At last month’s ICIT Fellow meeting, one of the topics discussed at great length was how increased cybersecurity awareness among consumers could serve as a catalyst for improved security in technology based products and services. Our theory was simple: if consumers were more informed, they would demand better security and ultimately ‘speak’ up the best way they know how – with their wallets. This would finally force Industry to step up their game and make the changes necessary to improve security to the levels which we are capable of today but are simply not doing due to economically driven decision making.
As cyber professionals, we know that technologies exist which can dramatically improve security and consumer privacy but are not being used because of financially motivated decisions on the part of industry. The credit card and retail industry has not mandated the use of “chips” in all cards due to the cost of infrastructure updates required, dual factor authentication has been available for years but is still sparsely used on sites, devices and in organizations and document encryption technologies that would dramatically decrease the impact of breaches are still considered ‘innovative’, not the norm.
Taking a page out of the PR playbook, I believe it is time for the cyber community to take the lead in a major national awareness campaign such as those we have seen in the past which have permanently shaped public opinions and influenced legislation and industry standards for the benefit of society. Like the brilliant ads around car safety, littering, and forest fires, we desperately need a national ‘cyber’ campaign which lets consumers know that their privacy can be significantly improved and they do not have to settle for a constant barrage of data loss, it just takes a combination of personal change and industry action.
Of course, any action of this magnitude must come from the highest levels of government or an organization with equally impressive reach. I know it will happen, the question is by whom, and when.
(Until then, I thought it would be fun to look at some of the ad’s I reference in this post. Who remembers these from Saturday morning cartoons?!)
Parham Eftekhari 