I got hit by a truck yesterday.
Okay, so the truck may have only been going 3 miles an hour, but it still shocked me a bit. It didn’t back into my car, it backed into me as I walked through the Lowes parking lot.
Needless to say the driver of the truck wasn’t paying attention. How do I know that? Because I was literally right behind his truck when out of instinct my hand went up to stop the truck that was coming towards me. Thankfully, the driver must’ve heard the sound of my hand striking the back of his truck and he stopped.
In this case, it was very minor and no injuries occurred. But, I started wondering, was I as cautious as I should’ve been? I definitely didn’t look in each car as I walked by to see if someone was in the driver seat. Do any of us really do that or do we go about our lives and take on faith that the drivers will be careful before they pull out?
It got me thinking about safety in general. What things in our life are impacted by our concern for safety? When I walk casually through the parking lot, I assume I will be safe. But would I feel the same if it were a busy parking lot?
If I knew they had an incentive to actually hit me, would I be so trusting? Definitely not. I would be much more vigilant to make sure I am out of their way.
Years ago, when cars first came out, there wasn’t much safety involved – no seatbelts, no turn signals, etc. As time went on, people started being more careful, and now nobody would dream of buying a car or truck without a seatbelt or airbag.
At some point, an unspoken transition took place. One that went from not worrying about getting hurt to safety being a key feature in any car.
I feel like we are at that point with cybersecurity now. For a long time, some of us used passwords, some didn’t. Some worried about getting their info hacked, some didn’t. But we are entering the era now where there is no more flexibility. There is no more staying safe and unharmed if you do nothing to protect yourself.
If we aren’t vigilant about our security, we are going to get “hit by a truck.” The only part we don’t know is whether the truck will be going 3 miles an hour or 60 miles an hour. The amount of damage could be anything from minor to catastrophic.