Cybersecurity Languages As Barriers
Cybersecurity being mostly an English speaking industry, individuals and organizations who can’t use English in their daily workflow are heavily penalized. And while translation tools may help, the most affordable ones do not guaranty confidentiality.
Why focusing on languages?
Languages represent who we are, where we come from, and are a tool for our socialization. In short, all the time we carry our individuality with languages. In groups however, we need to function as a team; we need to exchange information and discuss with people we disagree with.
We can’t free-style our way with words otherwise no one would understand what we try to express. If we put ourselves in the shoes of someone who ignores the language and culture of a country or company, we might recall some uncomfortable moments during language exchanges at school.
Following the codes
Beside languages are norms. Everyday we deal with them too. Cultural norms play an equally crucial role. They shape our interactions, influence our communication styles, and inform our understanding of what is considered appropriate or inappropriate.
They shape the way we work, the way we process incidents, exchange information and share intelligence. At a higher level, norms are so common that we don’t even think of their existence.
If there isn’t a unique norm in languages for our daily exchanges, we still rely on some implicit agreements to do our job in a civilized way (use the words that the other person understands, avoid shouting at each other…).
In norms we can see pure codes that allow us to make a system flow. From a user-speaker perspective, we understand that language barrier and exclusion are also real.
Some examples
Here some concrete examples: we want to describe some cybersecurity policies that refer to specific applications of laws with terms not found in our language. Same apply for tools, technical and process documentation, notes and reports. Or face-to-face meetings being perceived as less engaging than other forms of communication due to language barriers and the lack of proficiency in spoken languages for many people.
Information sharing
Language is often cited as a barrier to information sharing. I am pointing out a well know issue here. Still we lack an understanding of what languages and norms are, and it has dramatic consequences on the way we operate information security.
We cannot impose a uniform norm (language or code) on others due to the organic development of groups. However, a productive approach would be to raise awareness of these differences. To teach about the importance of the languages we speak and how they shape our perception of the job we do, as well as improve our communication.