Raising Cybersecurity Awareness Through the Medium of Dance
By Gemma Carter, Account Executive
When working with clients, our main goals are to share their story with the wider world, build brand awareness and get them the desired media coverage. To achieve this, we regularly write articles, arrange briefings with journalists and draft social posts to ensure that their message is amplified. However, we are always looking for more bold, innovative and fun ways to work with our clients and grab the world’s attention.
Most recently, working with cybersecurity company Glasswall, we were looking for an exciting way to spread its message about how file sanitization solutions, like Content Disarm and Reconstruction (CDR), can help protect against file-based threats. Estimates suggest hundreds of thousands of files are infected by malware every day. It is, therefore, imperative that people stay vigilant, especially those working in office environments where hundreds of files can be shared in one day. Glasswall’s CDR technology inspects, cleans and rebuilds files to the known-good manufacturer’s specification so users can be confident that no malware exists in the files that they open and share.
Everything is not what it seems
With the idea that perfectly normal-looking files can have hidden, malicious intentions, we planned to surprise the crowd at this year’s Infosecurity Europe with a flash mob! We considered a flash mob as the perfect medium to spread this message – ordinary people who look like regular attendees at the conference breaking into an unexpected dance routine to a musical mashup.
The choreography was designed to support this narrative, with the help of the amazing team at Club Mob. Starting out with just a single person popping and locking, wearing an anonymous mask to represent the hidden malware, gradually more and more dancers join in – also wearing the masks – showing how quickly malware can spread.
Towards the end of the first track, a man, dressed as a security guard who has been watching on from the sidelines, walks into the space, pushes the masked group back and pulls a group of other onlookers into the centre. Representing the CDR technology and good files, the new group and the malware group have a dance battle as they fight for control of the system. A few of the masked dancers are pulled through the CDR technology, unmasked and join the good files dance crew.
However, representing the constant and ever-growing threat of malware, more masked dancers emerge from the crowd and join the opposing team. The dance battle continues as the good files and CDR technology work to stop the malware in its tracks. One by one, the masks are removed from the malware as they are cleaned and become ‘known-good’ files.
As the last track of the mashup begins, the malware are now far outnumbered by the good files who surround and stand over the opposing group. The CDR technology works his way through the malware, pushing them through the wall created by good files. As he gets to the last one, he inspects, cleans and rebuilds the file and removes the final mask.
All dancers then reveal their Glasswall-branded, colourful t-shirts and the last minute of the routine is a celebration of all the files being built to the ‘known-good’ manufacturer’s specification and, therefore, safe and ready to be shared. Ending with all dancers looking up and punching the air, the final pose is one of strength, highlighting the power of CDR technology.
Think outside the box
Such a concept proves that words and images are not the only way to spread your message and build brand awareness. Know your client’s message inside out and work closely with them to brainstorm some big ideas to make it known to the world – you never know what fun and exciting ideas may come out of it!
Read more insights from some of our clients & guest contributors, from raising email marketing accessibility with Pathwire, to female-led transport PR initiatives from Cubic.
Watch the full flash mob routine below and check out Glasswall’s blog to see all their fun from InfoSec Europe!
