Old Media, New Media, and Public Engagement With Science and Technology

#Asksensei: An Interactive Forum For Cybersecurity Expert Question And Answer Event

Cybersecurity is a critical concern for citizens, industry and government. Intrusions and attacks compromise everything from our personal identities to our national security, from our ATMs to financial markets. Although the risks associated with cyber attacks are real and often devastating, it is difficult to engage the public in messages that help them stay safe. To promote public engagement on the topic of cybersecurity, the University of Florida (through a partnership between the STEM Translational Communication Research program and the College of Engineering) organized a community forum on the topic of cybersecurity. The event, Ask SENSEI, was named for the activities of the SouthEasterN Security for Enterprise and Infrastructure (SENSEI), which is engaged in basic and applied research, designs robust cyber infrastructures to counter cyber threats, and educates the public on how they can protect themselves.

The community forum featured three preeminent cybersecurity scholars as panelists. The forum took place in October 2014, which was marked as a U.S. National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Following the core topics of the National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the forum discussed:

• 1.

  The aspects of promoting online safety,

• 2.

  Secure development of IT products,

• 3.

  Internet of things,

• 4.

  Cybersecurity for business, and

• 5.

  Cyber crime.

Related to the five core topics, the experts who participated in the forum discussed the questions related to the threats of the Internet and cyber activity, security of personal devises, the intersection of security and household products, innovations in cybersecurity technologies, consumer safety concerns, and fraud protection.