Hello Internet! Once again its me, your resident script kitty here to talk about something meta.
As you are aware I chose to run my InfoSec blog as an infotainment platform and you may be wondering why, I would like to share my thoughts on the matter and how I think more Infotainment could help the industry as a whole.
Now right off the bat I would like to acknowledge some inspirations of mine, The SANS Holiday Hack challenge is probably the best example of infotainment in the Cyber Security sphere at time of writing. I personally enjoy it every year and I know when I was first starting out it helped make many of the complex ideas and discussions around Infosec less intimidating.
I would also like to spotlight some excellent Infosec Youtubers. LiveOverflow & PwnFunction come straight to my mind as excellent examples. Youtube as a platform as really brought infotainment into the mainstream as a medium and as someone who loves a lot of what these YouTubers are doing, and they ways they are making complex topics easy to understand and engage with while also providing free access to education content I think they deserve respect.
PBS digital studios, Game Theory and other independent creators have really spearheaded this trend and what we have seen is a massive increase in both interest and engagement in many topics often considered difficult or dry. I think the Infosec community could benefit greatly from a similar culture. How many times have you had someone say they “Just cant understand all this computer stuff” or “I don’t need to worry about my password or account security that’s what we have you for!” because they don’t understand and/or don’t want to learn even the fundamentals of Cyber Security because they view it as complex or uninteresting.
I think we all know, the human layer is the weakest part of security. This is why user awareness training is so important and why we as an industry invest so heavily into it. If you look around in the modern organization everyone is blueteam, each employee has the potential to either cause a security incident or strengthen the overall security landscape through their actions and knowledge. The future of blue team is going to involve making sure every person on board is aware of the nature of Cyber Security and the risks and potential warning signs that they may encounter.
I feel the next logical step is to move from user awareness training (Which often falls into the infotainment category itself) into a larger infotainment environment. While it may not appeal to everyone creating this media will bring these topics into conversation and provide an easy entry point for anyone who is interesting in learning more about InfoSec who may not have the resources or prior knowledge to learn through more traditional measures.
By taking something important and making it fun we can create a culture of learning and knowledge that will provide benefits to everyone involved. I truly believe that humanity is on the precipice of a new era and that educating people so they are better prepared to face the challenges of our ever evolving digital world is more important than ever.
And that is why I say: Until next time, this is your resident Script Kitty signing off!
The CyberKat Cafe 