According to Statistic Brain, approximately 40% of all U.S. households were affected by computer viruses. With their data, I created a graph of my own to illustrate what kinds of viruses infect those in the 40%. The purpose of these statistics is not to lecture you about finding a good antivirus program, it is to indicate the creativity and power of programmers. The select few programmers who harm others for their own benefits, otherwise known as hackers, effectively expose the creativity and power evident in programming. This is due to the battle they waged against the programmers who develop for good intentions.
Programming changed the world. It created the Internet and allowed society to advance in everlasting ways. In the virtual world, programmers demonstrated being capable of doing anything from creating a simple game to launching a nuclear device. However, this creates an issue: What happens when a hacker is given this ability? Well, hackers exploit that advantage to steal passwords to bank accounts, control specific computers from anywhere in the world, shut down websites, and many more. Fortunately, hackers can only commit these acts when they infiltrate the security system of a computer or a network of computers; this means that there exist “good” programmers in the world who fight off the hackers by strengthening security and defense systems.
Because of this constant battle between the “bad” and the “good” programmers, code is always changing and constantly improving to either defend against attacks or to penetrate built defenses. I find this very intriguing. Either way, each side of programmers has to be very creative to stump the other side from making a move, and they must do it in a very powerful way in order that the other side does not find a way around it easily.
To give an example, Forbes Magazine reported of a Russian anti-virus software maker, Doctor Web, who identified the “first Trojan in history to steal Linux and Mac OS X passwords,” (New Trojan Backdoor Malware Targets Mac OS X And Linux, Steals Passwords And Keystrokes). When a creative programmer is able to infiltrate the defense of a huge program, such as the Max OS X, programmers spend countless hours to patch the hole of the defense system by revamping the code. It leaves almost no room for the good programmers to fail, as they have to succeed to satisfy customers and regular users.
In a way, programmers are entrepreneurs as competition leads them to create innovative products. Therefore, I encourage you to become a programmer today and fight the battle against hackers or simply create new programs that can change the world today, because programming is powerful and requires creativity.
Becoming a Programmer 
Very interesting article! Never realized how large the programming world was in terms of security. I find it very fascinating that there are so many different ways to “hack” someone.
Each time I think of programmers fixing a security hole in a piece of software, or a hacker creating a Trojan, I will now picture it as an epic battle between good and evil. This is a really cool article!
Nice article. You gave a really interesting perspective about cyber security. Good job with the graph as well, it helps illustrate how many different ways a person can be attacked.