Don't Tell Me The Cybersecurity Moon Is Shining... (Cybersecurity Show And Tell)
This addresses communication difficulties for educators and practitioners in cybersecurity, but it is incremental as it builds on existing storytelling methods.
The paper tackles the challenge of explaining complex cybersecurity concepts by advocating for a 'show and tell' approach, using artworks to enhance understanding through visual storytelling alongside technical explanations.
"Show, don't tell" has become the literary commandment for any writer. It applies to all forms of fiction, and to non-fiction, including scientific writing, where it lies at the heart of many scientific communication and storytelling approaches. In this paper, I discuss how "show \emph{and} tell" is actually often the best approach when one wants to present, teach or explain complicated ideas such as those underlying notions and results in mathematics and science, and in particular in cybersecurity. I discuss how different kinds of artworks can be used to explain cybersecurity and I illustrate how telling (i.e., explaining notions in a formal, technical way) can be paired with showing through visual storytelling or other forms of storytelling. I also discuss four categories of artworks and the explanations they help provide.