Introduction: Why Cybersecurity?

This chapter provides an introduction to important basic concepts of cybersecurity and its relationship to information security in general. It explains how the historical development of the Internet has led to the situation today, where worldwide communication has become almost universally available. This development offers new opportunities, but also new threats to security which users of computer systems need to protect themselves against. The concept of a computer system is explained. Some examples of recent large scale failures of cybersecurity and their costs to society are presented. The concepts of security targets and security policies are introduced. The chapter concludes with a reader’s guide, which gives an overview of the diverse disciplines which you need to have a grasp of in order to deal successfully with the challenges of cybersecurity.