Identity and access management (IAM) is the discipline of verifying who users are and controlling what they can do across the systems an organization runs. The category covers authentication (proving you’re who you say you are), authorization...
A data breach response plan is the documented set of procedures, decision authority, communication templates, and operational steps an organization activates when a data breach is detected. The plan exists because data breaches happen on a timeline...
The CIA triad is the foundational framework of cybersecurity. The three letters stand for Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability, and they describe the three properties every security program is trying to maintain. Almost any security control...
Disaster recovery planning is the discipline of preparing in advance to restore business operations after a major incident that takes systems offline. The incidents vary widely (ransomware, datacenter outage, hardware failure, natural disaster...
Endpoint security is the discipline of protecting the devices employees actually use to do their work: laptops, desktops, smartphones, tablets, and sometimes specialty devices like point-of-sale terminals or kiosks. The endpoints are where humans...
Social engineering is the family of cyberattacks that manipulate people into taking actions or revealing information that helps the attacker, rather than exploiting technical vulnerabilities directly. Phishing is the most familiar example, but...
HTTPS and SSL/TLS are the protocols that make encrypted web connections possible. When you visit a website and see the padlock icon in your browser’s address bar, the underlying technology is TLS (Transport Layer Security, the successor to the...
Data backup strategy is one of those topics where everyone agrees it matters and very few organizations get it right. The shape of the failure is consistent: the backup ran every night, the team assumed it worked, and when restore time came (after a...
Understanding ransomware is no longer optional for any business operator. Ransomware is the category of cyberattack where attackers encrypt a victim’s files and demand payment (usually in cryptocurrency) for the decryption key. Over the past...
Password security basics matter more for small businesses than the marketing for the latest security tools usually suggests. The most expensive security incidents at small organizations rarely come from sophisticated zero-day exploits. They come...
