Mark Twain suggested two certainties in life: death and taxes, but in today’s interconnected world we could add cyber attacks/crime. Cyber crime and cyber attacks are somewhat like the weather. Both are everywhere, all the time, you may not always be aware of them, you likely don’t understand how they work, and, most importantly, they have the potential to wreck your life. Unlike the weather, cyber attacks are always bad, relentlessly so. Protection comes in the form of the cyber security industry which is somewhere between an umbrella and flood defences that aim to protect people, businesses and public bodies from the severe damage that can be caused.
Here to stay
While some technologies and IT-related areas rise and fall, cyber crime and the means to fight it are unlikely ever to go away. They will evolve and change (think VHS > DVD > Blu Ray > 4K streaming or 3G > 4G > 5G), getting smarter and faster and keeping data and key infrastructure safe is rising in importance. This is a battle between equally smart players – those working for a state-sponsored hacker are likely as competent and well rewarded as Silicon Valley higher flyers: this is the key reason cyber crime is such a problem. It is not low level, bungling criminals but some of the sharpest minds in IT in a game of constant advancement by both perpetrators and defenders.