There are professions that for the average citizen can go unnoticed a priori but, nevertheless, have an important role in guaranteeing the safety of the population : they allow us to keep our properties, our money safe … they may even turn out to be guardians of our fundamental rights and freedoms.
In history we have the example of professionals who, from the shadows, changed the course of our society. We are talking, for example, of the Watergate case and of people like the American journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who, with the revelation of illegal activities by the American Republican Party in the 1972 presidential campaign, succeeded in overthrowing, no more and no less, than to the President of the United States Richard Nixon. What is still known as investigative journalism was born with them , since then a source of inspiration for thousands of professionals from different fields, but especially for computer experts.that, with the great technological development of recent years, they have become even more concerned with defending the security of all .
Cyber attacks, series and media hackers
These professions linked to surveillance, security and the will to keep the population safe, have inspired the film industry in recent years . Movies and series about journalists, detectives, hackers … An example of this is the success of the HBO series Mr Robot , a good representation of what entails, in part, a profession like that of the hacker.
For those of us who are not experts in computer attacks, Mr Robot offers a global image of the most powerful viruses and the consequences that can result from them. In this case, when we see in the news or live a situation similar to that shown in the series, we will be able to identify, albeit superficially, what the problem is and try to solve it.
Although it is a fiction, Mr Robot exposes the most important computer attacks that can take place in our days: denial of service attacks (DDos), Ransomware or also what is known as social engineering . All these examples are explained in more detail in this Pandasecurity post . In addition, this post exemplifies, through Black Mirror, another of the most well-known technology and communication series currently, many other dangers and everyday attacks that we face in this increasingly technological world.
Mr Robot sequence
With the triumph of these productions, the times are long gone when certain professions were unknown. Today, the population has much more knowledge about all that they entail, although it is true that certain aspects must continue to remain anonymous due to the type of confidential information with which they work.
However, in matters such as cybersecurity , it is increasingly necessary to know what it is and what dangers it may entail . If you have any doubts, you can consult this summary presented by 1and1, which offers a summary of a definition of cybersecurity and a global explanation of the risks that this discipline can entail together with the existing possibilities to avoid certain attacks.
We cannot forget that hackers are increasingly essential professionals in our society. This was explained to us by Chema Alonso , to whom we dedicated this post in the month of May: “far from the negative image that is often attributed to it in the media, a hacker delights in having a deep understanding of the inner workings of a computer system to improve it and is in charge of expanding the limits of the network ”. According to him, to refer to people who commit cybercrime or “cybercrime”, we should use the expression crackeror “hacker.” After all, these are people who ensure that the synergies that unite us as a society work well.
