How does your major relate to cybersecurity technology?

Cybersecurity technology has a vast array of applications in crime, business, finance, and/or healthcare. I am currently majoring in Cybersecurity and on the pre-medicine track. Specifically, I hope to integrate my cybersecurity knowledge in the healthcare world as I aim to later become a Doctor. I want to learn more about cybersecurity and the technology behind it because I understand that it is an important skill to have, especially as we transition into a digital era. Entering a digital age, the healthcare system will have patient healthcare information stored online for easy access. The sensitive information can be susceptible to hackers who can misuse and sell it. As an example of how detrimental these cyber attacks can be, Excellus BlueCrossBlueShield health plan company recently had a cyber breach that exposed over 9.3 million sensitive patient information. The breach ended up costing the company potentially more than 5.1 million dollars in settlement for damages. Learning about the breach made me concerned for the victims of this attack and furious at the system that allowed for that to happen. The idea of patient medical information being leaked to hackers from cyberattacks urged me to learn more about cybersecurity technology to help improve patient privacy. An additional catalyst for my interest in cybersecurity technology stemmed from my lack of knowledge to protect myself and family members online. Growing up, I my parents didn’t know how to use technology and I was not as proficient with technology. My parents would be the victims of phishing emails and getting their social media accounts hacked into. I felt helpless and was scared of those breaches happening again. It wasn’t until later that I discovered there were different measures that can be taken to enhance our security online like two-factor authentication or a strong password with numbers and symbols. Ultimately, my personal experience with seeing cyberattacks happen to my family brought my attention to learn more about cybersecurity technology. I hope to also use my understanding of cybersecurity to build digital safety for my family, community, and patients in the future.