Snipped – via Bohyun Kim. Associate Director, Library Applications and Knowledge Systems, at the University of Maryland-Baltimore, Health Sciences and Human Services Library – Keeping Up With Cybersecurity, Usability, and Privacy
What is Cybersecurity?
Cybersecurity is a broad term. It refers to the activities, practices, and technology that keep computers, networks, programs, and data secure and protected from harmful activities such as unauthorized access, modification, or damage. We became familiar with this term, ‘cybersecurity,’ through the reports of recent security breaches at J.P Morgan, Target, Sony, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, to name a few. The government and higher education institutions are not an exception to cyberattacks. In 2015, the Office of Personnel Management of the U.S. Federal Government got hacked twice, and its sensitive data was stolen.[2]  In 2014, University of Maryland at College Park and Indiana University also suffered similar data breaches.
Cybersecurity Measures
To prevent such a data breach, institutional IT staff are trained to protect their systems against vulnerabilities and intrusion attempts. Employees and end users are educated to be careful about dealing with institutional or customers’ data. There are systematic measures that organizations can implement such as two-factor authentication, stringent password requirements, and locking accounts after a certain number of failed log-in attempts. While the term, ‘cybersecurity,’ may sound grand, actual cybersecurity measures can be mundane ranging from keeping the software versions and patches up-to-date, keeping viruses and malware away with effective anti-virus and anti-spyware, educating users so that they won’t fall for phishing or email scams, and backing up the data on a regular basis….