This issue’s cover feature on how Texas A&M is addressing issues in cybersecurity is one of the most important we’ve ever published, in my opinion. I’ll warn you in advance that it is long—the longest story we’ve put in print in this magazine. But the topic of cybersecurity is so complex and multifaceted that it deserves an in-depth dive.

What images does your mind conjure when you think of the word “cybersecurity”? For me, the word is inextricably linked to hacking. I think of binary code on a screen or a nefarious, hooded figure in a dark basement somewhere, rapidly typing on a keyboard. But that type of thinking is singular—constructed around how a hacker might affect me or my information. One of the key ideas I grasped from reading this article is that issues of cybersecurity and hacking are especially dangerous today because of the possibility of attacking large-scale, interconnected systems.

That’s made easier because our world and our very identities are intertwined in a deeply digital web. Consider these facts: Over the last two years alone, 90 percent of the data in the world was generated. (That’s worth re-reading!) Each day, there are 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created by individuals, and that pace is only accelerating with the growth of the “internet of things”—the network of computing devices embedded in everyday objects, such as vehicles and home appliances, with which we interact.

For example, a refrigerator is now a computer that keeps things cold; a car is now a computer with four wheels and an engine. These computers sense us and our environment, and they affect us and our environment. They talk to each other over networks, they are autonomous, and they affect the world in a direct physical manner. They drive our cars, pilot our planes, run our power plants, control traffic, administer drugs into our bodies and even dispatch emergency services. They have actual agency, not unlike humans.

As more of our world becomes digitized and datafied, we have a responsibility to secure the things and systems we create. Digitization brings with it not only challenges in the technological sphere, but also questions regarding international safety and public policy—how these things should be regulated, and by who. These challenges aren’t insurmountable, but they are constantly shifting. That’s why it’s important for a university like Texas A&M, with its abundance of resources, to be at the forefront of innovation, safety and solutions in cybersecurity.

While you read the cover feature, recognize that although we are confronted by a plethora of unknowns in cybersecurity, we are also faced with an ever-widening array of opportunities to gain new knowledge, create new jobs and shape an unpredictable field. Take comfort in knowing that if we are destined to be digital risk takers, then at least Aggies are helping lead the way.