Cybersecurity isn’t just about technology and data; it’s about people as well. Because people react to words and labels, you should pay attention to how employees, users and customers may interpret words and concepts that seem straightforward to people in IT or cybersecurity. This can be challenging in the fast-paced business world of today. Here are three common terms that come with some unintended baggage.
1. Cyberattack
The word cyberattack is overused. The term is applied to everything from scans of open network ports to activities that affect the confidentiality, availability or integrity of an organization’s data. Lumping all of these different activities into a single term is misleading and inaccurate. The theft of data is certainly malicious and intentional, but other activities cause no direct damage and may even be automated network activities.