What is Cyber Security?

“Cyber Security deals with the protection of computers, networks and information against intelligent attacks in the 21st century. Cyber security therefore also influences the way organisations and individuals communicate and cooperate in the digital age.”

Cyber security refers to all measures to protect information and resources against intelligent attackers. This includes both the technical procedures of IT security (e.g. cryptographic protocols, authentication procedures, platform security solutions in hardware and software) and the organisational measures of IT security management in companies.

Cyber security professionals need the ability to critically question and test technical and organisational security mechanisms for their effectiveness and strength using current scientific knowledge. In doing so, it is important to think from the perspective of an intelligent attacker. It is the task of an IT security expert to identify and eliminate all vulnerabilities that can be exploited by an attacker, whereas attackers are already successful when they identify a vulnerability and can practically exploit it for themselves.

Cyber security also includes interdisciplinary references to orientational sciences such as ethics, law and psychology, for example questioning how we will live in the 21st century.