Why Is Cyber Security Important?

There are many reasons why cyber security is important, but in this post I want to touch on why it is important, even when you may not think it is. Never underestimate the value of information to a hacker!

In my previous blog posts I have covered a lot of things regarding cyber security. I have talked about training, prevention and how real cyber threats are, but I haven't spent much time talking about why cyber security is important. For someone who works in technology it seems almost obvious, but sometimes we speak to customers and they say something along the lines of " I don't have anything that a hacker would want anyway." Well, you would be surprised what hackers consider to be valuable information.

Have you ever received an odd email or Facebook message from a friend asking you to click on a link of some sort? This usually occurs when your friends accounts get compromised and an attacker is now sending messages to all of their contacts. Now imagine if one person trusts this communication and clicks the link and gets compromised and then someone on their contacts list gets compromised and so on and so forth. This is how one persons mistake can result in hundreds even thousands of victims. A simple chain reaction can lead to peoples identities being stolen, credit card info and more.

Hackers use information as a weapon and sometimes what we consider to be innocuous is actually very useful to a cyber criminal. Don't be that person who causes your friends, family or coworkers to be hacked. Always be conscious of your computer security even if you think you have nothing to lose. If you run a business, follow the advice of IT professionals when it comes to security even if you think your business doesn't need it. You don't want to have to explain to your customers why their data was breached and all of their contacts are at risk. It happens, all to often.