In the year 2020, the size of the global data sphere reached 64 zettabytes. Allow us to give you some perspective, 1 zettabyte is equal to 270 bytes or 1024(1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes). Our point is that so much data is digital, we should also focus on keeping it safe. And here cyber security comes into the frame as it protects data from any kind of damage and theft. In this article, we are solely going to focus on the importance of cyber security in the digital world.
But what does data refers to here? We are talking about sensitive data. It includes personally identifiable information (PII), protected health information (PHI), personal information, intellectual property, data, and governmental and industry information systems, but is not limited to only this. The landscape which we are looking at is quite widespread. So if you are a business that deals with a massive amount of customer information then without cyber security you don’t stand a chance against malicious attacks.
Cyber Threats For Cloud Services Users
Cloud services are everywhere whether it’s computational service or storage. And using it makes sense because cloud services are scalable, flexible, and accessible. But all this functionality comes with a cost. In the past few years, a major amount of data breaches have occurred to the cloud services providers.
Also, if you’re thinking about anti-virus and firewall for protecting your data then, surprise! Surprise! It won’t work. Cybercriminals nowadays are so sophisticated, that they know all ins and outs and can easily outplay such vintage solutions.
Significance of Cyber Security
Since our society is rapidly adopting new technologies, therefore we need to make sure our personal information doesn’t compromise. In this cyber security plays a significant role. Without proper cyber security, data leaks are inevitable which lead to identity theft or other major cyber crimes. Consider this, most people save their confidential information on some digital platforms like Google Drive or Apple’s iCloud. And storing them in the cloud makes sense because data becomes easily accessible. However, the repercussions of this handy technology can be proportionally drastic.
Let’s have a look at some potential security vulnerabilities.
- From large enterprises to individuals, everyone uses computers. And presumably, they are also using some kind of cloud application. And from the above discussion, we have concluded that the data in clouds is not entirely safe.
- Additionally, we use other devices that comprise a lot of our information like smartphones, IoT devices like wearables smartwatches, and home automation devices like Alexa and Google Nest. All of these devices collect a lot of data which makes data security more vulnerable.
What to do Next
I guess now you have understood the importance of cyber security in the digital world. Surprisingly, you can take small steps to protect your personal data from cyber-attacks. For example, you can educate yourself and your staff to be more aware of cybercrime tactics. According to a report, 90% of data breaches happen because of human errors. Apart from that, there are other security measures that you can follow like Firewall, VPN, limited access to critical data, activity monitoring, etc.
