Cybersecurity is important because it helps organizations and individuals protect against cyberattacks, thus safeguarding critical information such as data, personally identifiable information and intellectual property. It is important for maintaining customer relationships and avoiding legal issues. Cybersecurity can help prevent identify theft and other damages to an individual or organization.

Cybersecurity can be categorized into five types:

1. Critical infrastructure security
2. Application security
3. Network security
4. Cloud security
5. Internet of Things (IoT) security

A cybersecurity threat is the threat of a malicious attack by an individual or organization seeking to gain unauthorized access to a network, to corrupt data or to steal confidential information. Cyber threats can happen regularly and can come from within the organization itself by trusted users or from remote locations and while some are small and can be easily contained, others can become large in scale, spiral out of control and wreak havoc.

Social engineering differs from cybersecurity in that it is the manipulation, influence or deception of a victim to gain control over a computer system or to steal personal and financial information. These attacks are dangerous because they don’t have to work on everyone, just a single victim who was successfully tricked can provide enough information to trigger a cascading attack that can affect an entire organization.

Cyber hygiene refers to the practices or steps users of computers and other connected devices can take to maintain system health and improve online security. Cyber hygiene is important in keeping sensitive data secure and protecting it from theft or attacks.