Normally when we think of the term ‘Cyber Security Incident‘, we envision groups of hackers breaking into government databases to steal private information. While this is something that has happened, there are multiple ways incidents can occur; in both our Digital and Physical worlds.’
According to OpenEI.org, a Cyber Security Incident refers to:
“Any malicious act, or suspicious event, that: Compromises, or was an attempt to compromise, the Electronic Security Perimeter or Physical Security Perimeter of a Critical Cyber Asset, or, Disrupts, or was an attempt to disrupt, the operation of a Critical Cyber Asset.”
To gain a clearer understanding of what the above is referring to; here are some examples:
– A hacker breaches a business system with classified information and deletes, or shares information with the general public.
– An unauthorized person accesses a large company network with the intent of stealing financial data.
Incidents can also be caused by a lack of IT Security (also known as ‘Computer Security’); which has a larger scope.
While Cyber Security has more to do with protecting data in its electronic form; the goal of IT Security is to protect data on your computer and in your immediate workspace.
Here are some examples of IT Security incidents:
– A bank customer walks behind the counter. They notice an employee ‘cheat sheet’ with internal account and credit card numbers listed, writes them down and sells them on the Dark Web.
– Your homepage has been changed from ‘www.google.com’ to ‘www.trovi.com’.