"Sustainable Cybersecurity: Challenges in Vocational Training"

Collab: Thomas Parma Zeida, Attorney-at-Law with a specialization in Criminal Law (UBA), Undergraduate student in Cybersecurity (UNSO), Diploma in Cyber Intelligence (UNSO), and holder of Cybersecurity Certifications from Fortinet, Cisco, and ISC2.

Cybersecurity has become a fundamental pillar of digital transformation. However, its environmental impact remains an aspect that is still scarcely explored and debated within professional education.

This paper seeks to analyze the intersection between cybersecurity and the environment, focusing on the energy consumption of digital protection technologies, the safeguarding of critical infrastructure, and the role of law in the construction of a more conscious and sustainable approach to cybersecurity.

Traditionally, cybersecurity has been addressed as a strictly technical field, aimed at protecting data, systems, and networks from digital threats. Nevertheless, the exponential growth of technological infrastructure raises an increasingly relevant question: What environmental impact do the technologies used to protect the digital world generate? This question invites a rethinking of professional education and the social role of information security.

• Digital Technology and Environmental Footprint:

  The digitalization of essential services relies on technological infrastructures with high energy consumption. Among them, data centers, artificial intelligence applied to threat detection, and continuous monitoring systems are particularly noteworthy. For example, data centers operate on a permanent basis and require substantial amounts of energy for both operation and cooling. Similarly, artificial intelligence systems used in cybersecurity process massive volumes of information, thereby increasing computational demand.

• Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure:

  Cybersecurity plays a key role in the protection of critical infrastructures such as power grids, water treatment and purification plants, energy systems, and waste management, among others. A successful cyberattack against these systems not only causes economic or social damage, but may also generate significant environmental consequences. In this sense, digital security becomes an indirect tool for environmental protection, although it is rarely acknowledged as such.

Turning now to the issue of education, most cybersecurity training programs prioritize technical and ethical competencies and, to a secondary—though no less relevant—extent, legal aspects. As a result, environmental dimensions tend to be overlooked. Issues such as energy efficiency or legal responsibility for environmental damage resulting from cyber incidents are often excluded from academic debate.

This fragmented approach to education is no longer compatible with the complexity of current risks related to environmental protection and sustainability.

From a legal standpoint, concepts such as risk management, compliance, due diligence, and ESG criteria allow for the integration of environmental variables into technological decision-making processes. Cybersecurity, when understood from this perspective, ceases to be merely a technical function and becomes a social and environmental responsibility.

Speaking of “Sustainable cybersecurity” does not imply weakening digital protection, but rather improving its design and implementation:

• Designing efficient systems that do not consume more resources than necessary.

• Assessing the environmental impact of AI-based solutions.

• Incorporating environmental considerations into technological decision-making.

• Training professionals with a comprehensive perspective that integrates technology, law, and environmental concerns.

This approach is not a passing trend, but a necessity in light of current challenges #ForABetterWorld

At present, cybersecurity education does not adequately prepare professionals to understand the environmental impact of the technologies they are responsible for protecting. However, this limitation also represents an opportunity: the development of interdisciplinary profiles capable of articulating technology, law, and environmental protection.

In a context where digital and environmental dimensions are inseparable, advancing toward a conscious and sustainable cybersecurity framework is not an option, but a necessity.