Defense in Depth (eBook)

Modern Cybersecurity Strategies and Evolving Threats

Hewa Majeed Zangana (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025
565 Seiten
Wiley-IEEE Press (Verlag)
978-1-394-34073-6 (ISBN)

Infos

Up-to-date reference on the evolving landscape of cybersecurity, focusing on strategies that integrate AI, blockchain, and human factors

Defense in Depth delivers a comprehensive guide to the rapidly developing field of digital threats and defenses. This book examines how defense-in-depth approaches integrate multiple layers of security to protect against a wide range of threats; how AI technologies are being utilized for threat detection, response, and prediction; and how blockchain technology can be leveraged to enhance security measures, particularly in ensuring data integrity and securing transactions. Case studies of significant cyberattacks are included throughout the text to elucidate key concepts.

The book discusses additional topics such as:

• The critical importance of cybersecurity in today's interconnected world and the historical evolution of cyber threats, highlighting modern attack vectors
• Core principles of defense, detailing layered security measures across networks, applications, data, and endpoints
• Human factors, often the weakest link in cybersecurity, with strategies for mitigating risks
• Machine learning and neural networks and their usage in AI-driven security solutions across finance, healthcare, and government
• Advanced defense techniques, practical applications, and future directions in cybersecurity

Defense in Depth is an essential reference on the state of the art in the field for cybersecurity professionals, IT practitioners, and researchers. It is also an excellent learning aid for advanced students in cybersecurity, particularly those in graduate programs.

Hewa Majeed Zangana is an Assistant Professor at Duhok Polytechnic University (DPU) in Iraq. He has held numerous academic and administrative positions, including Assistant Professor at Ararat Private Technical Institute, Lecturer at DPU's Amedi Technical Institute and Nawroz University, and Acting Dean of the College of Computer and IT at Nawroz University. His administrative roles have included Director of the Curriculum Division at the Presidency of DPU, Manager of the Information Unit at DPU's Research Center, and Head of the Computer Science Department at Nawroz University.

Dr. Zangana has authored numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals, including Inform: Jurnal Ilmiah Bidang Teknologi Informasi dan Komunikasi, Indonesian Journal of Education and Social Science, TIJAB, INJIISCOM, IEEE, EAI, and AJNU. In addition to his journal contributions, he has published many academic books with IGI Global, several of which are indexed in Scopus and Web of Science (Clarivate).

Beyond publishing, Dr. Zangana actively contributes to the academic community through editorial service. He serves as a reviewer for many reputable journals. He is also a member of several academic and scientific committees, including the Scientific Curriculum Development Committee, the Student Follow-up Program Committee, and the Committee for Drafting the Rules of Procedure for Consultative Offices.

Textauszug

1
Introduction to Modern Cybersecurity

Hewa Majeed Zangana

IT Department, Duhok Technical College, Duhok Polytechnic University, Duhok, Iraq

1.1 Overview of Cybersecurity Evolution

This shows that the field of cybersecurity has gone through several changes in the last few decades, starting with technical barriers to developing a powerful mechanism that represents a defense against numerous threats. Cryptography earlier was aimed at ensuring that data and systems were protected from access by any unauthorized individuals' rudimentary concept of firewalls and antivirus programs [1]. However, with the advancement of digital disruption, intent became to establish complex cyber threats, which, in turn, called for further enhanced strategies and measures [2, 3].

In the early 2000s, cybersecurity advanced to reacting to the more emergence of network systems as the technological world extended a broader phase of the digitalization of facilities. In this period, new ideas appeared, for instance, the defense in depth (DiD) idea that promoted protection in layers, protecting data, networks, and systems [4]. This strategy became particularly valuable in an era where an isolated defensive element posed is not enough to address better and synchronized attacks [5]. The measures taken in further reach of the first decade of the twenty‐first century became concerned with early threat recognition and prevention as new forms of threats—advanced persistent threats, as well as more evolved forms of malicious software began to appear [6, 7]. It also witnessed the development of the cryptographic processes for communicating sensitive information securely in complicated networks and on an international level [8]. Today, cybersecurity is facing new challenges resulting from technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and Internet of Things (IoT). These innovations have developed new risks, solidifying the need to consider security that is enriched as a constituent part of the ongoing growth of technology [9, 10]. Furthermore, even the frameworks and industry standard like NIST cybersecurity framework is vital in leading organization's toward practices that are both relevant to current and new threats [11, 12].

Cybersecurity is expected to remain an evolving field in the foreseeable future as new technologies are developed and new forms of attacks appear. The call for the collaborative and cross‐sectoral approaches, along with the integration of AI in threat analysis, are some of the strategic imperatives that could be seen as defining the further development of the field [13, 14]. Such evolution emphasizes the need not only for sound and effective technical countermeasures but also for proactive and innovative approaches able to contain and prevent the rather fluid and ever‐changing nature of cyber threats [15]. Successful cybersecurity transition from first‐level technical solutions to complex approaches is crucial for comprehending present threat environment. The following timeline highlights the latter distilling cybersecurity throughout the important phases discovered and the primary milestones that led to the evolution of the present‐day cybersecurity technology (Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1 Evolution of cybersecurity.

Source: Hewa Majeed Zangana.

1.2 Current Cyber Threat Landscape

The contemporary cyberspace threat environment is complex and constantly evolving in response to innovation in technologies, the evolving character of threat actors, and the escalating complexity and proliferation of attack methods. Advanced threats aims to attack personal and corporate networks in different fields such as banking, medical, infrastructure, and agricultural, hence the need to implement cybersecurity solutions across the board [6, 16]. The aimed threat actors are manifold and so are the sectors they are going after. The bar chart in Figure 1.2 below provides the analysis of the most‐hit sectors depicting the proportional risk of an attack on sectors like finance, health, and other sensitive sectors.

Figure 1.2 Modern cyber threat landscape.

Source: Hewa Majeed Zangana.

In this section, basic information about the main cyber threat actors, familiar types of attacks, and general consequences of threats in societies are mentioned.

1.2.1 Threat Actors: Evolving Motives and Techniques

The world of cyber threats is full of different actors: cybercriminals, state actors, hacktivists, and insiders. Hackers are normally, largely motivated by funds and consequently exploit cracks in an organization's security layout, embracing, for instance, ransomware and phishing [4, 17].

There are the nation‐states that act for purely political, economic, or military benefits and gains; they hack and steal; they propagate malware; they attack infrastructures. The last few years have witnessed a rise in professionalized nation‐state actions, indicating the new trend toward using cyberspace as a cyber weapon in world affairs [15, 18]. Quite peculiar are insider risks; it is one thing to have an employee payday and another to watch as insiders exploit their privileged status, either intentionally or through sheer ignorance, causing great harm to organizations [2]. The ability of external actors to get insider access due to utilizing social engineering as a tool has led to the development of frequent insider attacks, whereby the employees are forced to relinquish sensitive information [3, 7].

1.2.2 Common Types of Cyberattacks

The threats have advanced from simple penetration to methods that can bypass usual security measures. Some of the most prevalent attack types include:

• Malware and Ransomware: Computer viruses such as viruses and worms, and ransomware are still one of the most widespread threats. Ransomware, in specific, has gained meaning as aggressors go after firms and authorities, locking files and seeking an exchange for the unlock. The particular technique is rather invasive and expensive, with some substantive services being stopped in the course of incidents [10, 19].
• Phishing and Social Engineering: A common evidence of cyberspace attacks is phishing which is useful for creating an entry point and can compromise individuals into discharging private or sensitive data or installing malicious software. Social engineering, which is a form of advanced phishing, rely on manipulation of the target; it's risky given that it targets weaknesses in people as opposed to the technical [17, 20].
• Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks: These involve overloading the network resources with traffic that results in services being unavailable for a while. These attacks are usually carried out by hacktivists or nation states for the purpose of causing havoc toward economic loss, apposite in attacks on financial and government websites as pointed out in Refs. [21, 22].
• Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs): APTs are long‐term system attacks that are often implemented by advanced threat agents to gain access to systems and neighbor undisturbed. Such attacks are aimed at extorting personal data or obtaining persistent access, and such attacks are prevalently used by nation‐states in cyber spying [11, 14].

It is very important to learn about various forms of cyber threats to be able to effectively identify suitable measures to protect an organization. The following piece of the pie chart in Figure 1.3 shows the distribution of frequency of common cyber threats such as malware, phishing, ransomware, etc.

Figure 1.3 Types of cyberattacks.

Source: Hewa Majeed Zangana.

1.2.3 Impact on Various Sectors

Cyber threats cut across all industry segments because each segment comes with its challenges. For instance, in smart agriculture, IoT appliances that are used on the farm level and in the supply, chain is often under threats of attacks [6]. In finance, identity theft of financial data has made finance organizations protect consumer data through encryption and anonymization [8]. Likewise, health care threat as records, which have high values on the dark web, are attacked by hackers [23, 24].

Critical infrastructures such as the power and water sectors are an interest of nation‐state actors because a successful attack could cause widespread disruption in national critical infrastructures [10]. These threats have been countered by employing AI and machine learning (ML) to reinforce credible security in real‐time cybersecurity solutions across since sectors, aiming to ensure untainted detection and response systems [9, 13].

1.2.4 Emerging Threats and Challenges

In today's society, new technologies have created new threats that require new methods of protection. Incorporation of AI in cyber operations has triggered the rise of smart cyberattacks which are proficient in learning from their targets which makes it even harder to defend against. The use of IoT has also increased the vector length because millions of interconnected devices are potential targets for attackers [25]. Moreover, with a proliferation...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 29.9.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Mathematik / Informatik ► Informatik ► Netzwerke
• Schlagworte: Cyberattacks • cybersecurity • cybersecurity artificial intelligence • cybersecurity blockchain • cybersecurity human factor • cyber threats • machine learning • Network Security • social engineering • Threat Detection • Zero Trust Architecture
• ISBN-10: 1-394-34073-7 / 1394340737
• ISBN-13: 978-1-394-34073-6 / 9781394340736