Worse Than Originally Disclosed

Everyone, at some point, has had a moment of frustration in which they said more or less the same thing Princess Leia does during the scene in the trash compactor in Star Wars. Han Solo has just finished bawling her out, and Leia snaps, "Could be worse." What happens next is the first indication of the trash monster, followed by Han glumly stating the obvious: "It's worse."

It's funny, or maybe just bitterly and darkly amusing, how often it's actually true that, no matter how bad things may have gotten, the worst really is yet to come. Oftentimes, no matter how much we think we may have put up with already, fate is lurking just out of sight with another stinking shovelful of "be careful what you complain about." Er, or something like that.

We see this phenomenon at play, among other places, in the cybersecurity realm. In recent years it's practically become second nature to assume that, no matter what gets announced initially, the metaphorically rotten egg-spattered company fessing up to a security breach simply doesn't yet know the full extent of the damage done. No matter how bad it sounds, it's going to eventually get worse.

Exhibit A is this week's breaking news that credit rating agency Equifax actually lost more consumer data than initially supposed in the now infamous hack first announced last summer. The initial disclosure, that as many as 143 million Americans and 44 million U.K. resident had just walked into an identity theft buzzsaw, was bad enough.

Now Equifax is saying that an additional 2.4 million consumers were affected. What's a little breathtaking about that figure is that it sounds minor, even petty, compared to original breach. But think about the actual size of that number: 2.4 million! When you try to picture 2.4 million of anything, the new number simply underscores how absolutely massive the original theft really was.

We bring all of this up because it's interesting, but also to remind you that there are never going to be too many skilled cybersecurity professionals in the workplace. You want to not have to ever worry about reskilling or pursuing a second career? Start your cybersecurity education today with our Security Pro courseware, and you'll be locked into regular full-time employment for as long as you want it.

Well, OK, you do have to actually complete the course and get certified. But if you like cybersecurity, and it turns out that you're good at it, then the modern IT jobs market really is your oyster. Because remember, no matter how dire we may think the present global cybersecurity climate is, it can always get worse. Just ask Princess Leia, or Han Solo. And then get started on Security Pro.