Written by Fight the Hacking Menace
Electronic fraud and Internet-related offenses such as hacking are fast-turning into a serious law-and-order issue, especially in the Western world. With internet technology becoming an ever pervasive part of our lives, it is becoming more and more crucial to be aware of security issues with respect to hacking and the dos-and -don’ts of being a netizen so as to not be a victim. Also, with corporations becoming more aware of the need for computer security, a qualification in cyber security can make for a lucrative career, turning you into a veritable cyber-Marshall who combats the evil of hacking. What’s more, a lot of these courses are available online!
Of course, there exist proper brick-and-mortar institutions that offer similar courses, but online learning affords you the luxury of learning at your own pace. Effectively, it lets you plan your course to suit your life instead of the other way round.
A Course to Counter Hacking
While yo
u’ll learn many things in this course, of utmost importance is the part where they teach you about countering cyber-terrorism. Cyber-terrorism is still a tentative term and aspects of it are still emerging. However, one can say that cyber-terrorism is where the menace of hacking, hitherto ranging from merely annoying fiddling to financial crimes or even corporate espionage, has now turned into a full-blown hazard threatening the national security of various countries and endangering millions of lives.
Cyber terrorism is the sort of hacking where a hacker breaks into a system containing sensitive classified information pertaining to a nation’s security interests; the access is usually granted via the internet, but sometimes a hacker may have to connect to a more secure, exclusive network through the internet, thus involving another layer of security that has to be compromised. The classified information thus accessed may be made public for all to see, or just sold to the highest bidder. Such hackers can even be in the employ of intelligence agencies seeking to spy on another country. Cyber-terrorism is just an extension of one way that hacking has been used by the business world for quite some time: corporate espionage by breaking into a rival company’s systems. The difference is that the stakes are much higher in this case than just corporate hacking. The anonymous nature of the Internet makes it easy for certain groups to attack rival groups or target individuals with impunity.
A few of the other topics of relevance that are taught in the course are cyber law, computer forensics, fighting malware and cyber-compliance. There is also a fair degree of stress on countering intrusion with software/ hardware and firewalls.
In a Nutshell
What it comes down to is protecting sensitive information and checking unauthorized access to any data. Implications of this can be very wide, from preventing national-security level espionage, to saving critical computer systems from malicious software, and even to preventing identity theft that ultimately leads to credit card fraud or possibly something more nefarious.
A computer is like a gun; it can be used for evil or for good, and that depends on the man controlling it. By being a cyber security professional, you are choosing to take things in your hands and do your bit to counter the threat of hacking.
