Introduction
One of the government security departments that actively deals with safety issues is the United States Department of Homeland Security. Its aim is to provide innovative and efficient methodologies, information, and solutions that are important for homeland enterprise security demands. The five important areas are the prevention of terrorism and the promotion of safety, border management and security, immigration law administration and enforcement, disaster resilience, and cyberspace security (Kahan, 2014). The essay will look at how to protect and secure cyberspace with specific reference to diverse scenarios. The aspect on secure and safeguard cyberspace has four distinct goals. One, strengthening the resilience and security of the critical infrastructures. Two, ensuring that the federal government civilian information enterprise technology is secure. Three, advancement of law enforcement, the capabilities to report and respond to incidences. Four, strengthening of the ecosystem by conducting research, human capital development on cyber security, international engagement and innovation on the products, solutions, and services (Kahan, 2014).
Cyber Space Security Measures
The interconnectedness of the world on the cyber space enables communication, facilitates powering of homes, traveling, running the economy and obtaining of the government services. There are various procedures used in the securing of the cyber space: assessment, technical resources, and software assurance and cyber security incident resources. The assessment tools include cyber resiliency review and cyber forensics. The cyber resiliency report refers to the evaluation program which offers the measurement and enhancement of the implementation of the vital capacities and capabilities for the primary resources and critical infrastructure. It gathers information regarding performance to gain some understanding of the impacts and relationships in infrastructural protection. The cyber forensic refers to a product that allows the law enforcers to visualize, share, analyze, and present data derived from electronic devices (Friedman & Wagoner, 2015).
Cyber Security Technical Resources
The cyber security technical resources include cyber security advisors and cyber security public trends and analysis report. The cyber security advisors are the primary field contacts in the provision of the federal resources and development of the workforce. It ensures the application of information technology as the umbrella framework which links practical perspectives and competencies. The cyber security public trends and analysis reports are an awareness tool in the trends of cyber security by the computer emergency readiness. The automating software assurance is used in collaboration with the industry, government and academic stakeholders in ensuring the improvement of the measurement and enumeration of the baseline security data (Friedman & Wagoner, 2015).
Types of Cyber Attacks
Harrop & Matteson (2015) note that there are five major types of cyber-attacks. These include brute force attack, social engineering or cyber fraud, distributed denial of service attack and phishing attack. The brute force attack refers to a sophisticated algorithm or software written to attack a system by searching the vulnerabilities, and then attack the protection mechanisms such as the passwords. It goes through the thousands of different numbers, words, and the combination of words and tries to crack the password. The social engineering or cyber frauds refer to the attack on the individuals, policies, and procedures of the company. It is too prevalent in today's world and targets money instead of data. A good example is a case where an email sent by the chief financial or executive officer requesting for the wiring of some funds to some pending transaction ends up going to the unintended recipient. It is an authorization to perform the particular operation, and the money is wired maybe to a wrong person through an illegal channel (Harrop & Matteson, 2015).
More Types of Cyber Attacks
The distributed denial of service attack is a case where the server gets often overloaded with connections. The goal of the overload is to ensure that the target website or network system is shut down. Such an attack leads to the inability to operate the designated business. The phishing attack, on the other hand, refers to a case where the hackers send some emails with a link or an attachment, once a person clicks on it, it becomes a means of accessing their system. Once they access the system, they can attack the vulnerabilities of the software. It is the most commonly reported means and equally proving difficult in the recent past (Jasper & Wirtz, 2017).
More Types of Cyber Attacks
The malware, spyware and ransom ware are attacks with different objectives. Ransom ware refers to a case where the virus that locks down the system and purports to have controlled an individual's data. For one to regain back the access, he or she must pay some ransom. Malware is introduced to the system with an aim to damage the system, for example, erasing the software. Lastly, the spy ware is a software introduced into the system whose goal is to track keystrokes to get passwords and other confidential information in a bid to access unidentifiable information (Jasper & Wirtz, 2017).
Examples of Cyber Attacks
There exist various examples of such attacks that have gotten reported in the globe. Most of them have gotten experienced in the recent past in the US. One, the Uber database was attacked in May 2014 by unauthorized third part and fifty thousand drivers' information got compromised, their names and license numbers. In November 2014, hackers linked to North Korea government threw an attack on Sony entertainment for a movie which painted the country negatively. The hackers took some confidential information and private data as well as one film that had not been released which they distributed online (Harrop & Matteson, 2015).
Conclusion
In conclusion, the United States Department of Homeland Security is one of the government security agencies tasked with the duty of ensuring safety for all Americans. Its mission is to deliver innovative and efficient methods, insight and solutions that are very critical for the needs of homeland enterprise security. The interconnectedness of the world on the cyber space enable communication, powering of homes, traveling, running the economy and obtaining of the government services. There are various procedures used in the securing of the cyber space: assessment, technical resources, and software assurance and cyber security incident resources. Despite the existence of many kinds of cyber-attacks, the DHS has done well in containing some of the attacks especially those targeted at the government systems.
References
Friedman, A. R., & Wagoner, L. D. (2015). The need for digital identity in cyberspace operations. Warfare, 14, 42-52.
Harrop, W., & Matteson, A. (2015). Cyber resilience: a review of critical national infrastructure and cyber-security protection measures applied in the UK and USA. In Current and Emerging Trends in Cyber Operations (pp. 149-166). UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Jasper, S., & Wirtz, J. (2017). Cyber Security. In The Palgrave Handbook of Security, Risk and Intelligence (pp. 157-176). UK: Palgrave Macmillan.
Kahan, J. H. (2014). Looking outward: US homeland security beyond the borders. Journal of Homeland Security Education, 3(1), 1-23.
