What is cybersecurity?

To be able to understand the role of the cybersecurity architect, you should first understand what is meant by the term cybersecurity. The term is used in many different contexts within security, compliance, and identity. To set a base level of understanding for this book, we will use the definitions provided by NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

According to NIST, there are multiple definitions for the term cybersecurity; the first part of the NIST definition is “the prevention of damage to, protection of, and restoration of computers, electronic communications systems, electronic communications services, wire communication, and electronic communication, including information contained therein, to ensure its availability, integrity, authentications, confidentiality, and nonrepudiation.”

The next part of the NIST definition is “the process of protecting information by preventing, detecting, and responding to attacks.”

They also define cybersecurity for the protection of federal agencies as the ability to protect or defend the use of cyberspace from cyber attacks.

Finally, cybersecurity is also defined as “the prevention of damage to, unauthorized use of, exploitation of, and – if needed – the restoration of electronic information and communications systems and the information they contain, in order to strengthen the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of these systems.”

These are just four areas and approaches that can be taken when it comes to cybersecurity. Overall, the underlying factors here are that you must take the steps to provide assurance for maintaining the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your data and systems. A cybersecurity architect taking the proper due care and due diligence in analyzing and assessing risks and controls that are in place is an example. Relevant systems consist of the infrastructure, applications, databases and storage, and solutions that your company is using for processing and delivering information to users.

Further information can be found at this link: https://csrc.nist.gov/glossary/term/cybersecurity

At this link, you will find the definition of cybersecurity and the various approaches that can be taken toward it. In the next section, you will learn more about how the role of cybersecurity has changed from an on-premises to a cloud network and infrastructure.