The practice of protecting computers, networks, software, and data from unauthorized access, attacks, and damage.
Cybersecurity spans technology, processes, and people. It includes network security, application security, cloud security, identity management, data protection, and incident response. A widely used model, the CIA triad, describes three goals: confidentiality (only authorized people see data), integrity (data is not tampered with), and availability (systems work when needed).
Threats range from phishing emails and ransomware to state-sponsored espionage. Defenses include firewalls, encryption, multi-factor authentication, regular patching, backups, monitoring, and security awareness training. Because attackers only need to find one weakness, organizations increasingly adopt layered defenses and zero trust principles. Cybersecurity is also a large career field, with roles in analysis, engineering, penetration testing, governance, and digital forensics.
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