Currently, there is a common talk about the world of technology, how vast it is, and the features that it accompanies. Technological companies are taking their security to the next level, in order to ensure maximum trust amongst their clients and partners. Citizens themselves are taking personal precautions in order to ensure their own privacy remains safe and secure, due to the fact that they themselves wish for maximum privacy when it comes to their own personal life. Privacy is now a concern; it is something that can not be neglected. As StriveX is constantly striving in order to advocate and educate upon cyber-security, internet safety, etc, we must start with the very basics. What exactly is cyber-security? An example of this is a bank: a bank is something that stores valuable information, so that valuable items can be kept safely, without any risk of it being violated or stolen. In this case, cyber-security is simply the state of being protected in an online environment, this can be a variety of things, whether it is your own personal identity, financial information, etc. Many do find it hard to believe that electronic data is becoming more and more popular to hackers and other cybercriminals, due to the fact that many believe electronic data is not worth more than natural “in real life” data. However, this is very much mistaken. In order for us to understand the importance of cyber-security, we must jump into electronic data and its’ importance.

Electronic data is very common nowadays – it is known as data found around the internet. Although this is internet-based data, it is crucial for people to understand how important it is. Internet data can vary, from financial internet to personal identities all over the internet. It is also known as a footprint, one that leaves a trace and can NOT be removed. Good examples of footprints are when you enter a website. Every time you click a URL, the host of the website logs your IP address. Without getting too technical, an IP address is an address from the location you are entering from – think of it as an identification card. In order to enter a website, you need to show that specific “identification card” in order to enter. You give the website permission with the IP address, and even though it is generally not harmful if the website logs the IP address, there can be some risks. For example, there are some cases where hackers are capable of stealing these IP addresses from various companies in data leaks, however, we will not be covering that fully in this guide. The main idea is that the digital footprint can not be hidden in any way, you can not remove your footprint from the internet, and neither can you prevent it completely. However, there are ways to help prevent it from your own side. 

Most people think of cyber-attacks and hacking when they think of cyber-security, and that is a huge part of it. Cyber-attacks are destructive and harmful, as they are capable of even taking down a whole system. In fact, according to business insider, they themselves have reported that a successful cyberattack can even take down a country as a whole, which is impressive! Even in companies, cyber-attacks are capable of taking down systems and even halting production. To most citizens, cyber-attacks do not mean much. Cyber-attacks are targeted mostly at those that are either organizations or government-related jobs. For citizens, cyber-security means keeping yourself safe on the internet, with precautions such as: looking out for red flags, not clicking any suspicious links, not downloading anything that seems particularly malicious, etc. In the coming future, we will be making guides about keeping one safe on the internet with the correct precautions. 

Cyber-security is also starting to become a study; with the number of hackers sending cyber-attacks towards companies and government-related organizations, and even sending attacks towards citizens, universities and schooling are starting to take things into their own hands. For example, many universities have cyber-security programs where they learn to reverse-engineer these viruses, in order to learn the vulnerabilities and how to prevent them in the future. Cyber-security firms and companies are also taking action on various viruses circulating the web, and it is starting to become extremely common as a cyber-security profession. 

Cyber-security is the future, it is not going away. The privacy and protection people need on the web are starting to become a necessity, and we need to be cautious about that. Here at StriveX, we work to make the technological world a better place, by advocating about the harms and dangers of technology, by also pointing out solutions to make it better.