Cybersecurity Architects

The first malicious software program (which was later called a worm) was released onto the Internet on November 2, 1988, by Robert Tappan Morris, a graduate student at Cornell University. The worm caused approximately 10 percent of all computers that were connected to the Internet to stop functioning. This marked just the first of countless cyberattacks on individuals, businesses, government agencies and the military, schools, and other organizations that have increased in complexity, severity, and frequency. It took nearly seven years for the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, which collects reports of Internet crime from the public, to receive its one millionth complaint. It only took 14 months—from mid-March 2020 to mid-May 2021—to reach one million complaints. Losses from suspected Internet crime exceeded $12.5 billion in 2023, according to the FBI’s 2023 Internet Crime Report. With the stakes so high (i.e., lost revenue, lost employee productivity, frustrated clients and customers), employers are increasingly hiring specialized cybersecurity specialists to build and maintain their information technology infrastructure.