Cybersecurity has become the fundamental component for every enterprise that is using technology for leveraging the workflow. In the age of technology, computer systems connected with networks and software drive the entire official work and operations. With the growing use of technologies and computer systems, cybersecurity threats are also rising with leaps and bounds.
That is why companies hire professionals from different specialized verticals of cybersecurity to protect their operations and technological dependencies. Professionals use various software solutions and security applications to track, monitor, and detect corporate systems issues. This article will learn about the several popular cybersecurity apps used by professionals and ethical hackers to defend the organization’s cyberspace.
There are various cybersecurity apps and solutions that are used as an essential tool by cybersecurity professionals to protect the digital assets and safeguard the organization’s data from breaches and cyber threats.
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Monitoring network activities and scanning its actions in-depth plays a critical role in securing the organization’s digital assets from different attack vectors. This kind of monitoring and scanning is possible using powerful applications. Some of the popular cybersecurity apps are:
i. Nmap
ii. Wireshark
iii. Metasploit
iv. Web security
v. Aircrack-ng
vi. Acunetix
vii. Entersoft Ensights
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Cyber Security Applications and Software solutions
There are various cybersecurity apps and solutions that are used as an essential tool by cybersecurity professionals to protect the digital assets and safeguard the organization’s data from breaches and cyber threats. Cybersecurity tools use different methods to protect the network, system, or applications from cybercriminals. There can be a significant disruption in services due to weak security practices. It eventually damages the reputation of a business.
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So, to mitigate security risks, cybersecurity applications are used. Cybersecurity aspirants find these applications handy for security solutions. Some of the widely used applications are:
1. Nmap
Network Mapper (abbreviated as Nmap) is a free, open-source cybersecurity application used for network discovery and vulnerability scanning. Network administrators, security professionals, and IT managers use this tool for security purposes. It has a wealth of monitoring, network mapping, and auditing utilities that makes it unbeatable and versatile. It acts as a de facto standard in the cybersecurity community in terms of when it comes to network mapping and monitoring.
Nmap has a powerful scanning method to scan to a granular level to determine and identify the conversations being taken place between IP addresses on a network. Network administrators use Nmap to discover devices with their IP address that are running on the company’s central system. Apart from that, this cybersecurity app can identify open hosts, the co-operations offered by the online services, finding open ports, and identifying security risks.
Nmap is flexible enough to monitor a single host and large networks of networks and comprises hundreds of thousands of computer systems configured in multitudes of subnets.
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2. Wireshark
It is one of the most common tools used in vulnerability assessment. It can provide a very vivid picture of what’s happening in the network. It is the world’s most notable network traffic analyzer. Wireshark is an essential tool for security professionals and systems administrators.
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This free cybersecurity application can analyze network traffic in real-time, capturing communication and data transmission between two or more IP addresses or Domain Name System (DNS) query. It shows the result at a microscopic level for providing a lucid view of the activity happening within the organization’s network.
It can troubleshoot and mitigate some common problems like latency issues, dropped data packets, and malicious action on the monitored network. It can filter and drill the network traffic for zooming into the root cause of any problem at a microscopic level. Network architects and administrators can also detect faulty network appliances, data exfiltration, or even hacking attempts using this cybersecurity app.
3. Metasploit
It is the most robust cybersecurity tool used for penetration testing. Once Nmap and Wireshark perform the scanning and the discovery process, it is time to carry out the scanning at the software level. It comes in 2 different versions: commercial and free edition. This framework is easy to use. It can automate the repetitive tasks of information gathering, gaining access, dropping the payload at the given target list, etc.
This cybersecurity application offers not only a command-line interface but also a GUI-based click-and-drag penetration testing interface. We can integrate Metasploit seamlessly with Nmap and other such security tools.
Pretty much all reconnaissance tools are possible to blend with Metasploit to discover the weak point in your system. The Metasploit framework contains a full suite of post-exploitation tools, such as privilege escalation, keyloggers for keylogging, passing the hash, screen capture, packet sniffing, and pivoting tools.
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4. Web security
Apart from the network and OS-level security, it is also essential to have an application layer security. Web security provides a sturdy web-app security testing environment and can scan dozens of web-application pages and traverse the code for loopholes. It can easily detect bugs like insecure passwords or weak password policies and physical file paths in libraries. After a successful scan of all the application-level vulnerabilities, it has the automated feature of generating and preparing audit reports.
Web security is a platform-independent tool and versatile enough to perform checks on mobile-app coding. It acts as a simple penetration testing tool that can detect SQL injection, XSS, and other web application vulnerabilities.
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5. Aircrack-ng
Modern computer systems and interconnections comprise wireless devices in the corporate environment as well as in data centers. It brings the mobility of devices within the facility. Making the network topology wireless brings security issues into concern. Aircrack-ng is a network security suite that can detect and sniff data packets in WEP and provide WPA/WPA2-PSK cracking and analyzing tools for 802.11 wireless standards.
This cybersecurity app can assess different regions of wireless security. It can help cybersecurity professionals to detect wireless misconfigurations and simple passwords that are prone to Wi-Fi attacks. We can provide various wireless penetration testing like replay attacks, de-authentication, fake access points, and some other wireless testing via packet injection provided by Aircrack-ng.
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6. Acunetix
Web applications and websites are the chief components of any enterprise and its business. It has eventually increased the threats to web applications. Acunetix is an automated web vulnerability scanning application that helps to audit the website by discovering vulnerabilities and bugs like SQL Injection, Server-Side Request Forgery, Email Header Injection, Cross-site scripting, etc.
This application plays a crucial role in the application testing cycle. Hence, it is considered the best solution for security professionals and developers in the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC).
7. Entersoft Ensights
It is a new security assessment tool that protects the enterprise’s apps against the latest and most mortifying cyberattacks. It provides penetration testing tools and allows its users to scan the database systems, infrastructure analysis, code review, APIs, and its integration at a microscopic level. This tool can substantially enhance your application’s security posture, which helps prevent your organization’s business from threats and harms.
Cybersecurity aspirants, enthusiast students, and professionals can learn these tools from an industry-standard perspective by opting for the Advanced Certificate Programme in Cyber Security . The experts of IIIT Bangalore will teach this course. This course makes aspirants specialize in verticals like application security, cryptography, data secrecy, and network security.
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Conclusion
Networks and enterprise systems became very complicated, and frequent updates became an essential part of it. It becomes intricate for personnel to detect different levels of threats and adequately respond to it minutely. Therefore, the use of cybersecurity applications is necessary to practice as a part of enterprise solutions.
What is phishing in cybersecurity?
In cybersecurity, there are several types of attacks. One of them is phishing, where vicious actors deliver messages pretending to be a trusted person or entity. These messages manipulate the user leading them to perform actions such as installing a malicious file or clicking on a link which can lead to a virus. These could take private information such as access credentials. It is the most prevalent form of social engineering. It can also be combined with other attacks such as malware, network attacks, and code injection. There have been several past incidents where phishing has been used by attackers to steal private information.
How many types of cybersecurity are there?
There are five types of cybersecurity which include critical infrastructure security, cloud security, network security, IoT security, and application security. It is expected of businesses to cover themselves from all fronts when it comes to cyber security. They should develop a plan that includes all these five kinds of cyber security. People, technology and processes play an important role when it comes to developing a plan. Sometimes an error in these three components can lead to cyberattacks on the firm.
What is the main objective of cybersecurity?
Cybersecurity is the process or practice designed to secure networks, devices, and data from any type of cyberattack. It aims to secure all electronic devices such as computers, networks and software from cyberattacks and threats. These are mostly aimed at accessing confidential information. They can also alter or delete any information once the attack is successful. They hence hamper normal business operations. The Internet is useful but also dangerous as it is not only a medium of information but also the medium through which people do business. Cyber criminals take advantage of the lack of security and hack into foreign systems and software.
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