alphaPlan · Cybersecurity · Cheat-sheet 01
Why This Matters
Security is a set of everyday decisions about who can see, change and reach your information, and this module gives you the words to name what goes wrong.
Ideas to remember
- 01Every security decision comes back to three questions: who may see this, who may change this, and will it be here when I need it.
- 02Those three goals are confidentiality, integrity and availability (the CIA triad), and their failures are disclosure, alteration and destruction (DAD).
- 03A vulnerability is a weakness, a threat is what could exploit it, and risk is the chance it happens together with how much it would hurt.
- 04Priority = Impact × Likelihood, so the most serious and most likely problems rise to the top of your list.
- 05The real cost of an incident is bigger than any ransom: money, time, trust and data all add up.
- 06Most attacks are wide nets cast by ordinary cybercriminals after money, not personal attacks aimed at you.
Words
- Confidentiality
- Keeping information private, so only the people who are allowed to see it can.
- Integrity
- Information stays accurate and is not changed without permission.
- Availability
- Information and systems are there when people need them.
- Vulnerability
- A weakness that could be taken advantage of, like an unpatched app or a reused password.
- Threat
- Anything that could take advantage of a weakness and cause harm.
- Risk
- The chance of loss, judged by how likely it is and how bad the impact would be.
Do this
- List three things on your phone and label each: who may see it, who may change it, is it backed up?
- When something feels off, ask which of the three questions it threatens.
- Score each worry by Impact × Likelihood and start at the top.
- Name one thing you would lose forever if your phone died right now; that is your first backup target.
- Verify anything unusual through a separate, trusted channel, whoever is behind it.
Watch out
- Treating security as the IT team's job: the most common leak is a person tricked, rushed or unaware.
- Trying to fix everything at once instead of the likely and costly problems first.
- Picturing a hooded figure targeting you by name; the most common attacker is an honest colleague in a hurry.
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