Correlations between IT and personal health
When you think IT, you think computers, cybersecurity, and data. There’s not much consideration for how IT could potentially impact your physical health. After all, what happens on a phone or PC is a just a screen, right?
But the reality is, yes, IT and cybersecurity events can have a real, lasting impact on one’s physical and mental health. In fact, these health concerns can be serious, highlighting the need for good security and stable IT solutions to prevent them.
Big or small, technology presents a real concern, as a single device can contain sensitive personal information, access to banking apps, and contacts.
The impacts on Health
So how do IT specific events or situations related to cybersecurity cause health problems, or impact health at all? The key component is stress. Cybersecurity isn’t just something you read about on the news, it’s a real-life danger impacting thousands of people with sometimes serious consequences.
At Bytagig, we’ve routinely discussed the dangers of burnout, especially with the growth of remote working. But beyond those symptoms, cybercrime hits regular people too.
At a basic level, take a person that’s run afoul of malware. Malware can lock you out of your system, delete files, or even force a total reinstall of the OS and critical files. Already, the prospect of losing files or prevented access to important data is anxiety inducing, stressful, and even scary. Those dealing with malware problems can also feel hopeless, since computer hardware plays such a critical role in our lives. All these feelings do have short- and long-term health impacts, dependent on the severity of the intrusion event.
Short term problems, like anxiety and spikes in stress, can lead to a disruption in routine. It can even lead to onset depression, sleeping problems, and changes in appetite. Those small issues can cascade into additional health complications if the stressors persist, and in cybersecurity, that’s not uncommon.
When personal information is on the line, the situation can worsen. As we discussed in our article about the rise of identity theft, information such as credit card numbers or banking details are up for grabs. People lose money, sometimes in small increments, and sometimes in catastrophic amounts. No doubt, a life altering event of that magnitude is nothing to take lightly, and abruptly losing savings and money is frightening and again, anxiety inducing.
Health Concerns
Bytagig is not a medical website, nor can we offer a diagnosis or provide genuine medical advice in place of a professional. However, we do recognize medically listed symptoms, and the ones we’ve thus far discussed can interfere with daily living.
- Anxiety can cause feelings of impending doom, restlessness, raise heart rate (and potentially cause hypertension long term), and interfere with sleep schedules – which can lead to yet more problems in the long term
- Stress leads to a multitude of heath complications and can exacerbate current health problems, but stress usually causes burnout and lasting fatigue, interfering with concentration and other aspects of life
- Because IT and cybercrime risks can lead to heightened anxiety, it’s possible to experience anxiety attacks, develop hypertension, and deal with other physical symptoms associated with anxiety
Impacts on professional work
Cybercrime, IT, and cybersecurity issues don’t just cause disruptions in the workplace. Stressors can greatly interfere with productivity and concentration, along with long term burnout. The environment also does not need to be an office one, or one related to direct IT. Your life is impacted by tech concerns, and thus, that feeds into your life. Stress, anxiety, and angered frustration are just additional layers of complication you’d rather avoid.
Therefore, your work, hobbies, and efficiency can all take a hit thanks to stress and anxiety. If those stressors are caused by cybercrime, you can see how cybersecurity and IT directly affect us.
Taking control of your health means addressing the concerns causing problems. For assistance with IT and cybersecurity, you can reach out to Bytagig today.
