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Cyber Security versus Information Security

The key difference is that information security is mainly relevant to personal information while cyber security is more universal, focusing on other concerns such as our national infrastructure.


My feeling though … is that information security is actually a super-set of cyber security since anything in the cyber realm would involve information or information systems. As usual here is my  pseudo-Venn diagram to enjoy.

Then we have the official NIST definitions from IR 7298 Revision 2. They define cyber security and information security as follows (note there are two definitions for information security).
Cybersecurity: The ability to protect or defend the use of cyberspace from cyber attacks.
Information Security (1): The protection of information and information systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction in order to provide confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
Information Security (2): Protecting information and information systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction in order to provide —
1) integrity, which means guarding against improper information modification or destruction, and includes ensuring information non-repudiation and authenticity;
2) confidentiality, which means preserving authorized restrictions on access and disclosure, including means for protecting personal privacy and proprietary information; and
3) availability, which means ensuring timely and reliable access to and use of information.
Based on the definitions above, the way I look at it — cyber security involves anything security-related in the cyber realm (or cyberspace). Information security involves the security of information or information systems regardless of the realm it occurs in (e.g., risk of exposure in physical world). Since anything that occurs in the cyber realm would involve the protection of information and information systems in some way, you can conclude that information security is a super-set of cyber security.

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