Cybersecurity news covers current events, as well as advice about protecting computers, networks, programs and data from unauthorized access or attacks. It’s an incredibly important field, and keeping up with it ensures that cybersecurity professionals are aware of threats and vulnerabilities in their systems. Having timely access to this news also allows them to respond swiftly and take precautions or implement patches, limiting the impact of any attacks.
Cyber security has only been around for a few decades, but its development and advancements have happened at a dizzying pace. Some people, like Gen Xers, can remember a time before the internet and email were commonplace, and they may even know one of the first hackers – Kevin Mitnick, who was arrested in 1995 for hacking into some of the most guarded computer networks, including Motorola and Nokia.
Cybersecurity has grown into a huge industry with numerous careers and options. Today, students entering computer science programs can specialize in cybersecurity, and there are plenty of opportunities for white hat hackers who act as security specialists and explore a system with no nefarious purposes in mind. Black hat hackers, on the other hand, are digital trespassers and thieves, and they have been responsible for some of the biggest data breaches in history. The City of Baltimore, for example, lost more than $1.5 million to a BEC attack that took advantage of weaknesses in its verification processes. This scam involved an attacker impersonating a vendor and manipulating internal workflows to make payments to unauthorized accounts.