Asset, Threat or Weak Spot?

About this interactive

The lesson's vocabulary, in one chain: - **Asset:** anything of value: buildings, cash, data, code, people, reputation. - **Threat:** what could happen to the asset: stolen, copied, altered, deleted. - **Threat agent:** who or what would make it happen, such as a hacker. - **Vulnerability:** a weak point, even in the protections themselves: the gate's lock can be picked. - **Exploit:** using that weakness: actually picking the lock. - **Mitigation:** something put in place to lessen the threat: the wall and gate, a guard, encryption, a camera. Layering several is **defense in depth**. Risk ties it together: the probability of the threat happening times its impact on the business.

What you'll learn

Identify each part of a security scenario: the asset, the threat to it, the threat agent behind it, the vulnerability, the exploit that uses it, and the mitigation against it
Tell a vulnerability (a weak point that exists) from an exploit (the act of using it), and a threat (what could happen) from a threat agent (who or what would do it)

Aligned to

CompTIA Network+

4.3 Given a scenario, apply network security features, defense techniques, and solutions

Cisco CCST Cybersecurity

1.1 Define essential security principles.

1.2 Explain common threats and vulnerabilities.

Key terms

Asset: Any resource of value to an organization, including hardware, software, data, and personnel.
Threat: Any potential event or action that could cause harm to a system, network, or organization.
Threat Actor: An individual or group responsible for a security incident or attack.
Vulnerability: A weakness in a system, application, or process that can be exploited by a threat actor.
Exploit: A piece of software or technique that takes advantage of a vulnerability to gain unauthorized access or cause harm.
Mitigation: The process of implementing controls to reduce the probability or impact of a risk to an acceptable level.
Defense-in-Depth: Defense-in-Depth is a security architecture strategy that layers multiple independent controls across technical, physical, and administrative domains so that the failure of any single control does not result in a complete security breach.

Topics

Security Concepts Asset Threat Vulnerability Exploit Mitigation Interactive Categorize

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