To 'See Yourself in Cyber,' Ask: What’s Your Cyber Story?

Everyone loves a good story. From kindergarten story times to college lectures to reading a good novel on a rainy night, most of us enjoy the twists and turns that come with both fiction and nonfiction stories.

A couple years back, National Public Radio (NPR) wrote this about how stories connect and persuade and unleash the brain:

“Depending on the story you're reading, watching or listening to, your palms may start to sweat, scientists find. You'll blink faster, and your heart might flutter or skip. Your facial expressions shift, and the muscles above your eyebrows will react to the words — another sign that you're engaged.

"A growing body of brain science offers even more insight into what's behind these experiences.

"On functional MRI scans, many different areas of the brain light up when someone is listening to a narrative, Neeley says — not only the networks involved in language processing, but other neural circuits, too. One study of listeners found that the brain networks that process emotions arising from sounds — along with areas involved in movement — were activated, especially during the emotional parts of the story.”

STORIES FOR BUSINESS TOO?

But the story does not end there (pun intended).

There are numerous research studies and even books that outline how storytelling can help at work as well as at home in our personal lives.

For example, here are "Seven Reasons Why Storytelling Works for Business" (with details on each topic at the link):

1. You Can Talk Without Sounding Like a Sales Pitch
2. The Audience Sticks With Your Message
3. Your Experience Resonates
4. You Can Get Your Audience to Imagine the ‘What If’
5. You Create a Better Understanding of Your Business
6. You Bring People Together Around an Experience
7. Stories Help You to Persuade

The well-known influencer Tony Robbins wrote this article on the power of a good story. Here’s how he begins:

“When you think about a story, what comes to mind? Perhaps an enjoyable summer read or maybe even a fable or fairytale. But a story doesn’t have to be confined to fiction. In fact, we tell stories every single day. How we see the past, how we envision the future — those are stories. How we convey a message, how we describe a product or service — those are stories as well. A pitch, a presentation, a plea — all stories. In fact, stories are a vital part of any business.

"The power of storytelling can be very impactful in both a positive and negative way. Stories we tell ourselves about goals we can’t achieve because we’re not smart or educated enough, for example, can lead tolimiting beliefs that hold us back. On the other hand, stories we tell within the office about overcoming challenges or howsetbacks were turned into successes can lead to empowerment and a culture of innovation and calculated risks. That’s the power of a great story.”

STORIES FOR CYBERSECURITY EFFECTIVENESS

But perhaps you're thinking, "What does any of this have to do with cybersecurity?" A lot, in my opinion, and in the opinion of this recent article from VentureBeat entitled "Storytelling: A CISO’s superpower against cybersecurity indifference":

“The success of any corporate storyteller depends on gaining approval for their desired outcome, so make your proposal clear. The story should show how your solution is logical, how it accommodates and tackles the peril that you have described, and how it will transform the outcome of the tale to a positive. …

“Perhaps the scenario best suited for storytelling is when talking to business units about security awareness and behavior change. People will subconsciously copy characters they can relate to, so outlining a tale of peril and cyber consequence, and then offering an alternative path, can create a dominating learning opportunity — especially when you back up that tale with real-life examples.”

FINAL THOUGHTS

We’ve entered another October Cybersecurity Awareness Month. And this year’s campaign theme, “‘See Yourself in Cyber’ — demonstrates that while cybersecurity may seem like a complex subject, ultimately, it’s really all about people.”

You can read CISA’s National Cybersecurity Awareness Month kickoff explanation here, and here’s an excerpt:

"Throughout October, CISA will encourage Americans to 'See Yourself in Cyber,' whether you are already working in cybersecurity, or you’re a vendor or supplier, an infrastructure owner or operator, a student, a job seeker, or an individual who uses the Internet for work, school or entertainment.

• For individuals and families, we encourage you to See Yourself taking action to stay safe online. That means enabling basic cyber hygiene practices: update your software, think before you click, have good strong passwords or a password keeper, and enable multifactor authentication (meaning you need “More Than A Password!”) on all your sensitive accounts.
• For those considering joining the cyber community, we encourage you to See Yourself as part of the cyber workforce. We’ll be talking with leaders from across the country about how we can build a cybersecurity workforce that reflects the diversity of our nation, and one equipped to deal with the increasingly complex and challenging cyber threat landscape.
• For our partners in industry, we’re excited to work together to build a more secure and resilient technology ecosystem through real-time operational collaboration, enhanced visibility and data sharing, and products engineered secure-by-design so we can collectively reduce risk to our nation and protect the critical infrastructure that Americans rely on every day."

In my view, an important part of effective security awareness includes personal stories and making an impact with our cyber messaging that people can relate to and apply in their specific situation.

And this topic is not only for October, but also applies year-round. Got any good holiday stories?