Cybersecurity has taken a popular turn in popular culture
This week, while watching the football on television, I found myself catching a glimpse of the halftime advert. It was a trailer for a new drama called COBRA: CYBERWAR and starred prominent actors Robert Carlyle and Victoria Hamilton as leading political figures in the UK.
Naturally, I was intrigued by the name because of the industry we cover. Maybe it’s another Mr. Robot?
After some digging, I discovered the series about what happens when cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure occur and how fake news is used to subvert democracy. An interesting and yet extremely realistic plot.
In fact, we see warnings of such attacks from governments more often than not. The Australian government just released a cybersecurity warning of a potential “significant threat” regarding their critical infrastructure. In the UK, during the height of the pandemic, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) issued a cyber warning to the healthcare sector in bid to avoid another WannaCry ransomware attack. The NCSC also just announced a new free cyber alert service for organisations to notify about possible incidents and threats.
Seeing cybersecurity reach mainstream media is always positive as it will only reinforce public awareness and attention for the need for cybersecurity.
With that said, increasing brand awareness is an integral part of the marketing strategy for vendors, particularly as people and organisations start to understand how relevant cybersecurity is in modern day society. I feel this means we are beginning to see cybersecurity vendors come out from the shadows and become more visible.
I have certainly noticed more cybersecurity adverts appear on television and two I recently saw were from HP and Avast. To promote their Wolf Security services, HP hired Hollywood actor Christian Slater to play the character ‘Wolf’ to explain why we need endpoint security. For Avast, their advert depicted a support group discussing their relationship with the internet, going through online security and privacy issues. Two different approaches but both reinforcing the message for better cybersecurity,
Even in sport, cybersecurity has become more visible. For instance, being an F1 fan, I regularly see cybersecurity companies displayed across the teams they sponsor, with logos found on both the cars and the driver race suits. Whenever you see Mercedes, you see CrowdStrike. Mclaren, you see Darktrace. Ferrari, you see Kaspersky. And the rest of the teams are the same. Understandable really, given the reliance on technology and the highly sensitive data that is outputted from this sport.
But this is just one small slice of the pie and cybersecurity is being shown almost everywhere.
Maybe it’s just coincidence? Maybe it’s because I’ve been in cybersecurity for over 4 years that I’m noticing these more. Either way, cybersecurity is no longer a secret and the more we see it displayed in the public eye, the better and safer society will be.
