Cybersecurity is more than firewalls, passwords, and technical solutions. It touches on the way we work, study, and live every day. To highlight these different perspectives, we asked colleagues from across Erasmus University: what does cybersecurity mean to you? Their answers show just how wide-ranging and interconnected the topic is: from protecting personal privacy to ensuring business continuity.
Belle van der Reijden
Awareness Officer, Erasmus Digitalisation & Information Services
As the awareness officer for Digitalisation and Information Services (EDIS), I see daily how crucial information security is to the entire university. Every day, we improve our defenses and strengthen our practices, but cybersecurity is not just a task for IT or specialists. It’s something we all shape together.
That’s why I want to open up the conversation beyond our department. By listening to colleagues across disciplines, we gain valuable insights into where our awareness initiatives should focus next and become more effective. An interdisciplinary approach benefits us all, because security is strongest when it reflects the diversity of the people it protects.
At EUR, we have a unique culture of connecting which is also the key to cybersecurity. By sharing our perspectives and learning from each other, we make sure that digitalisation remains not just innovative, but also safe, trustworthy, and resilient.
Diana Kartojudo
Technical Security Specialist, Erasmus Digitalisation & Information Services
Shielding your life from digital threats, in an increasingly digital world.
Security is not a matter of just your work environment anymore. Digitalization is integrated in every aspect of our lives.
It has brought many conveniences but also a lot of dependency. Unfortunately, criminality has a broader attack surface, so we have to be aware all the time.
Having a security mindset is important to keep your life and work environment safe.
Larisa Munteanu
PhD candidate, Erasmus School of Law
I consider cybersecurity to be the “digital heart” of businesses, which works day and night to protect them. If your cybersecurity practices are weak, then the entire system is at high risk of being compromised, facilitating data breaches.
From my practical experience in data protection, I realized personal data is one of the key assets which cybersecurity safeguards. By transposing this to my research, I dive into how the UK and EU GDPR allow businesses to react to malware attacks disguised as data protection requests. What once was a wooden horse entering Troy is now a malicious data protection request knocking at your digital gates.
Therefore, cybersecurity works as a technical tool for preventing cyber-attacks, becoming a central element in the accountability framework called for by data protection legislation.
Clara Boggini
PhD candidate, Erasmus School of Law
Cybersecurity to me means ensuring business continuity and maintaining operations going in the face of cyber threats. As companies rely more on the internet and technology, cyber threats have grown exponentially. After a cyber incident, a company risks losing business, reputational damage, higher costs to patch vulnerabilities, and potential legal liability. All these consequences can significantly impair a company's ability to operate in the long run. That is why it is imperative to have both legal and technical systems in place to safeguard the continuity of business operations.
In my research, I focus on how companies can leverage the EU cybersecurity legal framework to maintain business operations going. To me, cybersecurity is the last line of defense that protects our society and markets from coming to a halt.
Sascha van Schendel
Assistant Professor, Erasmus School of Law
Cybersecurity to me entails the actions that we continuously take together to maintain autonomy over our own data and systems. If we want our data to be private and secure and to have access to services such as our files or email accounts, this is a joint responsibility. Cybersecurity is only as strong as its weakest link: clicking on phishing links or using weak passwords can allow malicious access to systems and accidentally sharing data with the wrong people in an organization can expose private information unintentionally. We have strong cybersecurity laws in the European Union and in the Netherlands and technical experts that keep our important systems and infrastructure safe but practicing cyberhygiene and being aware of what you or I can do is just as important to enjoy our digital spaces.
Julia Krämer
PhD candidate, Erasmus School of Law
Cybersecurity to me is the foundation that protects my privacy and preserves my autonomy in the digital world. It is not only about technical reliability, but also about safeguarding trust in the infrastructure we use every day. When cybersecurity fails, the harm can be enormous: the recent hacker attack on a Dutch laboratory handling cancer screening data exposed intimate health data of thousands of women illustrates this in a striking way. Therefore, cybersecurity means more than preventing unauthorised access, but it ensures that individuals can navigate (digital) spaces without fear that their personal data will be exploited.
Daniel Trottier
Associate Professor, Erasmus School of History, Culture & Communications
Cybersecurity to me can be understood as a matter of trust. By taking necessary steps online, we can maintain some confidence in our own abilities. Part of this involves staying vigilant and well informed about the devices and platforms we rely upon. Of course, data breaches and other violations do happen, and as users we are left wondering if we can safely host our photos in the cloud, or trust an organization with sensitive data. In this sense, a healthy amount of mistrust ensures that users can avoid at least the most obvious threats. Yet if organisations continue to struggle with these kinds of risks, the public will not only lose trust in the security of their infrastructures, but also in the broader capabilities of these organisations.
A joint effort
At Erasmus University, cybersecurity is a shared responsibility. By bringing together different perspectives, we strengthen not only our technical defenses but also our collective awareness. If you have experiences, questions, or insights related to information security within our university, we encourage you to share them. Your input, whether to inform, reflect, or provide feedback, will be taken into account in shaping our future initiatives. In this way, we continue to build a secure and resilient digital environment for our employees, students and the community around us.
Want to learn more?
Check out our information security intranet pages (for employees) for tips & tricks, or as employee sign up for the Privacy & Security course during Career Week.
Questions?
Belle van der Reijden
Erasmus Digitalisation and Information Services
- Email address
- belle.vanderreijden@eur.nl