, and copied itself. This program became the famous network virus named as Morris worm. The Morris worm could be infected a computer multiple times, and each additional process would slow the machine down, eventually to the point of being damaged. Robert Morris was charged under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

It's hard to remember a bigger shock to the IT community than WannaCry, the biggest ransomware offensive in history. Within 24 hours,  WannaCry had infected more than 230,000 computers in over 150 countries.



WannaCry is the most famous and popular, but hardly the only case. We see on a regular basis how attackers are finding new ways to compromise (hack) devices. Nowadays, viruses were deadlier, more dangerous, and harder to stop.The above is to name a few, but these attacks are enough to prove that cybersecurity is a necessity for corporations, small businesses and also for people who uses computers and smartphones.

The future of cybersecurity
Today, cyber threats are so common and advanced that they seem almost impossible to prevent. As a result, in many organizations, cybersecurity has become a part of the business as finance, sales and marketing, and focus is on developing appropriate response plans that minimize the damage in the event of a cyber attacks. Cybersecurity professionals are in high demand to create and execute safety measures however, the talent or workforce gap for cybersecurity is estimated to hit 1.8 millions by 2022, according to survey. Fortunately, for those in cybersecurity industry, the opportunities in this field are endless.

Why we need Cybersecurity ?
It  can be said that today's generation lives whole day on the internet and general users are almost ignorant as to how those random bits of 1's and 0's reach securely to our computers and smartphones. For a hacker, it's a golden age. With so many access points, public IP's and constant traffic, hackers are creating malicious software for the same. Cybersecurity attacks are evolving by the day. Hackers are becoming smarter and more creative with their viruses and malware.

Therefore there has to be some sort of protocol that protects us against all these cyber attacks and make sure our data does not fall into the wrong hands. So, that's why we need cybersecurity
 

If you have any questions then please mention it in the comments section and I will get back to you and stay tune with my blog to learn interesting thing related to cybersecurity and hacking.

Why cyber attackers are stealing healthcare records

It’s almost impossible to avoid the news about data leaks from the healthcare industry. There are so many data breaches that people have almost gotten used to them.

“Since late 2009, the medical information of more than 155 million Americans has been exposed without their permission through about 1,500 breaches.”

But this matter should really not be taken lightly.

If you’re wondering why cyber criminals use their resources to target healthcare organizations, here are some answers:

“Healthcare records also contain the most valuable information available, including Social Security numbers, home addresses and patient health histories -- making them more valuable to hackers than other types of data.”

And the truth is that the organizations in this field aren’t very well equipped to protect your personal information from cyber attacks.

What you can do about it is express your concern to local government, so adequate measures can be taken.

 

What is Dark Web / Deep Web?

 

Maybe you did not know, but there are two Internet. The classic Internet, the one you know and that you use everyday, on which you can read this article. It is very easily accessible and is indexed by the search engines. Next comes the deep web or the dark. Do you have question what is the dark web? Here’s the answer, web representing approximately 96% of the entire web on which there is a large number of un-referenced pages for various reasons: dynamic URLs generated on the fly, sites requiring authentication (banks, online organizations), data not included by the search engines.

And then there is a small subset of the deep web that can not be accessed without specific software, it is the  dark web.

What is dark web or deep web actually?

The dark web exists on darknets , superimposed networks using specific protocols integrating anonymization functions and constituted by people who connect among themselves in particular for exchanges of files. These networks are superimposed on the Internet, but require specific software to access them. Thus, they are not accessible or even visible to uninitiated people.

For example, among the widely used software, Tor software hides a darknet. Tor can be used to anonymize its activity on the Internet  when you surf the visible web, but it can also be used to access special sites ending in .onion that you would not be able to access with a standard browser. These sites use Tor to camouflage themselves on the web and only Tor users can access it, which makes them very little visible!

Tor’s hidden websites are the best-known darknet on the web, but there are of course other darkenets used for various purposes such as sharing secret files, pirated software or media files.

What are you going to find on the dark web?

On darknets hide websites that do not want to be accessible on the normal web where they could be found easily. These websites constitute what is called the dark web.

The dark web provides anonymity both to the websites that constitute it and to the visitors of these websites. Political dissidents in countries where authoritarian regimes leave very little room for opponents are likely to use the dark web to communicate and organize (we find a little spirit of “Radio London” and resistance during the 2nd World War II with its parallel communication networks).

Alert launchers can reveal secrets about the dark web using sites like the one from the American newspaper The New Yorker  accessible by Tor to guarantee a higher level of anonymity. Even Facebook can be accessed from Tor to ensure the security of users logging into countries where Facebook is censored or banned .

But beyond these positive uses and aiming to fight for freedom, the anonymity of the dark web allows the existence of a multitude of other sites that could not have been born on the normal web, for good reasons.

Indeed, many sites offer drugs, weapons, false documents or even stolen credit cards and even other services like credit card hacking and confidential information hacking. You will also find sites of online games or directories of criminals with classifieds of people proposing for an assassination. All these services are generally paid in Bitcoin, this virtual currency also guaranteeing a certain anonymity .

Moreover, the site of the dark web that has made the most talk about him in recent years is Silk Road, a huge black market place dedicated to the sale of drugs and on which payments were made in Bitcoin and buyers received their orders by mail as on any other e-retailer. Silk Road was brought to and end in November 2014 by the FBI.

 

 It is therefore very important to be aware that everything on the dark web is not necessarily reliable and legitimate (besides being illegal!). Indeed, even if this is not quantifiable because of the absence of statistics in this parallel world, much of what is there may well be scams to make money on the back of the “customers”. Difficult indeed for a client to go complaining to the police saying that the user Sniper77 did not perform his assassination service when he was well paid! One can also imagine that on these sites there are traps set by the police to take on the fact of people seeking illegal products or services.

In short, make sure not to use dark web

Now you know what is dark web, so in the end, there really are very few legitimate reasons that could lead you on the dark web. As we saw above, if you are a wake-up caller or if you live in a country where all freedoms are not guaranteed, dark web can be a valuable tool … for the rest, avoid all just to get there.

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Note: Use Virtual Machine and scan on VirusTotal before downloading any program on Host Machine for your privacy.