A children’s story has been created to help IT security people explain to their children what mum and/or dad do when they’re at work, and (possibly) inspire the next generation of cyber security professionals in the process.
The book, titled “The Gatekeeper’s Big Day” and created by cybersecurity software provider Alsid, aims to explain the role of cybersecurity protecting an organisation from a typical cyber threat. To do this in terms young children will understand the story takes the form of a fairy tale, with characters designed to reflect the roles of an attacker (the thief), an IT security pro (the gatekeeper) and CEO (the king). To make the book a fully immersive experience for children, the book is illustrated by specialist children’s illustrator Holly Newth.
In the story
A mysterious messenger appears at the castle’s gates saying he has a message for the king. He is shown inside the castle, at which point he deviates from his stated purpose and starts changing identities to assume the role of various trusted insiders in an attempt get at the king’s famous treasure. Rather than give away what happens next; read the book for yourself. The book was shared with Alsid customers before Christmas and will be available on the Alsid stand at upcoming trade shows.
Jérôme Robert, CMO of Alsid, says: “As a former cyber security professional myself, I know plenty of people struggle to explain to people outside the industry what it is that we do each day. This is especially true for parents, so we wanted to find a fun and simple way to show IT security pros doing what they do best, which is protecting an important asset – whether that is data or gold – from sophisticated threats.
“The story is deliberately set in a time long before IT was even a thing because as much as we love it, we don’t think anyone wants to explain the intricacies of Active Directory security to their kids. But children will absolutely understand the role of the clever gatekeeper who is the hero of the story, a character who is intended to be the equivalent of the IT security pro. And who knows, maybe we will inspire the next generation to become IT security professionals and play their own future role in defeating threats and protecting organisations.”
The company is donating a number of books to a children’s charity.
The thief in the story takes on a variety of disguises once he has entered the castle, a plot device which mimics the way that an attacker would seek to get around security measures in a typical organisation. By assuming the role of a trusted insider, the attacker would seek to move through an IT estate (or castle) unnoticed, moving laterally between accounts in order to gain access to and exfiltrate an organisation’s most valuable assets – signified by the treasure in the story.
The thief in the story comes up against a smart and experienced gatekeeper, but even he cannot hope to defeat all potential thieves alone, Alsid points out. Visit http://www.alsid.com.
