What To Know About The Three Major Types of Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is a complex, ever-changing type of protection -- new threats are emerging constantly and the technology needed to fight against them has to be taken to new heights to defend our precious digital world of information. Experts in this industry work hard to stay ahead of the cyber criminals and have the knowledge and knowhow to do so quite often. For many of us who are not in the cyber world, we may be unaware that there are actually three major categories of cybersecurity: network security, cloud security, and application security. Below, we'll take a quick look at each of these types of security in relation to businesses and highlight some of the most significant risks for each.

Network Security

This type of cybersecurity protects your company's network of computers and other essential devices from attacks. Network security helps to protect against threats both internal and external to the network. A major facet of protecting networks is a firewall. Firewalls are excellent tools in your business' cybersecurity approach for protecting your network because they can filter good, legitimate traffic from unwanted attempts to gain access -- a helpful floodgate to protecting against attack.

Protecting your networks is crucial to continued operations. One of the most detrimental attacks that businesses are hit with is ransomware, where data is stolen and held for ransom by cybercriminals. This is something preventable with a strong firewall and continuous cybersecurity monitoring. A potential internal threat to be wary of when it comes to network security is the notorious phishing attack. This cyberthreat is best prevented via education of employees, teaching them how to spot a phishing email and having a strong cyber team for them to reach out to regarding any suspicious emails.

Cloud Security

Cloud Security is the piece of cybersecurity that protects the place where most of our data lies -- the cloud. This sometimes mysterious sounding space is the name given to the servers that are accessed over the Internet as well as the software that operates these servers. The cloud is one of the most important tools in a company's operational arsenal as it allows for businesses to save far more data and run a greater number of essential programs than ever before. Like network security, cloud security is strongly supported by a strong firewall which can detect and protect against cyber risks. In today's world of work from home setups for many businesses, cloud security can be further protected by employee use of a VPN to protect when not connected directly to company networks.

Application Security

Application security refers to the precautions necessary for protecting data at the app-level. This is typically a cybersecurity consideration that is preached toward individuals and less to businesses; however, as more and more devices become essential for businesses to operate, knowledge regarding this facet of cyber is key to a holistic security approach. The main step to take here is the utilization of strong passwords. In addition to strong password use, limiting permissions to only those necessary to operate the app can help to avoid unneeded monitoring by applications that do not need to have access to things like your microphone or camera when it is an app that has nothing to do with those features.

Image by rawpixel.com for Freepik.