{"id":234762,"date":"2026-06-22T01:42:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T05:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/22\/understand-phishing-think-again-why-cybersecurity-language-is-failing-us-news\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T04:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T08:50:12","slug":"understand-phishing-think-again-why-cybersecurity-language-is-failing-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/22\/understand-phishing-think-again-why-cybersecurity-language-is-failing-us-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Understand \u2018phishing\u2019? Think again: why cybersecurity language is failing us \u2013 News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Understand \u2018phishing\u2019? Think again: why cybersecurity language is failing us \u2013 News<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/news.flinders.edu.au\/blog\/2026\/06\/22\/understand-phishing-think-again-why-cybersecurity-language-is-failing-us\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-06-22 01:42:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: news.flinders.edu.au<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: <\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. <\/p>\n

Stock photo: Getty Images Cyberattacks now cost the global economy trillions, yet most people still struggle to understand what actually happens when a breach occurs.
\nResearch by Associate Professor Sky Marsen, an applied linguist and Communications course director at Flinders University, and Professor Robert Biddle, a computer scientist based from Carleton University, Canada, suggests a surprising reason for this gap: the language used to explain cybersecurity may be part of the problem.
\nIn an experimental study comparing \u201cfigurative\u201d cybersecurity language (terms such as phishing, virus, or trojan) with more literal explanations, the authors found that people understood incidents significantly better when the language was clearer and less metaphorical.
\nThis challenges a widespread assumption in science communication \u2013 that metaphors help non-experts grasp complex ideas. In cybersecurity, the opposite may be true.
\n\u201cThese terms weren\u2019t designed for the public in the first place,\u201d explains Associate Professor Marsen. \u201cThey emerged from inside hacker culture, and terms that may sound creative and playful within expert communities, are often opaque to outsiders. When they are used in public communication, they can obscure rather than clarify what\u2019s happening.\u201d
\nGiven the rise of cybersecurity concerns, Associate Professor Marsen says it\u2019s timely to understand how non-experts understand cybersecurity words and metaphors \u2013 especially the figurative language created by computer scientists to describe cybersecurity incidents.
\nA lack of accurate information makes cybersecurity an issue that is difficult to clearly explain to the public \u2013 and this can lead to major losses for individuals and serious reputational damage for organizations.
\n\u201cOrganisations routinely tell customers they\u2019ve been hit by phishing or a malware attack, but if people don\u2019t fully understand what that means, they may not know how to respond or protect themselves,\u201d says Associate Professor Marsen. \u201cWorse is that unclear communication can downplay the responsibility of organisations, or leave users vulnerable.\u201d
\nUsing a set of cyberattack stories composed with figurative words and a set composed with more literal versions, and an online survey, the study examines whether the use of metaphor and neologism clarifies or obfuscates the technical aspects of cybersecurity for non-experts.
\nThe results showed participants in the literal set scored significantly better in comprehension. However, participants made important errors in both literal and figurative versions. This underlines the need for organizations to employ language strategically and provide more effective explanations of cybersecurity situations.
\nAssociate Professor Marsen says a key takeaway from this research is that paying attention to language choices in professional communication is not just a stylistic choice but a public safety issue.
\nThe research \u2013 \u201cGrok hackspeak? Communicating cybersecurity with figurative language\u201d, by Sky Marsen and Robert Biddle \u2013 has been published by the International Journal of Business Communication. https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/23294884251329160<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Understand \u2018phishing\u2019? Think again: why cybersecurity language is failing us \u2013 News https:\/\/news.flinders.edu.au\/blog\/2026\/06\/22\/understand-phishing-think-again-why-cybersecurity-language-is-failing-us\/ Publish Date:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":234764,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/news.flinders.edu.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-1455658894.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[30,24,35,32,25],"class_list":["post-234762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity","tag-breach","tag-cybersecurity","tag-hacker","tag-malware","tag-phishing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234762"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234762"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":234766,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234762\/revisions\/234766"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}