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Review this article with 2 APA references.
There is definitely a focus on having security professionals in your organization. The "scare" of a breach costing an organization money, reputation, or other tangible and in-tangible assets will keep professionals like us employed for years to come. That being said, as a security professional, now we have a lot more to secure.
There are a lot of vulnerabilities out there, and if we do not do our due diligence for an organization, we can lose our job, reputation, or both--as well as be held liable for the losses. We need to stay abreast of the ever-changing environment and make sure we do not lose our edge. Just as Jesus tells us in the bible that "no one knows the day or hour" when Jesus will return, only the Father, we also do not know the day or the hour when the next attack will take place (Matthew 24:36, NLT).
We know it will happen, we just don't know when or what will be attacked. For instance, I love going back to this as an instance of what bad can happen, but it draws on the fear we should have when dealing with this field. The Target hack back in 2013. Security professionals had the information that they were being hacked, but instead of acting on it, they let it go for 2 weeks before shutting down the attackers. The result was a tarnished reputation by their customers, millions lost in revenue, and millions lost in lawsuits. The employees that surrounded that decision were fired.
The managers that were in charge were fired. The upper management that should have bred an environment of trust with their employees were also fired. This included their CIO who resigned one week after the news broke. As irony would have it though, the CIO did not have a computer or networking background. They had a background in retail and business administration (Harris, 2014). This is not the first and far from the last that we'll see issues affect an organization so much.
On top of that, the news blasts it out for all to see. This is why a lot of organizations try to contain the information as much as possible, when possible. If they broadcast every small breach to the world, they become more vulnerable, as well as they begin getting attacked from their customers in the form of a loss of trust and reputation. I believe this will get worse over time. More and more sophisticated attacks will begin appearing.
As the world gets more and more connected, there will be more opportunity. In 2011, Barack Obama put STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics-and not STEAM, which is a push to add "arts" into the mix) in his State of the Union address (Gunn, 2017). Since then, STEM has become a household name.
I remember hearing about STEM and I began trying to figure out how this could help me, already being in a STEM approved degree plan. It turns out, not much. But for all those who are graduating High School and need a career path, STEM is a huge concept that has the implications of fixing our current issue with the cyber world. Robert References Gunn, J. (2017, November 3).
The Evolution of STEM and STEM in the U.S.
Harris, E. A. (2014, March 5). Target Executive Resigns After Breach.
The Evolution of STEM and STEAM in the U.S. By Jennifer Gunn
Target Executive Resigns After Breach By Elizabeth A. Harris