Cyber attacks are attempts to disrupt or disable computer systems or steal valuable data. From the Experian data breach to the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack, cyber attacks are a part of just about every news cycle and have very real consequences. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at what cyber attacks are, why they happen, and how to prevent them.

Cyber attack basics

Cyber attacks can compromise sensitive personal data, including Social Security numbers, birthdates, medical information, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and more. This can lead to identity theft, which is time-consuming, frustrating, and expensive to resolve.

Cyber attacks are also very expensive for companies. Cybersecurity Ventures expects global cybercrime costs to grow to $10.5 trillion annually by 2025, with over $6 trillion in damages alone this year.

But why is cybercrime so expensive? Cyber attacks often bring down computer networks, and downtime costs companies money. It also takes time and money to back up and evaluate compromised systems and data.

Companies also have to notify their customers if their data was compromised and take measures to restore their reputations. That doesn’t include the costs of attempting to prevent cyber attacks in the first place, which requires professional expertise, investments in hardware and software, and lots of time.

Types of cyber attacks

There are several types of cyber attacks. Here are some of the most common.

Malware

Malware are software like spyware and ransomware that are used to attack information systems.

Spyware is installed on devices without a user’s knowledge. It can be used to steal information, including login credentials, and invades privacy. Trojans are one example of spyware.

Trojans hide in legitimate software programs, which gives them access to a computer. From there, it can delete or encrypt files or access user information.

Ransomware is software used to encrypt and hijack computer systems, which are only released after a ransom has been paid. The Colonial Pipeline shutdown was one example of this. The Pipeline is one of the main fuel pipelines in the United States, and shutting it down caused fuel shortages across the east coast. Colonial paid $4.4 million to the hacking group to bring their systems back online.

Phishing

Phishing is when cybercriminals send emails or texts to unsuspecting people who then click on a link or attachment that downloads malware onto their device. Another variation is when the link takes the user to a fake website that tricks them into entering sensitive information.

Phishing emails and texts have become increasingly sophisticated, so it’s critical to be vigilant about not clicking links or opening any emails you don’t recognize.

Man-in-the-middle

This attack is when a cybercriminal inserts themselves between two parties. For example, they might intercept connections on public, unsecured WiFi networks to steal data from someone logging into their work email or bank account.

Distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS)

DDoS attacks bombard systems with traffic that exhausts their resources and bandwidth. They make servers unable to handle requests, making systems unusable.

SQL injection

SQL injections involve using the SQL programming language to collect data from servers and databases.

Zero-day exploits

Software have vulnerabilities. Zero-day exploits are when cybercriminals exploit vulnerabilities within software before they’re patched.

DNS tunneling

DNS tunneling hides the data of other programs in DNS queries and responses. It allows data to be removed from a system without being detected.

Why do cyber attacks happen?

Criminals engage in cyber attacks for several reasons:

• Money: Perhaps the most obvious reason, money drives a lot of cyber attacks. Ransomware can bring in millions for cybercriminals. They can also sell personal and corporate data.
• Disruption: Some hackers just want to disrupt the status quo. They enjoy the chaos. Or they may want to damage a specific organization or entity.
• Cyberwarfare: Governments are also involved in cyber attacks. They use cyber attacks to weaken political opponents and expose weaknesses.

How to prevent cyber attacks

Organizations and individuals can take steps to prevent cyber attacks.

• Education: You can only prevent what you’re aware of, so keep an eye on evolving cyber threats. Organizations should educate employees on common cyber threats, including phishing and social engineering, which involve manipulating someone into providing access to sensitive information. For example, someone could pretend to be tech support to gain access to protected servers.
• Install perimeter defenses: These include firewalls, which should be kept up to date.
• Malware detection: Consider adding malware protection on your computers and other devices. Corporations should have state-of-the-art antivirus software that’s continually updated to address threats.
• Patch management: Those pesky security updates might seem annoying, but they prevent vulnerabilities from being exploited.
• User access: Multi-factor authentication and strong passwords play a huge role in preventing cyber attacks.

Along with the steps listed above, businesses should also have a clear response plan to deal with security breaches.

Getting involved in cybersecurity

Since cyber attacks are constantly evolving, cybersecurity professionals are in high demand. If you’re interested in a career in cybersecurity, you can get started in several ways.

One option is learning a programming language that’s commonly used in cybersecurity. Some options include:

We also offer an Introduction to Cybersecurity course. It covers cybersecurity standards, cyber threats, cryptography, network security basics, and more. In other words, it’s a great way to take your first steps toward a rewarding career!

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Cybersecurity is a fast-growing field that addresses the security risks of our increasingly connected digital world. Learn cybersecurity, and you will learn how users, companies, and even governments protect themselves and recover from, cyber threats and attacks. Start defending yourself, or your or…

Cloud computing is becoming more and more popular. Every day, more companies are turning away from traditional IT infrastructures and corporate data centers. Instead, they’re flocking to cloud services and platforms — but why?

In this article, we’ll explore the many benefits behind cloud computing’s popularity. But first, let’s look at what cloud computing is.

What is cloud computing?

Every business needs some sort of IT infrastructure. Think about the many different types of files that employees need to access. The large amounts of data stored in databases. The email and other software that needs to be installed on company devices.

In the past, companies managed the hardware and software behind their servers, databases, and networks in a physical data center.

Cloud computing changed all of this. By delivering computing services like software, analytics, servers, storage, and more, over the Internet, cloud services like AWS (Amazon Web Services) save businesses the time, money, and other resources they’d otherwise dedicate to maintaining their IT infrastructure.

There are several different types of cloud services, ranging from Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) to Software as a Service (Saas). In another post, we take a closer look at what cloud computing is.

7 benefits of cloud computing

Cloud computing offers many benefits — so much so that more and more businesses are migrating their infrastructures and data to cloud services and platforms. Some startups rely entirely on cloud computing for benefits like:

1. Scalability

The IT needs of every company are different. For example, a big tech company with thousands of employees needs different resources than a startup with only three. Cloud providers are a perfect solution for either company because their services can be scaled to meet their needs.

This scaling can be done in a matter of seconds or minutes, which is great for a company that’s growing quickly. As demands increase, a business can quickly scale its cloud-based infrastructure without investing in physical components.

2. Cost

While the initial migration of existing infrastructure may take planning, money, and time, most businesses see cost savings in using cloud services right away. Since cloud computing resources can be sized to a business’s needs, they never pay for more than they use. It’s a pay-as-you-go system.

In contrast, many on-site data centers have more resources than they need. This is largely for preventative reasons — it’s better to be overprepared than underprepared when things go wrong. But, with cloud computing and its scalable services, a business never has to pay for more than they need.

3. Speed

Along with saving time and resources, cloud computing has also sped up software development. Setting up a new development environment or virtual machine on a cloud can be done in seconds with the click of a few buttons. With a traditional data center, you’d have to purchase, install, and maintain all the required hardware.

Cloud services are fast. With a traditional data center, users have to connect to that one data center no matter where they’re located in the world. A cloud service, on the other hand, can be distributed across the world, so users get a fast connection close to their geographical location.

4. Productivity

Cloud computing improves productivity in many ways:

1. As we explained earlier, eliminating the need for infrastructure maintenance allows your IT staff to focus on business-related tasks.
2. It makes software development, testing, and deployment quicker and easier.
3. It provides a worldwide network of services that can be easily accessed by remote employees.

5. Performance

Because providing modern IT infrastructure is their business, cloud providers keep data centers updated with the latest high-performance hardware and technologies. This enables better connectivity and performance.

6. Security

Cybersecurity is a big concern of any business. Data breaches can damage an enterprise’s revenue, reputation, and even its clients. Cloud services resolve this by managing permissions and access to the services and resources they provide. For example, you could restrict access to an important file to a specific set of users.

7. Disaster recovery

Losing data can be just as bad for a business as having a data breach. Storing data on the cloud ensures that it’s always available, even if a laptop or mobile device gets lost or damaged.

Cloud providers also provide backup systems for files, databases, source code, and more. In a worst-case scenario, any lost data can be restored from backups in no time.

Getting Started

If you’re into coding, chances are you’ll run into cloud computing in your career. It’s where most businesses host their infrastructure — and after looking at all of its advantages, it’s easy to see why. Cloud computing saves money, increases productivity, is available from anywhere, 24/7, and much more.

What does this mean to a developer? It means it makes your job a lot easier. When it comes to writing code, not much has changed. You can still develop apps with the same technologies and languages you’re already using. The cloud just provides an easier way to deploy, test, and run your code. It also makes it possible to work remotely from anywhere in the world.

Ready to start working with the cloud? If you’re looking to build server-side applications that run in cloud environments, check out our Back-End Engineer Career Path. We’ll teach you how to build your own applications, APIs, databases, and more.

If you’re more interested in building web applications that run in the browser, our Front-End Engineer Career Path could be right for you. You’ll learn how to use languages like JavaScript, CSS, and HTML, along with front-end libraries like React and Redux. Lastly, for those who want to master both the front and back end, try our Full-Stack Developer Career Path.

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Generally, a website consists of two parts — the front end and the back end. The front end, also known as the client-side, is what you see in the browser. The back end, or server-side, is everything that happens “under the hood,” and its components aren’t immediately obvious.

In the video above, Web Developer Carlos Grijalva gives us an example. Think of a website as a restaurant. When you first sit down, you’re presented with a menu, which may include pictures and descriptions of the items you can order. When you place your order, you might request something specific, like a salad with dressing on the side. This is similar to how the front end works.

Then, the kitchen staff takes your order, gets the ingredients from the refrigerator and pantry, cooks them together, and brings you your food. This is essentially how the back end works.

Below, we’ll take a closer look at the back end, what Back-End Developers do, the tools they use, and how to become one.

What goes into the back end?

As Carlos explains, “the back end is a combination of a database and a software written in a server-side language.” The back end includes servers and databases. Servers control how users access files. Databases are organized and structured collections of data.

Here’s an example. When you log into a website, you enter your username or email and password. This information is then sent to server-side software, which ensures that your email looks like an email address and your password is structured like a password. If everything looks good, it sends the data to the database to ensure someone with that username and password exists. Then, it chooses what’s important and sends it back to you in the form of your user page.

What do Back-End Developers do?

In another post, Doug, one of our Senior Back-End Engineers, gives us an overview of what a Back-End Developer does. While touching on the role’s capacity for problem-solving, he provides a list of common responsibilities, including:

• Creating, integrating, and managing databases.
• Using back-end frameworks to build server-side software.
• Validating data to make sure it’s formatted correctly before being sent to the database.
• Integrating user-facing elements with server-side elements to make sure that information is being sent to the right place so the server can retrieve it.

Back-End Developers use a range of technology and software, many of which fall into three categories: databases, programming languages, and frameworks.

Databases

As we explained above, databases are used to store user information and other important data. Popular database management systems include:

• MySQL
• MongoDB
• Oracle
• PostgreSQL

Programming languages

Back-End Developers use query languages like SQL to manipulate the data stored in databases. They also use various programming languages to build applications that facilitate communication between servers and databases. Some of these languages include:

Python is a great choice for beginners. It’s concise and easy to read. It’s also extremely popular and has a large programming community behind it. Ruby is another beginner-friendly language that has an enthusiastic programming community behind it.

Frameworks

Frameworks make software development faster and easier, saving time developers would otherwise spend writing code. Popular frameworks include:

How do you become a Back-End developer?

You can take a few paths to become a Back-End Developer. One obvious option is to get a degree, but that’s not for everyone. Fortunately, you can become a back-end developer without a degree by taking classes and learning on your own.

Carlos suggests starting by choosing a language and a framework. For example, you could begin with Ruby and then learn its associated Ruby on Rails framework.

From there, Carlos suggests learning how to work with servers, then learning APIs and HTTP methods. Next, you’ll want to connect to databases and learn how to retrieve data. Finally, you’ll want to build something on your own. This allows you to implement the server, database, and APIs and connect to a simple front end. This brings all your learning together and provides you with a project you can include in your portfolio.

How do you become a Back-End Engineer?

If you’re intrigued by all the happenings behind the scenes of websites, another career option is becoming a Back-End Engineer. Back-End Engineers tend to take a big picture view of the back end, essentially serving as architects — designing entire systems and overseeing entire projects.

If this sounds like the role for you, check out our Back-End Engineer Career Path. You’ll learn how to use tools like JavaScript, Node/Express.js, SQL, and more. You’ll also create Portfolio Projects, which will help you land a job as a Back-End Developer or Engineer.

You’ll also learn about web security, algorithms, and how to scale servers. We’ll even help you prepare for your technical interviews, which are on-the-spot demonstrations of your skills. Ready to start your Path? Sign up today!

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SQL is the standard relational data management language. We live in a data-driven world, and there are many businesses that store their information inside large, relational databases. This makes SQL a great skill not only for data scientists and engineers, but for anyone wanting to be data-literate.

If you’re familiar with web development, you’ve probably heard reference to “the front end” — but what is it, exactly? Generally speaking, the front end is the user-facing part of a website. It’s what you see when you type in something like “codecademy.com.” But, of course, there’s more to it than that.

As Front-End Web Developer Pat DePuydt explains in the video above, the front end is the part of the website a user or customer interacts with. A lot goes into making the front end work, including database architecture, frameworks, scaling solutions, and more. It includes:

• Styles: This includes the buttons, layouts, inputs, text, images, and more. It’s the overall look of the website.
• Accessibility: Accessibility features like text-to-speech, voice recognition, simple user flows, and more make websites easier to use and provide a better user experience.
• Speed: Most people won’t wait for a website to load. The faster a website works, the better.

What are common front-end tasks?

Front-end web development can include a variety of tasks, including:

• Updating existing web pages or creating new ones
• Building HTML emails for email campaigns
• Making sure web pages work well on mobile or tablets
• Improving website performance by cleaning and splitting code
• Adding and improving accessibility features

What are front-end technologies?

You’ll use three main technologies in front-end development.

• HTML: Pat describes HTML as the skeleton of a webpage. It’s used to structure a webpage’s content, and it also tells the web browser how to display it.
• CSS: The “skin and clothes of the webpage” according to Pat, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) gives browsers more specific information on displaying content, like the size and color of text.
• JavaScript: There’s more to websites than just text. JavaScript allows you to create more complex elements like interactive maps and animated graphics. It’s executed both in the browser and the server, which makes it versatile.

Front-End Developers also use other tools, ranging from content management systems (CMSs) like WordPress and Drupal to libraries and frameworks like React, Angular, and Vue. Libraries and frameworks allow you to use a blueprint to create web elements like buttons rather than creating a new one every time.

What are front-end careers?

There are two primary roles in front-end development: Front-End Interface Developers and Front-End Engineers. While they might sound similar, several distinctions lie between the two.

Front-End Interface Developers

Front-End Interface Developers (or Front-End Designers) take drawings and other static images and translate them into web pages. This is a big task, as the web pages need to match the designs and ensure they work on various screen sizes.

Front-End Engineers

Front-End Engineers are less focused on design and more on making the website functional and scaleable. Some Front-End Engineers also do design work, and some workplaces use the two job titles interchangeably.

What goes into front-end design?

Front-end design is a collaborative effort, so if you enjoy working with others as much as you enjoy development, it could be a good fit.

Most Front-End Developers and Engineers coordinate with user experience (UX) teams. These folks determine the target demographic for the website and how users might interact with it.

Graphic design is another critical part of front-end design. It includes fonts and colors and ensures that the website’s design matches the company and product the web application is for. This often comes from the research and branding team. For example, Amazon has a distinct logo, the same fonts used throughout, and consistent colors.

Front-End Developers coordinate with various departments to ensure web applications work across all browsers and screen sizes, including phones and tablets. They may also receive feedback from these departments throughout development, so they need to be able to incorporate and listen to feedback from a variety of people with different perspectives and priorities.

Why is the front end important?

In the video above, Pat explains that the front end is important because:

“It’s the digital representation of a company, or an individual, or an organization. It builds a bridge between a customer or client and the brand.”

If a website or application has an issue, it reflects poorly on the brand.

The front end is also what makes a website usable. If a website or application doesn’t work well, it can push customers away, and those customers can be difficult to win back.

Ultimately, the front end represents someone’s idea, and it’s important to do it justice.

Becoming a Front-End Engineer

One option for becoming a Front-End Engineer or Developer is to get a degree. While that’s a good fit for some, getting a degree isn’t practical for everyone. Fortunately, you can become a Front-End Engineer without a degree.

To do that, you’ll want to start by taking relevant courses. You could start with programming languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Or, you could check out our Front-End Engineer Career Path. Each Career Path provides a series of courses that take you from a beginner to ready to interview.

The Front-End Engineer Career Path includes the languages listed above, along with libraries like React and Redux. You’ll learn the basics of web design, including wireframing and color theory. You’ll build projects that you can include in your portfolio. You’ll also learn what to expect in a technical interview. Ready to get started? Sign up now!

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Web Design is essential to bringing a website to life and creating the experience that you want for your end users. The courses here will help you polish your HTML and CSS skills while learning about color design, navigation design, and more.

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Web Development is the practice of developing websites and web apps that live on the internet. Whether you’re interested in front-end, back-end, or going full-stack, the content in our Web Development domain will help you get there.