Differences Between Technologies Names

There has been much confusion around three names in the computer field. Cyber Security, Information Technology, and Information Security.
Knowing the differences between these names will save business owners billions over the long term. In addition, it will equip them to ask the right questions when saving their businesses from breaches. Today, most business owners believe they are protected or won’t get breached because it will always happen to someone else, but not our business.

What is Information Technology?

Information Technology (IT) is using computer technology to manage information. The field of IT encompasses all computer software, hardware, and related devices employed in processing, transferring, storing, and disseminating data, whether on a computer, smartphone, TV, or another medium. So everyone accessing IT services whenever they download a song, stream a movie, check their email, or perform a web search. Areas of study within IT include database development, computer networking, software engineering, data analysis, and more”.

Information Security:

“Information security means protecting information and information systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction. Information security, computer security, and information assurance are frequently used interchangeably. These fields are interrelated and share the common goals of protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information; however, there are some subtle differences between them. These differences lie primarily in the approach to the subject, the methodologies used, and the areas of concentration. Information security concerns data confidentiality, integrity, and availability regardless of the form the data may take: electronic, print, or other forms.”

Cyber Security:

Cybersecurity personnel understand how hackers can change, intercept, or steal transmitted company data within your local network or over the internet. They deploy software or hardware to block or prevent unauthorized access to shared data. They are also known as “ethical hackers” or penetration testers. They find holes in your network before hackers do and repair them.

Per Cisco:

“Cybersecurity is protecting systems, networks, and programs from digital attacks. These attacks usually aim to access, change, or destroy sensitive information, extort money from users, or interrupt normal business processes.

Implementing effective cybersecurity measures is particularly challenging today because there are more devices than people, and attackers are becoming more innovative”.

Per FireEye:

“Cyber security has never been simple. And because attacks evolve daily as attackers become more inventive, it is critical to properly define cyber security and identify what constitutes good cyber security.

Why is this so important? Year after year, worldwide spending for cyber security continues to grow: 71.1 billion in 2014 (7.9% over 2013) and 75 billion in 2015 (4.7% from 2014), and it is expected to reach 101 billion by 2018. In addition, organizations are starting to understand that malware is a publicly available commodity, making it easy for anyone to become a cyberattacker. Even more, companies offer security solutions that do little to defend against attacks. Cyber security demands focus and dedication.

Cyber security protects the data and integrity of computing assets connected to an organization’s network. Its purpose is to defend those assets against all threat actors throughout the entire life cycle of a cyber attack.

Cyber security professionals face a few challenges: kill chains, zero-day attacks, ransomware, alert fatigue, and budgetary constraints. Cybersecurity experts need a more robust understanding of these topics and many others to confront those challenges more effectively.

The following articles cover a specific cyber security topic to provide insights into the modern security environment, the cyber threat landscape, and attacker mentality, including how attackers work, what tools they use, what vulnerabilities they target, and what they’re after”.

So there you have it!
Business owners might still get confused when they hear these terms. Still, an excellent way to think this through is to remember years ago how you never heard of companies losing billions of dollars from people who had never been to the USA or stepped into your local bank and could withdraw from your account that at times seems very difficult when you go thru a drive-thru.

The bad guys can bypass those tellers that you think should know you by now. So, cyber security personnel are here to fight those bad guys on their level to protect your assets and critical data.