Beginning a career in it security: an instruction guide

This is an extract from Marc Menninger's LinkedIn Learning course "Transitioning to a Career in Cybersecurity." Marc is an IT security manager that specialises in information security and risk management for businesses.

#learning #begin #security 

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Everything around us has become smart, like smart infrastructures, smart cities, autonomous vehicles, to name a few. The innovation of smart devices makes it possible to achieve these heights in science and technology. But, data is vulnerable, there is a risk of attack by cybercriminals. To get started, let’s know about IoT devices.

What are IoT devices?

The Internet Of Things(IoT) is a system that interrelates computer devices like sensors, software, and actuators, digital machines, etc. They are linked together with particular objects that work through the internet and transfer data over devices without humans interference.

Famous examples are Amazon Alexa, Apple SIRI, Interconnected baby monitors, video doorbells, and smart thermostats.

How could your IoT devices be vulnerable?

When technologies grow and evolve, risks are also on the high stakes. Ransomware attacks are on the continuous increase; securing data has become the top priority.

When you think your smart home won’t fudge a thing against cybercriminals, you should also know that they are vulnerable. When cybercriminals access our smart voice speakers like Amazon Alexa or Apple Siri, it becomes easy for them to steal your data.

Cybersecurity report 2020 says popular hacking forums expose 770 million email addresses and 21 million unique passwords, 620 million accounts have been compromised from 16 hacked websites.

The attacks are likely to increase every year. To help you secure your data of IoT devices, here are some best tips you can implement.

Tips to secure your IoT devices

1. Change Default Router Name

Your router has the default name of make and model. When we stick with the manufacturer name, attackers can quickly identify our make and model. So give the router name different from your addresses, without giving away personal information.

2. Know your connected network and connected devices

If your devices are connected to the internet, these connections are vulnerable to cyber attacks when your devices don’t have the proper security. Almost every web interface is equipped with multiple devices, so it’s hard to track the device. But, it’s crucial to stay aware of them.

3. Change default usernames and passwords

When we use the default usernames and passwords, it is attackable. Because the cybercriminals possibly know the default passwords come with IoT devices. So use strong passwords to access our IoT devices.

4. Manage strong, Unique passwords for your IoT devices and accounts

Use strong or unique passwords that are easily assumed, such as ‘123456’ or ‘password1234’ to protect your accounts. Give strong and complex passwords formed by combinations of alphabets, numeric, and not easily bypassed symbols.

Also, change passwords for multiple accounts and change them regularly to avoid attacks. We can also set several attempts to wrong passwords to set locking the account to safeguard from the hackers.

5. Do not use Public WI-FI Networks

Are you try to keep an eye on your IoT devices through your mobile devices in different locations. I recommend you not to use the public WI-FI network to access them. Because they are easily accessible through for everyone, you are still in a hurry to access, use VPN that gives them protection against cyber-attacks, giving them privacy and security features, for example, using Express VPN.

6. Establish firewalls to discover the vulnerabilities

There are software and firewalls like intrusion detection system/intrusion prevention system in the market. This will be useful to screen and analyze the wire traffic of a network. You can identify the security weakness by the firewall scanners within the network structure. Use these firewalls to get rid of unwanted security issues and vulnerabilities.

7. Reconfigure your device settings

Every smart device comes with the insecure default settings, and sometimes we are not able to change these default settings configurations. These conditions need to be assessed and need to reconfigure the default settings.

8. Authenticate the IoT applications

Nowadays, every smart app offers authentication to secure the accounts. There are many types of authentication methods like single-factor authentication, two-step authentication, and multi-factor authentication. Use any one of these to send a one time password (OTP) to verify the user who logs in the smart device to keep our accounts from falling into the wrong hands.

9. Update the device software up to date

Every smart device manufacturer releases updates to fix bugs in their software. These security patches help us to improve our protection of the device. Also, update the software on the smartphone, which we are used to monitoring the IoT devices to avoid vulnerabilities.

10. Track the smartphones and keep them safe

When we connect the smart home to the smartphone and control them via smartphone, you need to keep them safe. If you miss the phone almost, every personal information is at risk to the cybercriminals. But sometimes it happens by accident, makes sure that you can clear all the data remotely.

However, securing smart devices is essential in the world of data. There are still cybercriminals bypassing the securities. So make sure to do the safety measures to avoid our accounts falling out into the wrong hands. I hope these steps will help you all to secure your IoT devices.

If you have any, feel free to share them in the comments! I’d love to know them.

Are you looking for more? Subscribe to weekly newsletters that can help your stay updated IoT application developments.

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Beginning a career in it security: an instruction guide

This is an extract from Marc Menninger's LinkedIn Learning course "Transitioning to a Career in Cybersecurity." Marc is an IT security manager that specialises in information security and risk management for businesses.

#learning #begin #security 

10 Cyber Security Tools to Watch Out for in 2021 - DZone Security

With an immense number of companies and entities climbing onto the digital bandwagon, cybersecurity considerations have come up as limelight. Besides, new technologies such as Big Data, IoT, and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning are gradually more making inroads into our everyday lives, the threats related to cybercrime are mounting as well. Additionally, the usage of mobile and web apps in transacting financial information has put the complete digital stuff exposed to cybersecurity breaches. The inherent risks and vulnerabilities found in such apps can be exploited by attackers or cybercriminals to draw off crucial information data counting money. Internationally, cyber-security breaches have caused a yearly loss of USD 20.38 million in 2019 (Source: Statista). Plus, cybercrime has led to a 0.80 percent loss of the entire world’s Gross domestic product, which sums up to approx. USD 2.1 trillion in the year 2019 alone (Source: Cybriant.com).

In this article, take a look at ten cyber security tools to watch out for in 2021, including NMap, Wireshark, Metasploit, and more!

#security #cyber security #security testing #security testing tools #cyber security tools

Cyber Security Career - Salary, Jobs And Skills | Cyber Security Career Roadmap

In this Simplilearn video on Cyber Security Career - Salary, Jobs And Skills, you will be acquainted with the career prospects of a cyber security professional. Here we will look at the top 5 cybersecurity job roles that are in-demand today. So let’s get started with this Cyber Security Career Roadmap video!

The topics covered in this cyber security career video are:

• Introduction to Cyber Security Career
• Network Engineer Career
• Information Security Analyst Career
• Ethical Hacker Career
• Security Architect Career
• Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Career
• Simplilearn’s Cyber Security Certification

Cyber Security Career
With the world turning virtual, cyberattacks are constantly flooding news headlines. Since technology has become more intertwined with our daily lives, it is no surprise that the need for skilled cybersecurity professionals is increasing. There is a significant lack of skilled cybersecurity professionals who can tackle the cybersecurity challenges faced daily. Hence, a cyber security career is demanding and equally rewarding. Finding the right career path in the cybersecurity industry can be challenging. However, there are numerous cyber security job opportunities available today. There are a few prerequisites for a career in cybersecurity. Taking up relevant cybersecurity certifications will help you kickstart your cybersecurity journey. Additionally, skills like networking, knowledge of operating systems, and cloud security are required to start and grow your cybersecurity career.

What Is Cyber Security?
Cyber Security involves techniques that help in securing various digital components, networks, data, and computer systems, from unauthorized digital access. There are several ways to implement cybersecurity, depending on the kind of network you are connected to and the type of cyberattacks you are prone to. A few ways to implement cybersecurity are defining clear boundaries, using network security control devices like Firewalls and IDS.

#security #cyber-security #jobs #career

Cloud Security: Is it Worth it?

Storing and managing corporate data by applying the cloud is becoming more and more popular. Companies grow, and it gets too expensive, and resources consuming to store their data on traditional servers. To prove it, look at the research conducted by Google in 2019 that includes insights for the cloud computing market for the next 10 years.

Around 80% of US respondents (about 1,100 businesses participated) revealed that they are thinking about cloud adoption by 2029. In 2019, only about 40% made a switch. 72% of businesses state that they’d like to automate security solutions by 2029, while now only 33% actually do it.

What do these numbers tell us? That companies seem to be suspicious about cloud security and prefer traditional on-premises data storage to the cloud environment. Why are they afraid to entrust cloud providers with their data? What to do to get rid of this fear? How to prove that the future of security is after the cloud?

In our article, we aim to answer these questions and more, but first, you need to be able to identify the reasons why companies have cloud-related trust issues. The first step in eliminating a problem is identifying it, let’s do it together!

#cloud-security #security-of-data #cybersecurity #cloud-computing #aws-security #azure-security #data-breaches #cyber-security