Last summer, I didn’t go anywhere on vacation much. At the same time, the work pace also slowed down during the summer, and I used this time off to learn cybersecurity. I was especially enthusiastic – I completed the six-month course offered by Coursera in two months. But what motivated me to do it? That’s what this article is about.
Disturbing experiences in my environment
I’ve been seeing more and more of my friends’ accounts being hacked. Not just one – all of them. Then, once they were locked out of their accounts, their connections and accounts were used to further their families. It’s happened to my family, my circle of friends, and I’ve been seeing more and more people being exposed to cybercrime every day. I also felt vulnerable.
One day at Mensa, a gentleman who specializes in cybersecurity gave a presentation, and what he said numerically supported what I had found empirically: cybercrime is spreading at a rapid pace. It’s getting more sophisticated, and people are becoming more and more vulnerable to it.
I wanted to protect myself, my family, and my friends. That was the primary motivation. Quite simply, these numbers led me to conclude that some level of cybersecurity awareness is a basic life skill.
Labor market importance
Of course, this trend poses a threat not only to my loved ones and the general public, but also to companies. Presumably, the demand for cybersecurity-savvy workers will increase, so it’s worth learning about this for that reason alone, I thought. Both small businesses and large corporations are deeply vulnerable to cybercrime.
Let's study cybersecurity
I chose Google Cybersecurity, which not only gives a certificate, but from what I read, is a very comprehensive course. It also includes Python and bash, and their applications in cybersecurity. This was especially useful because I had already learned them before. In addition, my experience was that this course was more interesting than these online courses usually are.