Cybersecurely Ever After

Presentation overview

Cybersecurity is difficult to explain. While experts typically only accept detailed technical explanations, laypersons are often scared off by explanations of cybersecurity (say, how to interact with a system or an app) that are detailed but too technical. Such an explanation might even repulse the laypersons and make them lose all trust in the explanation and, ultimately, in the cybersecurity of the system that is being explained. It might also lead to users interacting with systems in ways that, unbeknownst to the users and possibly even to the developers and administrators of the systems, are vulnerable to attacks (to the systems and to the users themselves).

I have published a series of articles that discuss how, in the context of research in Explainable Security, fairy tales, popular films, TV shows, novels, and other artworks can be used to explain cybersecurity notions as well as algorithms and solutions to secure systems, and the vulnerabilities and attacks that systems might suffer from.

In this talk, I will discuss how “show and tell” is often the best approach when one wants to present, teach or explain complicated ideas such as those underlying science and technology, and in particular in cybersecurity. I will discuss how the arts can be used to explain cybersecurity and illustrate how telling (i.e., explaining notions in a formal, technical way) can be paired with showing through different forms of storytelling. As concrete examples, I will discuss how fairy tales such as Cinderella or Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, but also Peppa Pig, can be used to explain cybersecurity notions in such a way that they can be understood by non-experts. I will also present some unpublished experiments that we have carried out to understand the quantitative and qualitative impact of films and other popular artworks.

Biography

Luca Viganò is Professor at the Department of Informatics of King’s College London, UK, where he heads the Cybersecurity Group.

His research focuses on formal analysis of cybersecurity, and on explainable cybersecurity, where, in addition to more formal approaches, he has been investigating how different kinds of artworks can be used to explain cybersecurity and how telling (i.e., explaining notions in a formal, technical way) can be paired with showing through different forms of storytelling.

Luca is also a playwright and screenwriter. His works have been published and produced in Italy, the UK and Russia.