In its simplest sense, big data simply means lots of information. Where it gets more complicated, is that this information refers to virtually everything that an organisation or individual makes public about themselves.
The scale of information available has mushroomed over the last few years, in part due to social media, and through the amount of information that needs to be provided online by individuals to access a wide range of different services.
Anyone wanting a job in cyber security needs to understand big data, and it’s security and privacy implications. This information is collected in different ways by governments, businesses, online companies, retail stores and others.
The way this information is used is always presented as being to the benefit of individual citizens, whether this is true or not.
The use of artificial intelligence to analyse and show the most effective ways of using this information is to an extent still in its infancy, but is already showing worrying signs of how it can work.
People working in cyber security need to understand this process, and be at the heart of protecting all data and information in accord with whatever privacy laws are in place, either nationally or on a global scale.
