![The Edge Logo The Edge Logo](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt6d90778a997de1cd/blt530eb1f4e672eb44/653a71690e92cc040a3e9d6d/Dark_Reading_Logo_TheEdge_0.png?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Cybersecurity In-Depth: Feature articles on security strategy, latest trends, and people to know.
A Child's Garden of Cybersecurity
Whether you dream of your child becoming a CISO or just want them to improve their security hygiene, consider this roundup of literary geekery.
January 26, 2023
![A smiling boy wearing a black hoodie is reading a book at his bedroom desk A smiling boy wearing a black hoodie is reading a book at his bedroom desk](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt6d90778a997de1cd/blt0a739086d27b18b3/64f155bec3efae50adf0ee8c/hoodieboy-Westend61_GmbH-alamy.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Source: Westend61 GmbH via Alamy Stock Photo
Of all the ways people have come up with for filling the cybersecurity talent gap, widening the pipeline seems the most promising. Strategies like reskilling existing employees and recruiting among veterans have certainly paid off for both companies and the workers looking for a new career. But one untapped reservoir of talent is right under our noses: our children.
Several programs for bringing school-age children into cybersecurity exist, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s Cyber.org Range and the SANS Institute's CyberStart. But they tend to be for older kids — middle school or high school — and they can require a lot of commitment. To gauge whether your child or your niblings are even interested in the topic, you might try getting them an entertaining cybersecurity read that introduces them to the field in a light-handed way.
Some organizations already pursue this content marketing strategy in the form of child-centered book projects. One of the best is AppSec ABCs by Caroline Wong, a free download from pentesting-as-a-service company Cobalt that introduces concepts such as honeypots and key management in a kid-friendly way. Aimed at a similar age group of preschoolers, The King, The Knight & The Snowball (also free to download) is Bfore.ai's pitch for predictive threat detection.
Governments are no stranger to content marketing, of course. For example, the US Air Force publishes a short cybersecurity series, Sarah the Cyber Hero and Ben the Cyber Defender, as part of its CyberPatriot program. And Germany's Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information publishes the Data Foxes books (in German): That Is Private! (5-8 years) and What Is Data Protection? (8-13 years).
But plenty of books have been written and published for the mainstream audience, with various levels of subtlety and complexity. Many of these are passion projects by cybersecurity professionals, many of whom are also parents. After all, we all worry about the talent pipeline and the future of cybersecurity, but parents have the added worry about what their kids are going to do for a living.
Following is a look at some of what we think are the most promising reads, with a bonus slide of informational books and further reading.
Author: Chase Cunningham and Heather C. Dahl; illustrated by Shirow Di Rossi
Age Range: 5-12 years
Available at: Amazon
Top of the list is the Cynja graphic novel series, which our own Fahmida Y. Rashid gave to her boys. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon, this book traces the adventures of the Cynsei, a warrior who battles the unseen forces of evil that permeate our digital world, with the help of a middle-schooler hero.
The series is written by Chase Cunningham — a former US Navy cryptographer and cyber forensics technician who mines the drama of cybersecurity activities for both fiction and nonfiction — with journalist Heather C. Dahl. While the story is absorbing and exciting, what sets this book apart to me is its kinetic, colorful art style, courtesy of Shirow Di Rosso. It just feels like a real superhero comic, which helps slip the messaging past defenses.
Volume 2 is also available on Amazon, but the manual seems to be available only through the Cynja website, where you can also download a Cynja-made security app for Apple devices.
Author: Kayli Battel; illustrated by E. Kidd
Age Range: 5+ years
Available at: Amazon
This one looks like it's going to be about robots, but it's really an intro to red/blue teaming. Jada is a kid whose brother's robotics team gets targeted by malware at a tournament, and she must fix the problem before the final event. The sub-theme of respecting other people's expertise while being proud of your own is a nice touch.
The text is written by Kayli Battel, who's currently earning a Bachelor's of Science in human factors engineering at Tufts. The characters are brought to life by E. Kidd, whose au courant drawings add dynamic charm.
Author: Derek Fisher; illustrated by Heather Workman
Age Range: 6-9 years
Available at: Amazon
The Alicia Connected series starts with a topic every elementary school kid seems keenly interested in: your first tablet. And indeed, that's most children's first step into the cyber world, and thus a good time to start them thinking about Internet safety and data security.
The Big Gift is book 1 in the series by Derek Fisher, who's head of product security at Envestnet — and father to a daughter. Illustrator Heather Workman has a long list of book credits, and her cute renderings help young readers get immersed in Alicia's world.
Book 2, subtitled Tricked by Treats, has our hero encountering bullying and fraud in an online kids' game that sounds rather like Roblox. And the third book, Lost and Found, will be coming out "in a few weeks," Fisher said on LinkedIn. He also wrote The Application Security Handbook for grown-ups, published by Manning.
Author: Robert M. Lee; illustrated by Jeff Haas
Age Range: 5+ years
Available at: Amazon
Another one highly recommended by my colleagues at Dark Reading, Threat Intelligence and Me is a continuation of the series started by Dragos CEO and co-founder Robert M. Lee to simplify cybersecurity and technology concepts by writing them into children's books. It's illustrated by Jeff Haas, who's done a number of other children's books, as well as comic books and assorted other projects.
The story follows the protagonist of the earlier books in the series, Little Bobby, as he learns what threat intelligence is and how to use a "pew pew map" to stay safe. The book series has a tongue-in-cheek tone wherein it's simultaneously written for children and aimed at adults who maybe should already know better.
Lee and Haas continue the saga of Little Bobby in an ongoing weekly Web comic.
Author/Illustrator: Amber DeVilbiss
Age Range: 3+ years
Available at: Amazon
This cute book for the littles comes from the founder of Teach Kids Tech, a foundation that provides technical literature and education to children in underserved communities. GuidePoint Security solutions engineer Amber DeVilbiss wrote and illustrated this rhyming storybook to build off her work educating people about cybersecurity, notably on TikTok. She has attributed much of her inspiration to her son.
Author: Nicole Hoffman; illustrated by Charanya Kalamegam
Age Range: 5+ years
Available at: Amazon
Another cute two-part series in which the hero must vanquish the dragon, this book stresses the importance of understanding your enemy in order to defeat it. Part two is The Mighty Threat Intelligence Warrior: Jasper's Second Chance.
The author, Nicole Hoffman, is known for her threat analysis framework Cognitive Stairways of Analysis, as well as her work with the SANS Institute and other organizations. On her website, she said she "was inspired by her kids to write a children's book that could introduce threat intelligence concepts through a whimsical medieval tale." To see more of the illustrator's charming drawings, you can visit Charanya Kalamegam's portfolio online (and I recommend you do, if you think that dragon on the cover is cute).
Author: Fitzroy Gordon and Aaron Gordon; illustrated by Brandon Wright
Age Range: 8-12 years
Available at: Amazon
This is the first in a new series, the Aaron and Alec Series, which came out in 2021. It's written by a father and son team, Fitzroy and Aaron Gordon. Fitzroy is a professor at Liberty University who has a doctorate in information security, and Aaron is now a young man. Their author inserts are the titular Alec and Aaron, respectively, who are learning to navigate the funhouse world of the Internet. To see Fitzroy explain the book, its process, and how the Internet works, watch his interview with an East Hartford librarian.
One of the cutest things about the book is that it closes with an informational blurb with technical advice the young reader can share with the adults in their life about how to stay safe online. (As a grown woman whose mother sometimes might click links she shouldn't, I appreciate that touch.) The illustrations by Brandon Wright have a little bit of a vintage throwback vibe, which is refreshing and boy-friendly.
Author: Domenica Di Piazza
Age Range: 7-11 years
Available at: Amazon
The author of this book, Domenica Di Piazza, also wrote about NASA software engineer Margaret Hamilton for the STEM Trailblazer Bios series at children's book specialist Lerner Publications. This book focuses on Google white-hat hacker and vice president of engineering Parisa Tabriz, whose business card famously reads "Security Princess."
This book offers lots of biographical details, childhood anecdotes, and cute pictures of Tabriz and her family. It also traces her path from young fan of Jem & the Holograms (hard same), to computer science student, to website hacker to Google princess.
You'll find more nonfiction inspiration on the next and final slide.
While this slideshow concentrates on fiction built around cybersecurity concepts, there are plenty of excellent nonfiction books for children on related concepts, especially online safety.
Some of our favorite nonfiction books came from educational series run by reputable publishers. Perhaps the best of the bunch is What Is Cybersecurity? by Haq Kumar, shown above. It's part of the Let's Find Out: Computer Science series from Britannica Educational Publishing, part of the Encyclopædia Britannica house. If your junior geek likes this book, they will likely enjoy other entries in the series, such as What Are Computers? and What Are Hardware and Software?.
Another educational publisher, Rourke Publishing, presents On The Case: Cybersecurity Experts, written by Madison Capitano. The book combines fact-based scenarios, glossary words, and activities to entertain kids while they're learning about cybersecurity practices. It's part of a six-book series on various aspects of law enforcement, from K-9s to medical examiners.
Many kids' books about cybersecurity focus on staying safe online as consumers, which makes sense. Cybersecurity: The Children's Guide to Being Safe Online, written by Innovators of Tomorrow founder Caryn Warren, has a friendly feel, appropriate for a book aimed at younger readers. Cybersecurity: Protecting Your Identity and Data, written by prolific nonfiction author Mary-Lane Kamberg, has a more serious approach for the middle-school reader. And then there's Cybersecurity for Kids!, an activity book that introduces concepts and basic safety rules in the form of puzzles and coloring pages, brought to you by Dfour Press.
The best book for your cyberkid depends on many factors: their age, their interests, and their technical expertise. Try poking around on Amazon or your local library to find titles that both you and the kiddo might enjoy. Even if the child never enters the cybersecurity talent pipeline, everyone needs to learn how to protect themselves online.
While this slideshow concentrates on fiction built around cybersecurity concepts, there are plenty of excellent nonfiction books for children on related concepts, especially online safety.
Some of our favorite nonfiction books came from educational series run by reputable publishers. Perhaps the best of the bunch is What Is Cybersecurity? by Haq Kumar, shown above. It's part of the Let's Find Out: Computer Science series from Britannica Educational Publishing, part of the Encyclopædia Britannica house. If your junior geek likes this book, they will likely enjoy other entries in the series, such as What Are Computers? and What Are Hardware and Software?.
Another educational publisher, Rourke Publishing, presents On The Case: Cybersecurity Experts, written by Madison Capitano. The book combines fact-based scenarios, glossary words, and activities to entertain kids while they're learning about cybersecurity practices. It's part of a six-book series on various aspects of law enforcement, from K-9s to medical examiners.
Many kids' books about cybersecurity focus on staying safe online as consumers, which makes sense. Cybersecurity: The Children's Guide to Being Safe Online, written by Innovators of Tomorrow founder Caryn Warren, has a friendly feel, appropriate for a book aimed at younger readers. Cybersecurity: Protecting Your Identity and Data, written by prolific nonfiction author Mary-Lane Kamberg, has a more serious approach for the middle-school reader. And then there's Cybersecurity for Kids!, an activity book that introduces concepts and basic safety rules in the form of puzzles and coloring pages, brought to you by Dfour Press.
The best book for your cyberkid depends on many factors: their age, their interests, and their technical expertise. Try poking around on Amazon or your local library to find titles that both you and the kiddo might enjoy. Even if the child never enters the cybersecurity talent pipeline, everyone needs to learn how to protect themselves online.
Of all the ways people have come up with for filling the cybersecurity talent gap, widening the pipeline seems the most promising. Strategies like reskilling existing employees and recruiting among veterans have certainly paid off for both companies and the workers looking for a new career. But one untapped reservoir of talent is right under our noses: our children.
Several programs for bringing school-age children into cybersecurity exist, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s Cyber.org Range and the SANS Institute's CyberStart. But they tend to be for older kids — middle school or high school — and they can require a lot of commitment. To gauge whether your child or your niblings are even interested in the topic, you might try getting them an entertaining cybersecurity read that introduces them to the field in a light-handed way.
Some organizations already pursue this content marketing strategy in the form of child-centered book projects. One of the best is AppSec ABCs by Caroline Wong, a free download from pentesting-as-a-service company Cobalt that introduces concepts such as honeypots and key management in a kid-friendly way. Aimed at a similar age group of preschoolers, The King, The Knight & The Snowball (also free to download) is Bfore.ai's pitch for predictive threat detection.
Governments are no stranger to content marketing, of course. For example, the US Air Force publishes a short cybersecurity series, Sarah the Cyber Hero and Ben the Cyber Defender, as part of its CyberPatriot program. And Germany's Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information publishes the Data Foxes books (in German): That Is Private! (5-8 years) and What Is Data Protection? (8-13 years).
But plenty of books have been written and published for the mainstream audience, with various levels of subtlety and complexity. Many of these are passion projects by cybersecurity professionals, many of whom are also parents. After all, we all worry about the talent pipeline and the future of cybersecurity, but parents have the added worry about what their kids are going to do for a living.
Following is a look at some of what we think are the most promising reads, with a bonus slide of informational books and further reading.
About the Author(s)
You May Also Like
CISO Perspectives: How to make AI an Accelerator, Not a Blocker
August 20, 2024Securing Your Cloud Assets
August 27, 2024