Frequently Asked Questions About Cybersecurity

MySecurity Scores is a free cybersecurity education platform that provides comprehensive guides, tutorials, and resources to help businesses and individuals understand and improve their security posture. We cover topics ranging from SSL/TLS certificates and security headers to compliance frameworks like SOC 2 and ISO 27001. Our mission is to make professional-grade cybersecurity knowledge accessible to everyone, regardless of their technical background or budget. Every piece of content on our site is written and reviewed by experienced security professionals to ensure accuracy and practical value.

Yes, all of our educational content, guides, and resources are completely free to access. We believe that cybersecurity knowledge should be accessible to everyone, not locked behind paywalls. Our platform is supported through advertising partnerships and optional premium consulting referrals. You will never be charged for reading our guides, using our assessment tools, or accessing any educational content on the site. We are committed to keeping high-quality security education free because a more secure internet benefits everyone.

We review and update our content on a regular basis to ensure it reflects the latest cybersecurity threats, best practices, and compliance requirements. Major guides such as our Website Security Guide and Compliance Guide are reviewed quarterly, and we publish new content weekly. When significant security events or vulnerability disclosures occur, we prioritize updating relevant content immediately. Each article displays a "last updated" date so you always know how current the information is. The cybersecurity landscape evolves rapidly, and we are committed to keeping our content ahead of emerging threats.

Our content is produced by a team of experienced cybersecurity professionals with backgrounds in penetration testing, compliance auditing, security engineering, and risk management. Contributors hold industry-recognized certifications including CISSP, CISM, CEH, and CompTIA Security+. Every article undergoes a technical review process to ensure accuracy and practical value before publication. We also collaborate with guest contributors from leading security organizations to bring diverse perspectives and specialized expertise to our readers.

Absolutely. We welcome contributions from cybersecurity professionals and enthusiasts alike. If you have expertise in a particular area of information security and would like to write a guest article, or if you have a topic suggestion that you think would benefit our readers, please reach out through our contact page. We review all submissions for accuracy, originality, and quality before publishing. Contributors receive full attribution and a link to their professional profiles. Community input is one of the best ways to ensure we are addressing the topics that matter most to our audience.

While our primary focus is providing free educational content, we do partner with vetted cybersecurity consulting firms for organizations that need hands-on assistance. If you need help with a security audit, compliance preparation, incident response, or penetration testing, contact us and we can connect you with a trusted partner. Our educational guides are designed to give you the foundational knowledge to work effectively with any security consultant, ask the right questions, and evaluate the quality of the services you receive. We do not charge a referral fee, and our recommendations are based solely on the quality of the provider.

Cybersecurity is the practice of protecting computer systems, networks, programs, and data from digital attacks, unauthorized access, and damage. It encompasses a wide range of technologies, processes, and practices designed to safeguard information assets. Cybersecurity matters because virtually every aspect of modern life depends on digital infrastructure, from banking and healthcare to communication and commerce. A successful cyberattack can result in financial losses, stolen personal information, disrupted business operations, and lasting reputational damage. In 2026, with the average data breach costing businesses over $4.5 million and cyberattacks increasing in both volume and sophistication, investing in cybersecurity is not optional — it is a fundamental business requirement. Our comprehensive security guide provides a deeper exploration of these topics.

The most common types of cyber attacks include phishing (fraudulent emails or messages designed to steal credentials or deliver malware), ransomware (malware that encrypts files and demands payment for decryption), SQL injection (exploiting database vulnerabilities in web applications to access or manipulate data), cross-site scripting (XSS) (injecting malicious scripts into websites viewed by other users), distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks (overwhelming servers with traffic to disrupt availability), and man-in-the-middle attacks (intercepting communications between two parties). Social engineering, which manipulates people rather than technology, remains the most prevalent initial attack vector across all industries. Understanding these attack types is the first step toward defending against them, which is covered in detail in our threat intelligence guide.

A vulnerability is a weakness or flaw in a system, application, or process that could potentially be used to compromise security. An exploit is the actual method, tool, or technique used to take advantage of that vulnerability. Think of a vulnerability as an unlocked window in your house, and an exploit as a burglar climbing through that window. Not all vulnerabilities have known exploits, and security teams prioritize patching vulnerabilities based on whether active exploits exist in the wild. This risk-based approach to remediation is central to effective vulnerability management. Industry databases like the National Vulnerability Database (NVD) and Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) catalog known vulnerabilities and help organizations prioritize their patching efforts.

Common signs that your website has been hacked include unexpected changes to your website content or appearance, unfamiliar user accounts appearing in your admin panel, your site redirecting visitors to suspicious URLs, search engines flagging your site as unsafe or containing malware, a sudden drop in traffic or unusual spikes in server resource usage, and your hosting provider or security tools sending alerts. You may also notice strange outbound network traffic, new files or directories you did not create, or modifications to core system files. We recommend implementing continuous monitoring, maintaining file integrity checking, and regularly reviewing server access logs. Our security best practices guide provides a detailed checklist for detecting and responding to compromises before they cause significant damage.

The OWASP Top 10 is a regularly updated report published by the Open Web Application Security Project that outlines the ten most critical security risks facing web applications. It serves as an industry-standard awareness document and is widely used by developers, security teams, and compliance auditors around the world. The current list includes broken access control, cryptographic failures, injection flaws, insecure design, security misconfiguration, vulnerable and outdated components, identification and authentication failures, software and data integrity failures, security logging and monitoring failures, and server-side request forgery (SSRF). Understanding the OWASP Top 10 is foundational for anyone involved in web application development or security, and it is often referenced in compliance requirements and security audit scoping.

Encryption is a reversible process that transforms data into an unreadable format using a key, and the data can be decrypted back to its original form with the correct key. Hashing is a one-way process that converts data into a fixed-length string of characters, and it cannot be reversed back to the original data. Encryption is used when you need to securely transmit or store data that will later need to be read, such as credit card numbers, messages, or files. Hashing is used when you need to verify data integrity without storing the original value — the most common example is password storage, where you hash the password and compare hashes rather than storing the actual password in plaintext. Common encryption algorithms include AES and RSA, while popular hashing algorithms include SHA-256 and bcrypt.

An SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate is a digital certificate that authenticates a website's identity and enables an encrypted connection between a web server and a browser. When a site has an SSL certificate, the URL begins with https:// and browsers display a padlock icon. In 2026, the answer is unequivocally yes — you need one. Every modern web browser marks sites without SSL as "Not Secure," which erodes visitor trust and increases bounce rates. Additionally, Google uses HTTPS as a ranking signal, meaning sites without SSL certificates may rank lower in search results. Free SSL certificates are available through providers like Let's Encrypt, so there is no cost barrier to securing your site. Our SSL certificates guide walks through the entire setup process step by step.

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) and TLS (Transport Layer Security) are both cryptographic protocols designed to secure communications over a network. TLS is the successor to SSL and is significantly more secure. SSL versions 2.0 and 3.0 have been deprecated due to known vulnerabilities such as POODLE and DROWN, and modern browsers no longer support them. When people say "SSL" today, they almost always mean TLS — the term "SSL" persists largely due to brand familiarity. The current recommended version is TLS 1.3, which offers improved performance through a streamlined handshake process and stronger security by removing support for legacy cryptographic algorithms. Our SSL certificates guide covers the technical differences in greater detail.

There are several ways to check your SSL certificate validity. The simplest method is to click the padlock icon in your browser's address bar, which shows certificate details including the issuer, expiration date, and the domain it covers. You can also use online tools like SSL Labs' SSL Server Test (ssllabs.com), which provides a comprehensive analysis of your SSL/TLS configuration and assigns a letter grade from A+ to F. Command-line tools like openssl s_client can provide detailed technical information for system administrators. It is critically important to monitor certificate expiration dates and set up automated renewal where possible, as an expired certificate will trigger prominent browser security warnings and can completely disrupt your site's availability and user trust.

Security headers are HTTP response headers that instruct the browser on how to behave when handling your website's content. They are a critical and often overlooked layer of defense against common web attacks. Key security headers include Content-Security-Policy (prevents XSS and data injection attacks), Strict-Transport-Security (enforces HTTPS connections and prevents protocol downgrade attacks), X-Content-Type-Options (prevents MIME-type sniffing), X-Frame-Options (prevents clickjacking by controlling iframe embedding), and Referrer-Policy (controls what referrer information is sent with requests). Implementing proper security headers is one of the easiest and most effective ways to improve your website's security posture, often requiring only a few lines in your server configuration. Our security best practices guide walks through configuring each header with practical examples.

A Web Application Firewall (WAF) is a security solution that monitors, filters, and blocks HTTP/HTTPS traffic between the internet and your web application. Unlike a traditional network firewall that operates at the network layer, a WAF operates at the application layer (Layer 7 of the OSI model) and can inspect the actual content of web requests. It protects against attacks such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, file inclusion, cookie poisoning, and other OWASP Top 10 threats. Popular WAF solutions include Cloudflare WAF, AWS WAF, Azure Web Application Firewall, and the open-source ModSecurity. A WAF is particularly important for e-commerce sites, SaaS applications, and any web application that handles sensitive user data or financial transactions.

Google has officially confirmed that HTTPS is a ranking signal in its search algorithm since 2014, and its importance has only grown. Websites using HTTPS receive a ranking boost compared to HTTP-only sites. Beyond the direct ranking benefit, HTTPS improves SEO indirectly in several important ways: it prevents the "Not Secure" browser warning that causes visitors to leave immediately (reducing bounce rate, which is a negative ranking signal), it preserves referrer data in analytics so you can better understand your traffic sources, and it enables HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 which dramatically improve page load speed — another important ranking factor. In 2026, HTTPS is considered a baseline requirement rather than an optional enhancement, and virtually all top-ranking websites use it. Not having HTTPS is now a competitive disadvantage in search results.

SOC 2 (Service Organization Control 2) is an auditing framework developed by the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) that evaluates how a service organization manages customer data based on five Trust Services Criteria: security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. Any company that stores, processes, or transmits customer data in the cloud — particularly SaaS companies, cloud hosting providers, managed service providers, and data processors — should strongly consider pursuing SOC 2 compliance. Enterprise customers increasingly require SOC 2 Type II reports as a precondition before signing contracts or sharing sensitive data. The security criterion is mandatory for all SOC 2 audits, while the other four criteria are optional based on your business needs. Our compliance guide provides a detailed roadmap for achieving SOC 2 certification, including estimated timelines and costs.

SOC 2 is an auditing standard primarily recognized in North America that evaluates specific trust service criteria through an attestation report issued by a licensed CPA firm. ISO 27001 is an international standard for establishing, implementing, maintaining, and continually improving an Information Security Management System (ISMS), resulting in a formal certification issued by an accredited certification body. SOC 2 is more prescriptive about what to audit, while ISO 27001 is more flexible and takes a risk-based approach that allows organizations to tailor controls to their specific context. Many organizations pursuing global business relationships choose to obtain both certifications, as SOC 2 is preferred by North American clients and ISO 27001 is recognized and preferred internationally. Our compliance guide includes a detailed comparison table to help you determine which path is right for your organization.

If your business collects, processes, or stores personal data of individuals located in the European Union or European Economic Area, you must comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), regardless of where your business is physically located. This means a company based in the United States, Asia, or anywhere else that serves EU residents or collects their data must comply. GDPR applies to organizations of all sizes and requires lawful basis for data processing, transparent and clear privacy notices, data subject rights management (including the right to access, rectify, and delete personal data), data breach notification within 72 hours, and potentially appointing a Data Protection Officer (DPO). Non-compliance can result in severe fines of up to 20 million euros or 4% of annual global turnover, whichever is higher.

PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) is a set of security standards designed to ensure that all companies that accept, process, store, or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment. It was created by major card brands (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, and JCB) through the PCI Security Standards Council. If your business handles credit or debit card payments in any way, PCI DSS applies to you. The level of compliance required depends on your annual transaction volume, ranging from Level 4 (fewer than 20,000 e-commerce transactions per year) to Level 1 (over 6 million transactions per year). Even small businesses using third-party payment processors like Stripe or PayPal must complete a Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) to validate their compliance. Failure to comply can result in fines, increased transaction fees, or loss of the ability to process card payments.

The timeline for achieving SOC 2 certification depends on your organization's current security maturity and the scope of your audit. For a company starting from scratch with no formal security policies or controls, expect the process to take between 6 and 12 months. This typically includes 2 to 3 months for a readiness assessment and gap analysis (identifying what controls you need to implement), 2 to 4 months for implementing the required controls, policies, and procedures, and 3 to 6 months for the observation period required for a Type II audit (during which the auditor evaluates whether your controls operated effectively over time). Organizations with existing mature security programs and controls in place can often significantly accelerate this timeline. Working with an experienced compliance consultant or using a compliance automation platform can help streamline the process and avoid common delays and pitfalls.

The NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) is a voluntary framework developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology that provides organizations with guidelines for managing and reducing cybersecurity risk. It is organized around five core functions: Identify (understand your assets and risks), Protect (implement safeguards), Detect (identify security events), Respond (take action on detected events), and Recover (restore capabilities after an incident). Unlike SOC 2 or ISO 27001, the NIST CSF is not a certification — it is a set of guidelines and best practices that organizations can adopt at their own pace and scale to their needs. It is widely used across industries and is often required for organizations working with U.S. federal agencies. The framework is completely free to use and provides an excellent foundation for building a comprehensive security program, regardless of your organization's size or industry.

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