Cybersecurity Program Development for Business

CHAPTER 3A Cybersecurity Primer

This chapter is your core resource for cybersecurity. You can refer to it again and again to refresh your understanding, look up a term, and review essential principles.

Cybersecurity Defined

This is my definition of cybersecurity:

• Cybersecurity is the ongoing application of best practices intended to ensure and preserve confidentiality, integrity, and availability of digital information as well as the safety of people and environments.

There are other definitions out there, most with more complexity. But I—and I'd hazard most businesspeople—needed something different: a simple, meaningful definition we can pin to our monitors, consult frequently, and easily understand.

This definition includes the dynamic nature of the field (it's ongoing) and the four best‐practice pillars: confidentiality, integrity, availability, and safety.

The pillars of cybersecurity used to be a triad: confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Safety is the newest member of the roster, making it a lovely quartet, and introduced to address everyday‐life threats posed by the Internet of Things (IoT).

The Meaning of Security

The word security is at the heart of cybersecurity. So, let's take a moment to break it down. Security is a practice dealing with all aspects of prevention, protection, and remediation from any type of harm to an asset. The bulletproof glass in front of the Mona Lisa is security.

Information security is also a practice, one that aims to protect ...