Misconceptions in Cybersecurity

Felipe Gonzalez

June 28, 2025

Technology has been around, but I never would have thought to the extent that it will go.

I have always been fascinated with it, but I was very naive and had many

misconceptions because I was not technologically savvy. It was not taught back in

school, we were not given PC’s, I remember using electronic typewriters for papers that

needed to be done. My life in the military opened my horizons a little more, and

provided me with many training and OPSEC kinds of things.

Whiting all the training, we were taught about how hackers could infiltrate our systems,

not to open attachments, to be vigilant, and how they could gather information on you

and use it to gain access to our systems and my personal information.

I kind of had a glimpse of what cybersecurity was, and realized that all my assumptions

were completely false. My thought has been that cybersecurity was only about hacks

and being hacked, and how IT’s help prevent it. I was so wrong.

I honestly thought that connecting to the internet anywhere was safe, did not know that

hackers could impersonate free WIFI locations like in coffee shops, so i was wrong

again. Passwords were a thing I took for granted, I had one password for everything,

thinking I could be safe, I was wrong again.

I thought that by having antivirus my PC could be safe, and even that having a MAC PC

was a step up of protection, until this month where 16 billion passwords were leaked

from all popular social media sources.

Taking Cybersecuirty has widened my perspective of my misconceptions that have

proven to be wrong all along, even knowing in a way I could become a victim. I have

discovered how cybersecurity is not just about hackers, it involves so much more.

Understanding how this field evolves around numerous interdisciplinary fields has made

it even more interesting, everything that involves information, policy, networks, systems

and training to be able to protect and implement strategies to protect data, it is just

amazing.

I did not realize that they were “good hackers” and how they help organizations build

their security systems and highlight their vulnerabilities. I now have a better grasp and

deeper understanding of all my misconceptions in this profession.