How cyber security is different from information security

Across the globe, the terms Information Security and Cyber Security are used interchangeably and can be easily confused as they overlap in many ways. 

While there are, indeed, similarities between Information Security and Cyber Security, it is important to understand the differences and how each contributes to providing the ultimate digital protection for your business.

There’s an inescapable irony to be found in the modern age, an inconvenient truth observable in almost every facet of society…that as our reliance and appetite for technology grows, so the general understanding of the associated terms diminishes.

There is, however, a perfectly good reason for this. Appearance.

The systems and networks that make our lives more efficient, are designed to appear simple. A click here, a thumbprint there – even looking at a device can connect you to your bank account.

This is, of course, just pretence. What our glossy devices hide is a level of complexity that’s outgrown the capacity of language to describe it – and there are few areas more afflicted than those concerning its security.

What is security?

There are as many descriptions of security as there are phones to Google it on. It means different things to different people. But there is one, more specific, question that matters to everyone; What is Information Security?

The drive to protect information has existed since man first worried that their neighbour might take something away from them, and that in doing so their lives would be made worse.

This simple scenario serves to highlight an important concept – that humanity has always sought to protect what is theirs, with only a trusted few granted access, and by doing so we are, in principle at least, safer.

Or put another way, we maintain a level of Confidentiality and Availability. Two fundamental principles of Information Security.

Nowadays, this “thing” we want to protect is often intangible. Our data. Names, addresses, business records; this information is as valuable to an enemy as it is us – and we go to great lengths to guard it.

We always have.

We classify it to understand what its loss would mean. Higher the classification, the worse the impact should we lose it. To mitigate this we assign a level of protection appropriate to that perceived level risk.

We understand the potential value of information can only be realised if it remains available to those authorised to use it. Information is worthless if it is inaccessible so we expend considerable resources building robust, secure ways to house and transport it.

But having gone to that effort, how can we be sure what our information is genuine? Hasn’t been tampered with?

By enforcing the Integrity Principle which, when implemented alongside Confidentiality and Availability, form the holy trinity of Information Security. All separate. All linked.

Without one, there isn’t the other.

It’s worth noting that nothing described is here is technical. Indeed, these principles could be described as an entirely conceptual set of objectives that achieve little without a diverse suite of supporting expertise to achieve.

Technical skills will play their part in achieving Information Security objectives – they may even make up the bulk of the work nowadays. But they are just one stich in the wider fabric of security.

A true Information Security expert will know this only too well.

Where does cyber security fit in?

If technical aspects are one part of the Information Security puzzle, the others must be more abstract in design, encompassing controls that support the entire business – from organisational to environmental.

It may, therefore, be helpful to consider cyber security as activities tailored to achieve our Information Security objectives for the digital age, ones linking the myriad aspects of a complex threat landscape.

The demand for cyber security skills has grown exponentially in recent years, matched only by societies appetite to store increasing amounts of information online – information that draws the attention of another group of experts with an evocative name; Cyber-criminals.

And experts they are. Well funded, highly motivated experts of their craft.

Considering them otherwise is the first weakness in your cyber defences.

Gone are the days where crimes against technology were the sole concern of governments – todays cyber-criminal will seek out weaknesses in businesses and individuals alike, using an unnervingly accessible suite of advanced tools to collaborate as efficiently as a well resourced military.

They will infiltrate infrastructure as readily as personal laptops. Deploy complex viruses to Deny a Service, or passively recon a target’s digital footprint to design a psychologically damaging, socially engineered attack reminiscent of a traditional con-artist.

This threat has to be met head on. It calls for a new kind of specialist.

Information security and cyber security experts

This is the domain of the cyber security expert. No longer confined to the IT department, today’s cyber-expert understands the interrelated nature of good-governance and technical applications - bringing the core principles of Information Security into the digital age.

They will look for ways to identify critical assets, assess the threats they face, and design ways to protect them.

They will take the fight to the cybercriminal by detecting and containing intrusions before damage is done, helping organisations respond in the most efficient way possible.

They will design and implement policies and education programmes, integrate traditionally disparate parts of a business because they know that awareness and cohesion is as important as a firewall.

A cyber security expert is, in many ways, the modern iteration of an evolving specialism that started with those early concerns about a neighbour.

The practices may have changed, but the objectives haven’t.

At tmc3, we help businesses function safely amidst an exponential global rise in cybercrime. We’ve assisted businesses across the public and private sectors to ensure that their cyber security strategies are tailored to resist the most vicious cyber attacks around.

Our expert cyber security team has over 60 years of combined experience and specialises in the most stringent cyber security protocols across various industries.

Together with our suite of innovative cyber security products and solutions, our expert team can help you to understand the complexity of regulations and frameworks, improve your cyber maturity levels, and conduct intensive security testing that will help you to analyse your systems and applications – discovering weaknesses and fixing them before any cyber attack occurs.

We understand the value of information. And we protect it.

Get in touch with our team of Cyber Security and Information Security experts and find out how tmc3 can make a difference to your business with superior protection from cyber-attacks and malicious online threats.