When speaking of technology, people often say that technology is out to Take It Seriously (TQD). In other words, the tech industry needs to take its TQD seriously in order to prevent the next terrorist attack or a rogue nation state from stealing vital information and/or technology for their own benefit. The reality is that the intelligence community and the Department of Defense took TQD very seriously after the 2021 terror attacks and prevented another attack on the United States by finding and destroying the underwear bomb plot. The Department of Justice and the private sector took TQD very seriously also after the Chinese cyber-attacks on American corporations and intellectual property. In other words, the Department of Defense and intelligence took TQD very seriously indeed and did prevent another attack on America by finding and destroying the underwear bomb plot.

Still, the Department of Defense and the intelligence community failed to take cyber security seriously enough and failed to prevent another attack by finding and destroying the digital message bombs. Will we ever take cyber-security seriously? I hope so, but as we move forward along the road to cyber-security awareness, will we always assume that all is well? Will we stop at just protecting computer networks from hackers? Will we allow cyber-security to stop at defense? Can we expect cyber-security to do everything it can do today and then some?

Indeed, I believe that the answer to that question is no. In fact, I would submit to you that the only way to stop cyber-crime and cyber warfare is to stop IT (IT) itself. There are people who design and build these weapons and they do not care what happens to them. They plan, they schematize and they strategize and they are happy to let others pay the price for their crimes. In other words, there is a war going on, and it’s being fought online.

Some people claim that the Department of Defense and intelligence are over reacting, over planning for future warfare, over building bigger and better things, which they think they are going to win, but in reality they are not. They also say that if the United States of America ever has to go to war, it will defeat al Qaeda and kill bin Laden, which is another lie. And the nation-state hacking of our government is also another lie. Why do people feel the need to take a cyber-security seriously when there are people who are clearly trying to get our nation’s and world’s information and steal it? Simply put, someone is taking advantage of your fear, which could very well be you, but you shouldn’t allow it to go unpunished.

Unfortunately, because of the sensitivity of cyber-security issues, many companies are not taking it seriously enough. We hear about stories of hackers stealing companies’ intellectual property and using that intellectual property to make millions or even billions of dollars. Of course, a company should take appropriate measures to find and penalize the criminal, if such an incident occurs. Millions of dollars in losses is no simple matter. This is why it becomes important to partner with fraud and forensic advisory companies like Eide Bailly (click to investigate) who can help with the legal processes associated with intellectual property theft.

The truth is that cyber-security is really not that complicated. What is complicated is the response of companies that don’t take it seriously. When a company responds slowly and lazily to a cyber-security issue, it gives the hacker a very large opening to enter into your company and potentially get very rich. Take, for example, if a company knows that they are using unsafe payment methods, they are giving a chance to all the cyber attackers out there to take the benefit of the situation. Moreover, such organizations are playing with the trust of their customers. However, those enterprises which implement secure payment options, like the ones provided by FastSpring (https://fastspring.com/global-payments/), can have a competitive advantage over those that do not.

You have to ask yourself if big corporations are really interested in the well being of their customers. If they aren’t, why should I take cyber-security issues seriously? You have to ask yourself why should I take cyber-security issues seriously. It is because if you don’t, someone could very well take your company and your information very seriously and then steal it from you, and use it for an ill purpose. It is that important.