ABSTRACT:
This paper presents an investigation of contemporary Cybersecurity Vulnerability Landscape as a component of building a nation’s cybersecurity resilience. All cyber-attacks share a common characteristic of taking the advantages of inherent vulnerabilities causal to cyberspace assets. Consequently, cyberattack occurs as a result of vulnerability opportunities that can be exploited by a malicious party or unintended attitude of a user. Therefore, understanding the contemporary cyber vulnerability landscape is a critical factor for both defensive and offensive cyber activities. Thus, this research dived deep into a myriad of contemporary vulnerability landscape often neglected but should be of concern to nations. The study is approached by in-depth desk research of relevant existing articles, analysis and deductions of vulnerability casual factors, based on two layers: national and organisational layers. The novelty of layering the investigation aided in the understanding of the vulnerability opportunities that can potentially manifest in each layer. The outcome revealed that although some of the vulnerabilities may appear inconspicuous, and, they are, but they can become vulnerability opportunities that can be exploited by malicious parties. It further exposed the fact that there are varieties of vulnerabilities that cut across technology, people and process, which should be holistically tackled at a national level. The benefit is to properly delineate the functions of a state and that of an organisation within the state in the effort to protect cyberinfrastructures critical to the interest of a country.
Keywords:
cybersecurity vulnerability; cyberattack; vulnerability opportunity, cybersecurity actors, cyber operations, cyberterrorism, cyber warfare.
