Have you ever felt or seen your phone being used by itself, or your account on social media being active when you were not on it, or used to say things you didn’t? Well, your accounts or phone may have been remotely hacked, and the hacker can do this on your phone from wherever they are. You might think the way to stop this is by changing your password, but that doesn’t fully prevent you from being hacked again, and that is when Cyber security comes into play.
In today’s world, technology has transformed the way we do things, like how we communicate, cook, and use transportation. I could go on and on, but what will happen if some of these things aren’t available to us anymore because they got hacked? Imagine waiting at a traffic light for 2 hours in a major city like Los Angeles—this could affect a lot of people and different factors, like people not getting to work, food not getting delivered, and potentially leading to a decline in the economy, causing inflation and the prices of items to increase. Just imagine the consequences this simple situation caused—just a traffic light—and think about how much worse it could get with other things if it could be that bad with a traffic light. Cyber security is a practice used to protect systems, networks, and data from digital attacks and theft
With technology growing day by day in our society, being used by government agencies, businesses, and individuals, it is important that the government, companies, and people know about Cyber security and why it is important. Cyber security is important because, without it, people, businesses, and agencies won’t be able to use or store data online as Cyber criminals are always looking for ways to try and exploit data. Cyber security analysts stop this from happening because it could potentially lead to financial, operational, and reputational consequences if the data some of these companies and businesses had got leaked. The Cyber security field also continues to expand as they now manage industries such as energy, healthcare, finance, and transportation, as in recent years, nobody hired Cyber security companies.
What will happen if a big Cyber security company got hacked? Well, a company called Mandiant got hacked this year in May, and this is not just any company; it was a company that managed high-profile companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft. This had a huge effect not just on these companies but on the world as it slowed things down, like people’s phones, flights got canceled, bank details and card information got leaked, and a whole lot more. This also caused panic among people as they started changing passwords and were scared that their private information got leaked. Also, in August this year, the Pentagon got hacked, and over 1 billion social security numbers were leaked, so Cyber security should be something people need to become more aware of.
In conclusion, Cyber security is an essential part of technology that is needed for society to function well, and I think everyone should know about it, as it protects sensitive information, ensures national security, maintains business continuity, and preserves public trust.
