Cybersecurity, computer safety or data security is basically the protection of networks and computer systems against external information access, computer viruses, computer security breaches, and the interruption or misdirection of their services. Computer security is increasingly recognized as a major challenge for businesses and organizations, requiring the development of highly competent and highly skilled IT professionals. As such, the demand for the most effective and the most technically advanced security consultants has also risen. In order to fill this gap, there are many cyber security companies that offer information security consulting services. A number of these companies provide IT security consulting services to a wide range of large and small business sectors, providing both complete information security audit and verification as well as advice on how to best meet the demands of their clients’ security requirements.

However, there is a difference between conventional information security consultancy and what is often called “cybersecurity consulting”. For instance, one of these firms may be hired by an Internet Service Provider to find holes in the network that would allow hackers into the company’s systems. But the real work here is in locating the source of the vulnerabilities so that the company can then fix them. On the other hand, a computer security firm that specializes in cyber attacks and does penetration testing for companies to ensure their networks are not susceptible to such attacks can be a valuable partner to these organizations. These firms also help the companies to avoid the costly mistakes that could be made in dealing with cyber attacks, such as the leaking of confidential data or proprietary information through hacking efforts, or the use of computer programs that could inadvertently destroy critical computer systems.

A major weakness in the computer system of any organization lies in the fact that a hacker or group of hackers can very easily hijack the networks and computers of an organization and use that network to launch distributed denial of service attacks on websites of those organizations. Such attacks are meant to bring down the websites of those organizations and to deny access to the web users. The National Security Agency (NSA) has stated that if a cyber attack were successful, the result would be the crippling of the national security system, the power grid and other vital infrastructure, which would then cause chaos in the country.