People exploiting people
It is a sad fact that cybercriminals are in the business of exploiting people. They exploit their victims' hopes and dreams or willingness to help to install malicious software on their machines or gain access to their credentials. Then they exploit that access to steal identities or financial information or hold their victims for ransom. While technology is involved in every step, the story of cybersecurity is a human story. Cybercriminals are no different from other criminals; they use shady tactics to exploit people for their own gain. Cybersecurity, then, is the art and science of protecting people from harm.
The first element of the human story that is cybersecurity is understanding the tactics from the attacker's perspective. When people set out to exploit others in cyberspace, the following categories of techniques are most popular:
- Social engineering techniques
- Stealing credentials
- Malicious software
When describing...
