Analysis of Cyber Security Issues from Societal Perspective

Introduction

Cyber security can be defined as security measures being applied to computers to provide a desired level of protection from external cyberattacks. The issue of protection can be defined using the acronym CIA for Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability (Sharma, R. 2012). Confidentiality refers to the property that data should only be viewable by authorized parties. Integrity refers to the principle of user authentic authorization. Availability refers to the principle that data and computer resources will be available to authorized users only. The basic design of the Internet was built around shared access and trust, with security measures being a secondary one. There are myriad protocols in use widely which offer less security to their users and instead rely on trust. This model was apt when the Internet was first developed, and the information being transferred was of little value to process owners. In present scenario the Internet is used to transfer information between people, their banks, their brokers, businesses and government entities. This kind of information can be of significant value to stakeholders and in contrary to criminals as the current level of cyber-attacks, identity thefts and phishing attacks attest. In the present era where Internet of Things (IoT) is proliferating where more than 20 billion connected devices can be a potential target for attackers.

The domain of Cyber Security consists not only the security of IT systems within the enterprise but also include the broader digital networks which rely on cyber space and critical infrastructures. Cyber security plays a vital role in the ongoing development of information technology, as well as Internet services. Enhancing cyber security and protecting critical information infrastructures are essential to nation's security and economic well- being. The application of cloud computing, e-governance schemes, e-shopping and e-services has made cybersecurity an imperative domain to foster the security issues and ensure safe environment for internet infrastructure.

Cybersecurity issues in Societal perspective

E-governance and Cybersecurity

Documents issued by a country’s government provides a personal identity to an individual. Driver’s licenses, social security numbers, tax identification numbers, and various other entitlement documents are used on a regular basis by people to demonstrate their identity and authorization for various opportunities. Because these documents form the basis for all subsequent documents, their integrity is of high importance to stakeholders. Therefore, these crucial documents are targets for criminals and further cyberattacks.

Maintaining a proper cyber security system requires a combination of managerial and technical task executions. Management must determine the appropriate level of risk tolerance and accordingly set security measures. Technical specialists using the security requirements document should develop the imperative technical safeguards to insure appropriate levels of cyber protection. After the development and deployment of security functionality, a testing and audit function is crucial to determine both correctness of the solution and continued compliance to the stated requirements. New solutions suited for e- government such as knowledge-based authentication offer insights into unique e-government issues related to cyberattacks. Security failures are high profile events. Several recent incidents, including Card Systems, LexisNexis, Bank of America, DSW and others have exposed millions of records to potential identity thieves.

E-Businesses and Cybersecurity

The e-businesses process consists of obtaining customer orders, process the orders, new product development and marketing. Depending on the level of integration of e-business the level of involvement of information technology differs. The actual level of IT involvement is not the critical issue rather the level of specific integration and specialization of functionality is the crucial factor. Specialization and specific integration are resource intensive issues that require significant dedication on the part of the organization to achieve. Security functionality is one of many items that needs specific attention with regard to unique e- business functionality. Information technology-based solutions relates to electronic information stored. The information stored in the systems has significant value and needs appropriate levels of protection to ensure its security. The development of specific security controls to accomplish these requirements is of significant concern to e-commerce and therefore substantiate the importance of cybersecurity for e-business functioning enterprises.

Common gray areas such as authentication methodologies have received attention from organizations. The use of national level resources to tackle some of the more technical issues associated with security provides significant information applicable to individual implementations associated with e- government and e-businesses involved. Two-factor authentication measures involving online personal account authentication linked with personal device authentication is also an effective measure to foster cybersecurity and ensure safe authentication.

E-Health and Cybersecurity

E-health medical services are supported by electronic processes and communication. Moreover, health- care professionals share patients’ data among them and tele-monitor patients’ health through smartphones, and patients can have e-prescriptions too. E-health allows the public dissemination of medical information and manages health crises through the use of information systems to measure, monitor, and make decisions. Many research efforts have focused on the use of wireless medical networks to enable and improve the quality of care and remote medical monitoring. These networks, also called wireless body area networks (WBANs), are characterized by the mobility of their nodes, a network’s easy deployment, and its self-organization, which allows elderly people, people at risk, and patients with chronic disease to be monitored. Therefore, these networks open up new technological challenges in terms of security and privacy. So, Cybersecurity plays a vital role in fostering robust E-Health network and deliver robust E-health monitoring systems.

Smart Cities and Cybersecurity

A smart city offers myriad solutions to the various problems faced by urban development and city management. However, the smart delivery of services depends on information and communication technology (ICT) as a critical component. There are risks and challenges invoked by introducing ICT into the infrastructure of a city in perspective of cybersecurity. Citizens increasingly use unsafe Wi-Fi networks to access their emails and e-banking thereby putting themselves in vulnerable conditions for cyberattacks such as man in the middle (MITM), cracking, and denial of service (DoS) attacks. On the other hand, new critical infrastructures of smart cities are likely to be exposed to attacks that could cause severe denial of service to cities and industrial sites thereby forestalling the delivery of crucial services. Cybersecurity is one of the major distinguishing characteristics that can be used to classify safe cities around the world.

Conclusions

Cyber-crime is now serious, widespread, aggressive, proliferating and increasingly and poses major implications for national and economic security of a country. Many industries, institutions, public and private-sector organizations are at significant risk. E-businesses, E-Governments, E-Health systems, Smart city networks requires the robust cyber-security system across all its elements for future growth, innovation and competitive advantage. Working across public and private sector partnerships and by advancing security measures particularly with regard to critical systems, processes and applications that are connected into cyberspace, businesses will be able to work towards an environment that is open and secure for stakeholders involved.