6 Reasons Why Cybersecurity Is Important in the Information Age

The last decade demolished the gap between online and the real world. The real world is happening online; 81 percent of people go online every day. This means that people need to care about cybersecurity just as much as they care about the security of their house. 

But many people don’t treat cybersecurity with this level of seriousness. They don’t know it, but their intellectual property is at serious risk of a data breach. 

This article will walk you through several reasons why cybersecurity is important, and why a career in cybersecurity is a viable option for the 21st century. 

1. Hackers Are Getting Smarter

Faced with years of firewalls, anti-virus programs, and monitoring, cybercriminals have gotten better than ever at finding weaknesses in cybersecurity and exploiting them. Just like an athlete who trains for many years and becomes strong, cybercriminals now have all of the mental strength they need to steal information. 

They also have more advanced tools than they ever did before. One downside of advances in technology is that it’s impossible to stop these pieces of technology from falling into the wrong hands. Hackers will use whatever is available to breach the average person’s security. 

2. The Cloud Makes Hacking Dangerous

Social engineering is still the most common form of hacking. This type of hacking takes place when a hacker poses as someone (or something) that they’re not, and thus obtains someone’s personal information. Once they have this information, there’s no telling what they can do on a person’s computer. 

However, today’s hackers don’t just target one person’s computer. 

Cloud computing allows business owners to access any information they need to from any computer in their system. They can store their information off-site, and don’t need to waste money paying for extra infrastructure. 

However, what they gain in convenience, they pay for in security. 

A hacker needs only to get the information of one person who works for a company with cloud computing — even if that person isn’t particularly important. If that person is connected to the cloud, the hacker can use their personal device as an entry point into the business information. 

3. Artificial Intelligence

The cloud isn’t the only thing that makes it easier for hackers in today’s day and age. AI is yet another important step for many companies in improving their productivity. It can also assist the productivity of a criminal. 

Hackers, a lot of the time, don’t do their dirty work themselves. They write destructive codes and programs and send out links for unsuspecting marks to click on themselves. Once they’re allowed in, these malicious programs run their course.

With artificial intelligence, hackers are able to create programs that learn and grow. That means that even an extra-vigilant person might fall victim to a program because it’s constantly finding ways to get past firewalls. 

This is why trained cybersecurity professionals are extremely important in today’s world. Smart hackers mean we need to have smart cybersecurity people. If you’re thinking about going into the world of cybersecurity, check out this guide to the highest paying roles in the industry. 

4. There’s a Lot of Data Online

It doesn’t take a cyber-genius to figure out that a lot of people are willing to share a lot of things online. Just look at the average teen’s Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok page, and you can learn a ton of things about them that no stranger has any right at all to know.

This becomes a major problem when major companies share this level of comfort in putting their information online. While people think their information is safe behind a password, today’s hackers can get into the information as easily as picking a lock. 

It seems that we’re hearing news of data breaches every day. Whether this is negligence on the part of these companies or simple ignorance of the internet, the point remains the same: people want to feel like their data is secure. A person focusing on cybersecurity can make a lot of money in this day and age by helping solve people’s fears. 

5. They Save Money

Paradoxically, hiring a cybersecurity expert can save you a lot of money. By 2025, businesses worldwide can expect to lose around 10.5 trillion dollars annually. This number is so unbelievably high that if even a minuscule fraction of this money was paid by most businesses, they would be left sitting in the rubble of their dream. 

Hiring a cybersecurity expert can, quite literally, save your business, and it will almost certainly save you money. 

6. It Sets Us up for the Future

When we focus on cybersecurity solutions now, we help build the industry up for the future. Spreading awareness about cybersecurity helps populate the field with intelligent cybersecurity professionals, which in turn can help us out more and more.

Think of it like a small business you enjoy. You have to support that small business now so that they stay open for you to enjoy more in the future. The cybersecurity industry is like that small business trying to thrive.

Understand Why Cybersecurity Is Important

If you want to understand the 21st century, you have to understand why cybersecurity is important. Consider the fact that hackers are getting smarter, new cloud technologies open up security threats, hackers can use artificial intelligence, a ton of data is currently online, cybersecurity professionals save money, and hiring cybersecurity professionals means building an important industry.

If you’re young and have computer skills, consider becoming a cybersecurity professional today.

For more articles like this, check out our “tech” section.