What is the difference between the terms cybersecurity and information security? The National Institute of Standards and Technology gives the following definitions in its glossary:
Cybersecurity: the prevention of damage to, unauthorized use of, exploitation of, and—if needed—the restoration of electronic information and communications systems, and the information they contain, in order to strengthen the confidentiality, integrity and availability of these systems.
Information Security: The protection of information and information systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction in order to provide confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
Both concern the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information and information systems. The difference is that cybersecurity deals with electronic systems in particular. Information security is about not only electronic systems but also about other systems such as records on paper, verbal communication and even the buildings that house information systems.
In everyday communication, people tend to use the terms interchangeably. It doesn’t really matter in most cases.