Wanted: Cybersecurity Imagery
Eli Sugarman of the Hewlettt Foundation laments about the sorry state of cybersecurity imagery:
The state of cybersecurity imagery is, in a word, abysmal. A simple Google Image search for the term proves the point: It’s all white men in hoodies hovering menacingly over keyboards, green “Matrix”-style 1s and 0s, glowing locks and server racks, or some random combination of those elements — sometimes the hoodie-clad men even wear burglar masks. Each of these images fails to convey anything about either the importance or the complexity of the topic — or the huge stakes for governments, industry and ordinary people alike inherent in topics like encryption, surveillance and cyber conflict.
I agree that this is a problem. It’s not something I noticed until recently. I work in words. I think in words. I don’t use PowerPoint (or anything similar) when I give presentations. I don’t need visuals.
But recently, I started teaching at the Harvard Kennedy School, and I constantly use visuals in my class. I made those same image searches, and I came up with similarly unacceptable results.
But unlike me, Hewlett is doing something about it. You can help: participate in the Cybersecurity Visuals Challenge.
EDITED TO ADD (8/5): News article. Slashdot thread.
*** This is a Security Bloggers Network syndicated blog from Schneier on Security authored by Bruce Schneier. Read the original post at: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2019/07/wanted_cybersec.html