When most people think of engineers, they think of people who build technology, from computers to cars, but they don’t often think about the field of cyber security. When people think of cyber security, you mostly think of coding, or maybe mathematics, but not engineering. In truth, however, engineering has a great impact on cyber security, even when some of the engineers may not be directly affiliated with the field. Engineers, like I said before, can build computer systems, and computers are a type of hardware.

Hardware is the physical attributes of the device, and they are just as important as the software, or nonphysical attributes. If a computer is made incorrectly then it makes the device prone to hacking, and with so many devices being hacked all the time that’s not a risk you want to increase even slightly. You can have the most secure software in the world, but it won’t help you when your computer isn’t working right because it was shoddily made. This is one way that engineers are important to cyber security, because if the engineers that our building are hardware are untrained or simply not up to the task, it leaves the software vulnerable to attack.

Engineers are important to cyber security because they help make new technology and update existing devices. This makes it harder for hackers and other unauthorized personnel to access the important information. It also might fix problems in the system, like glitches, which can help users maintain faster internet. Many systems are updated so frequently to help troubleshoot weaknesses in the code, and if they can’t quite get rid of the weaknesses then they can at least make it harder for anyone to exploit said weaknesses.

It is important to have trained engineers who are good at their jobs because the hardware is the first line of defense against a cyber-attack.