10 Essential Cyber Security Concepts You Should Know

As business leaders, it's essential to stay up to date with emerging information security terms and concepts. While the remote business world continues to grow, and endpoints become more diffuse, cybercriminals are taking advantage of network gaps, complicated application stacks, and subpar monitoring. Here are the ten most important security concepts you need to understand to address these growing threats. Because the more you know, the better suited you'll be when making security decisions for your business.

Here Are Our Top 10 Security Operations Terms:

Foundational Information Security Concepts

1. MSSP (Managed Security Service Provider)

   • This is a specified Managed Service Provider that supports 24x7 management, monitoring, and maintenance of security services, typically at a preset monthly cost. Some examples of this could include monitoring firewalls, endpoint detection, and other cybersecurity products.

2.  APT (Advanced Persistent Threat)

   • An intruder's ability to continuously remain in the network. A hacker's goal is typically to stay within the network for as long as possible without anyone noticing. By doing so, they buy time to harvest employee credentials, client information, intellectual property, and financial records. 

3. DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service)

   • This is when a web service is considered unusable due to flooding of traffic from IP addresses and sources. Hackers may use DDoS as a diversion when trying to attack, or may disrupt normal operations until a condition is met - monetary or otherwise. 

4. IOC (Indicator of Compromise)

   • Any data that indicates a network intrusion. These are typically uncovered through ongoing log data analysis. Common IOCs may include unusual outbound traffic, geographic irregularities, mismatched port-application traffic, and anomalous privileged user activity.

5. SOC (Security Operations Center)

   • A Security Operations Center is made up of cybersecurity personnel, threat and incident response processes, and supporting security technologies. Larger businesses typically have an in-house SOC, but many smaller companies outsource theirs.

6. CASB (Cloud Access Security Brokers)

   • These are policy plans between the cloud service users and the providers. The plans typically identify and break down enforcement mechanisms such as authentication, encryption, and alerting.

7. IAM (Identify Access Management)

   • Framework of policies that dominate the management of users' electronic identities. The goal of this is to make sure each user receives the appropriate level of access based on their IT systems.

8. IR (Incident Response)

   • Organized protocols that are followed upon detection of intrusion. The purpose of this is to mitigate malware intrusion, data breach, and cybersecurity attacks.

9. SIEM (Security Information and Event Management)

   • This is one of the more essential parts of any SOC because it's centralizing all security-related log data. This software must integrate with many data sources in order to funnel all important data to a console where it undergoes continuous analysis.

10. UEBA (User and Entity Behavior Analytics)

    • This performs a deep analysis of users' actions to identify deviations from the norm. This helps understand user's behavior and minimize noise during log sessions.

Understanding security operations terms can help you when finding security services. If you want to learn more about how we can improve your cybersecurity, check us out at iCorps to schedule a free IT consultation.