Cyber Operations: Enhancing Security and Defense

Every organization needs measures to protect and secure their computer networks and systems. That’s where Cyber Operations are involved. They help detect threats and prevent expensive issues from developing in the environment. As cyber threats evolve and dominate, organizations need to understand the scope and importance of cyber operations for their business needs.

This article will provide a comprehensive understanding of cyber operations and in today’s digital ecosystem. It will cover various topics on cyber operations such as the pros and cons of it, key components, and tools you would need to secure cyber operations, and examine the differences between cyber operations and cyber security.

What are Cyber Operations?

Cyber operations detect and respond to different cybersecurity issues such as ransomware, phishing, and malware. Linking advanced tools like SEIM, UBA, XDR, and SOAR enhances the operational efficiency of cyber operations, and when combined with the best people, processes, and technology, creates a strong backbone of cyber operations.

Why are Cyber Operations Important For an Organization?

Organizations must focus on enhancing their Cyber operations as they are a crucial component in identifying viruses, monitoring alerts, and neutralizing threats in real time. It’s a misconception that cyber operations are just about preventing cyber threats. It’s a broader concept that blends different strategies to effectively manage threats. This holistic view ensures extensive protection against evolving cyber risks.

Pros and Cons of Cyber Operations

Organizations rely heavily on cyber operations to maintain confidentiality, protect their assets, sustain market position, and defend themselves against cyber threats. While cyber operations can fulfill an organization’s goals, they come with their fair share of potential risks and challenges.

Let’s examine the pros and cons of implementing cyber operations in an organization.

Pros of Cyber Operations: 

• Prevents access to private data like credit card information, addresses, social security numbers, and health information.
• Provides backup during an attack, takes strong measures to curb security breaches, and immediately monitors and identifies threats.
• Ensures proper functioning of key assets of the organization.

Cons of Cyber Operations:

• Employing cyber operation security platforms can be expensive.
• As a result of the ever-changing nature of threats in the cyber world, organizations have to keep on enhancing their security measures hence having to be in a cycle of investing.
• Reliance on technology may prove costly if security systems are not secure.
• Organizations must be careful when implementing cyber operations as occasionally, they may cross the fine line between enhancing security and violating personal privacy.

3 key Components of Cyber Operations

Cyber operations are used to monitor and analyze an organization’s security to detect and respond to cyber incidents. It plays on the operational level, rather than the strategy or architecture. Cyber operations can make a world of difference in the posture of an organization by offering real-time monitoring and threat identification to improve the organization’s preparedness against cyber threats.

Cyber operation specialists, alongside skilled analysts and engineers, are able to provide timely intervention on incidents, preventing further harm and downtime that results from a variety of cyber incidents.

There are three main key components of cyber operations:

1. Cyber Threat Intelligence

Cyber Threat Intelligence (or CTI) is important in understanding and preventing stealthy advanced cyber attacks that are difficult to detect and prevent, in order to safeguard an organization’s resources and minimize the potential risk.

CTI is used as an early detection mechanism against stealthy threats in cyberspace. Hence, technical CTI is useful when identifying the indicators of attack and preventing methods while comprehensive CTI enables proactive security measures and better risk management.

CTI has four categories:

1. Strategic
2. Tactical
3. Technical
4. Operational

These categories provide organizations with a model for evaluating threats and putting in place defenses that are suitable to their particular risk management needs. Therefore, understanding and ranking of the assets that are most important to the organization is a critical precondition for effective CTI implementation. This prioritization assists the organizations in channeling their efforts and resources on the most exposed areas in order to minimize the possible effects.

2. Cyber Infrastructure

Cyber infrastructure fosters networks of scientists across various disciplines, enhancing problem-solving capabilities. The ability to analyze big data collected from diverse sources leads to significant breakthroughs, showcasing the importance of cyberinfrastructure in modern research. It includes a wide range of technologies, from high-performance computing systems to servers, and highlights the complexity and specialization required in research environments.

Furthermore, unique management and configuration demands to distinguish cyberinfrastructure from administrative systems, resulting in optimal performance for research activities. Unlike infrastructure for teaching or administration, cyberinfrastructure is tailored mainly to enhance research capabilities, underscoring its importance in academic settings.

As the landscape of research evolves, the role of cyberinfrastructure becomes increasingly critical, making it a recurring topic in strategic institutional conversations.

3. Cyber Workforce

The Cyber workforce categorizes cyber operation roles into seven key categories, each with specialized areas to ensure IT security and performance.

• Operate and Maintain: Focuses on IT system support, administration, and maintenance.
• Protect and Defend: Involves identifying and mitigating threats to IT systems.
• Investigate: Covers the investigation of cyber events and crimes involving IT resources.
• Collect and Operate: Specializes in denial and deception operations and information collection.
• Analyze: Reviews and evaluates information for intelligence purposes.
• Leadership Management: Provides direction for effective cybersecurity work.
• Secure Provision: Focuses on designing and building secure IT systems.

Types of Cyber Threats in Cyber Operations

A cyber threat indicates that a cybercriminal or a threat actor (individuals or groups that intentionally cause harm to devices) is attempting to get access to unauthorized networks for a cyberattack.

Cyberthreats range from as small as an email from an unknown sender requesting bank details, to manipulative attacks like data breaches and ransomware. It’s important to know the different types of cyber threats present in cyber operations so that organizations can quickly and effectively prevent these attacks.

1. Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs)

Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) are attack campaigns where a trespasser(s), institutes an unlawful, long-term existence on high-profile enterprise or governmental networks to capture highly sensitive data.

These intrusions can lead to the sabotage of organizational infrastructures, compromised data, and even intellectual property and trade secrets. Industries like education, government, healthcare, high-tech, consulting, energy, chemical, telecom and aerospace are prone to become targets of APTs.

2. Ransomware and Malware Attacks

Malware is software that gets unauthorized access to various IT systems in order to steal data, disrupt services, or damage networks. It causes the device to lock and takes full control of the devices to attack other organizations.

Cybercriminals use ransomware, malicious software that locks your data, with attackers demanding payment for its release. There are two main attack types; data loss and data breach. These attacks are spread through phishing emails with links to malicious websites, pages, and downloads.

Infections may migrate from one network drive to others. Vulnerable web servers are easily exploited by cybercriminals to deliver ransomware and other types of malware to numerous users in an organization.

Moreover, cybercriminals are cunning, and oftentimes, they refuse to deliver the decryption keys. Many users who paid the cybercriminals, end up losing not just data, but their time and money too.

3. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks

A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) is a cyber attack on a specific server or network intending to disrupt that network’s normal operations. The DDoS attack is used to flood the targeted network with traffic such as fraudulent requests that overwhelm the systems. Unlike DoS, which is an attack from a single source, DDos is an attack from multiple sources all at once.

4. Social Engineering and Phishing

Cybercriminals use social engineering to manipulate and make an individual click on a specific link such as ‘Congratulations, you’ve won an iPhone!’. 

These criminals study human behavior and their natural tendencies, deeply analyzing how each user will react to fake, but unbelievable offers and different scenarios when presented to them. They exploit human psychology and use deceptive methods like phishing to gain valuable information that can be either used for fraud or ransom.

During phishing, cybercriminals impersonate trusted entities like banks or coworkers and create a sense of urgency, tricking users into making security mistakes or quick actions without verifications. A few common phishing schemes are when users get an email saying that their accounts are hacked or that they need a password reset out of the blue.

Notably, phishing and ransomware are a huge game and a billion-dollar industry. Scammers are constantly refining their tactics to trick users and prey on their emotions for their own benefit.

Types of tools needed to secure cyber operations

Cyber operation specialists use several tools and strategies to secure cyber operations.

1. Network security monitoring: Helps to analyze and detect if a network is running optimally and actively identifies inadequacies and threats.
2. Firewalls: Monitors the flow of incoming and outgoing data.
3. Packet Sniffers: Also known as a protocol analyzer is designed to intercept, log, and analyze network traffic and data.
4. Encryption Tools: Scrambles readable text to an unreadable format called ciphertext to unauthorized users.

1. Web Vulnerability Scanning Tools: Scans web applications to discover security weaknesses or penetrability like path traversal, SQL injection, and cross-site scripting.
2. Anti-Virus Software: Finds viruses and malicious malware such as Trojans, adware, spyware, worms, and ransomware.
3. Penetration Testing: Imitates an attack on a computer system to evaluate the security of that system.

How to Become a Cyber Operations Specialist?

Becoming a Cyber Operations Specialist may be challenging, but it’s not impossible. With time and effort, one can gain the knowledge and experience needed to become a cyber operations specialist.

There are some basic requirements to complete before one can apply for a Cyber Operations Specialist role in an organization:

• Graduate High School
• Attend cybersecurity boot camps
• Take courses and training
• Get a recognized certificate

As a cyber operation specialist, you’ll be tasked to take on a variety of responsibilities such as:

• Host servers and manage databases
• Use and preserve the integrity of server-based systems, applications, and other software
• Prepare and manage budgets for the cyber operations unit
• Install and manage single or multiple networks
• Quickly respond to service disruptions, breaches, and network failures.

As a cyber operation specialist, you must continuously learn new tools and technologies and adapt quickly. It’s a growing and passionate field, and with many organizations seeking protection from cyber threats, the opportunities are endless.

What are the Challenges in Cyber Operations?

Organizations are more than ready to invest in cyber operations platforms due to the current cybersecurity challenges in society.

• Ransomware: Malicious software can prevent access to data by encrypting files and locking devices.

• Cloud attack: Attacks that target cloud computing resources such as injecting malicious software like viruses or ransomware.
• Insider Attacks: Attackers use malicious means to disrupt an organization’s business operations, attain valuable information, or damage an organization’s financial standing.
• Phishing Attacks: A bad actor disguised as a reliable individual to steal sensitive data.

• IoT (Internet of Things) attack: IoT devices are vulnerable to cyber attacks due to the lack of security solutions, compatibility, and constraints like power, memory, etc.

What is the Difference between Cyber Operations vs Cyber Security?

Cyber operations are a subset of cybersecurity. Cyber operations emphasize technologies and techniques that can be applied to all functional and system levels.

Cyber operations are offensive as they involve exploiting the target systems in order to gain access to the target and consequently harm it in terms of accessibility, integrity, and confidentiality.

On the other hand, cybersecurity is a defensive strategy. It focuses on securing systems, networks, and data against various security threats such as intrusion, and breaches.

Cyber Operations Examples

Cyber operations include various activities such as IP address hijacking, information operations, and cyber cortical warfare. It utilizes computer systems, networks, and digital tools to achieve specific objectives such as protecting confidential data or scrutinizing network activities and are conducted by intelligence agencies or military organizations.

Cyber operations can be categorized into two: Defensive Cyber Operations (DCO) and Offensive Cyber Operations (OCO).

• Defensive Cyber Operations: DCO aims to protect and defend an organization’s networks, information systems, and data from cyber threats. These include intrusion detection systems and encryption.
• Offensive Cyber Operations: OCOs are measures that are carried out in cyberspace, aiming to disable or destroy adversaries’ assets, steal sensitive data, or plant false information.

Let’s explore some of the different examples of cyber operations.

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is actions taken to protect computer systems and digitally stored data from cyber-attacks from different types of attacks such as malware, phishing, and zero-day attacks.

For instance, in 2018, the Marriott hotel group reportedly had a massive data breach, revealing sensitive information of approximately 500 million guests. Interestingly, the issue was in the environment for a few years before coming to the spotlight in 2018. In 2022, they fell victim to another data breach attack with hackers stealing 20GB of data, exposing customer data like payment information and confidential business documents. To solve this issue, Marriott conducted several cybersecurity tests to respond to the threat such as conducting forensic analysis to evaluate the breach’s scope and implementing network segmentation and IP whitelisting to protect sensitive information.

Cyber Warfare

Cyber warfare is a series of cyber attacks that target a specific country. It brings chaos to both government and civilian infrastructure and upsets the critical systems, consequently damaging the state.

For example, the Stuxnet Virus operation, also known as the most sophisticated cyber attack in history, was a worm (a malicious software program that spreads itself to multiple computers in a network) that attacked the Iranian nuclear program. The malware spread via infected Universal Serial Bus devices and targeted both data acquisition and supervisory control systems.

Two most important actions may have prevented the virus from infiltrating the entire Stuxnet infrastructure; intercepting the malware by using endpoint security software before it could travel over the network, and scanning or banning all portable media; including USB sticks.

Cybercrime

Cybercrime is a criminal or unlawful behavior that uses computers to commit crimes in the digital sphere.

One such attack was the famous WannaCry ransomware attack that impacted organizations globally. The WannaCry ransomware worm reportedly spread to more than 200,000 computers and some huge companies had become part of it too like Nissan, FedEx, and Honda to name a few.

WannaCry’s security researcher, Marcus Hutchins, responded to this attack by discovering a kill switch domain that was hardcoded in the malware. A simple yet useful thing to do was register a domain name for a DNS sinkhole as the ransomware specifically encrypted files that it was unable to connect to that domain. The already infected systems were sacrificed, but this measure slowed the spread of the virus and gave the organization time to implement and deploy defensive actions to countries that weren’t attacked.

Cyber Operations in Different Sectors

Every industry is at risk of cybercrime because each sector holds a vast array of customer and business information. Cybercriminals have enough resources and tricks up their sleeves to attack an organization’s infrastructure and are always on the lookout to target vulnerable ones.

Industries like finance and insurance, energy and utilities, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, public administration, and education and research are far more susceptible to these cyberattacks than others.

Cyber Operations in Military and Government

Cyber Operations are just as important in Military and Government sectors as any regular industries. They are scaling at an unprecedented rate as cybercrimes such as cyber espionage have become a common method of attack to destabilize and harm an enemy state.

Cyber operations are also implemented to defend critical and complex weapons systems against domestic and foreign cyber threats, including satellites, navigation, and aviation systems.

Cyber Operations in the Private Sector

While there’s a need to protect military systems from cyber threats, it’s important to protect the private sector as well. Mainly because of two reasons:

1. Private sector businesses – typically smaller to medium-sized businesses – hold valuable information such as sensitive data, bank accounts, and Social Security numbers. Due to inadequate cyber operations resources, these businesses become easy targets for cybercriminals.
2. The United States relies heavily on private corporations – more than the other nations – to ensure national security. Corporations are responsible for manufacturing the nation’s arms and producing software and hardware for governments, and many corporations under contract conduct critical security functions.

Nevertheless, the private sector is responsible for actively mitigating cyber risk rather than reacting only when an attack takes place. They must comply with regulators, ensure to take cyber operations measures to prevent future threats or breaches and utilize security platforms to maintain a secure network.

What to Look For in a Cyber Operations Security Platform?

Organizations are routinely seeking to upgrade and improve their security posture. The cyber operations security platforms are designed to help organizations protect themselves from cyber attacks and threats. However, with hundreds of cyber operations security platforms out there, it’s difficult to choose the right one.

Key features to look for in a security platform.

• Threat Intelligence activity: Monitor threats and vulnerabilities
• Endpoint detection and response (EDR): EDR detects, investigates, and responds to security incidents promptly.
• Access control policies: These policies ascertain that customers are who they claim to be and are granted the right access to company data.
• Network security: Protection of an organization’s data and systems from unauthorized access.
• Cloud security: Protection of cloud-based networks addressing both external and internal threats to an organization’s security.
• Artificial Intelligence: A cyber operations security platform that uses AI can offer consistency and reliability in recognizing suspicious activity and overall security measures.
• Firewalls: Stops and slow down attacks by filtering data in network traffic.
• Automated security policies: A cyber operations security platform must be able to automate security based on scripts, playbooks, and APIs.

A few other factors to keep in mind are:

• Scalability

• interoperability

• Functionality

• Cost

Conclusion

Cyber operations are a broad and constantly evolving discipline that’s critical for defending and promoting organizational objectives in the contemporary world. Though they provide a good measure of security, intelligence, and strategic advantage, they also have their own drawbacks concerning the costs, ethical issues, and the need to update or develop them continually.

Cyber threats are on the rise and thus, the approaches and tools used in cyber operations must also improve. Organizations should attain fundamental knowledge and assistance to prevent drastic security issues while at the same time, taking into consideration issues of legal, ethical, and resource constraints. At the end of the day, the best form of cyber operations involves people and processes that understand the challenges and are able to thrive in dynamic cyberspace.

FAQs related to Cyber Operations

1. What is the role of a cyber operations team?

Cyber operations teams are responsible for managing and improving an organization’s security posture. Their job is to detect, analyze, and respond to cybersecurity events 24/7 such as threats, incidents, and deploy security solutions and products.

2. What are the key performance indicators (KPIs) for cyber operations?

Organizations must choose KPIs that most align with their goals and that provide meaningful insights. A few common KPIs to keep track of are:

• The number of security incidents
• Unidentified devices on the internal network
• Device and software updates
• Number of times attackers attempted to breach the network
• Vulnerability assessment results
• Response time
• False positives and negatives

3. How to build a Cyber-Resilient Culture?

Organizations must be able to foresee where threats are going to come from, how to manage known and unknown attacks if they take place, and be ready to adapt to future threats. Being cyber-resilient also means to assume that breaches have been or will occur, and immediately prepare to manage such an attack.

4. Difference Between Cyber Defense vs Cyber Operations?

Cyber defense focuses on defending against external threats and attacks while cyber operations are actions taken to safeguard, secure, or target computer systems, networks, or information in the digital realm.