The squid game has a lot of social lessons, messages about capitalism, and a vivid description of what a dystopian society would look like. However, for those with an eye for security, it also has a number of lessons that would come in handy for someone trying to design a more secure digital environment or for those looking to prepare for the future of cybersecurity. Here are a few lessons from the Squid Game that can be applied to cybersecurity today, and the future.
There were a couple of instances in the game where players brought in tools illegally, and those tools turned out to be the reason that they were successful in their mission and in overcoming the game.
Security, specifically digital security, having access to the right tools can make all the difference in a critical situation. More importantly, just because a tool is effective today, doesn’t mean it will be effective tomorrow and security professionals need to always be on the lookout for the latest tools and solutions that they can use to optimize security. This shows us how important security audits are and also an audit of your own security solutions.
The squid game is based on the concept that players have to win games meant for children, but they don't know what game they are going to be playing until it actually starts. Digital security is often very similar, sometimes what you are defending against is not such a big problem but the fact that you don't know what it's going to be, means it's very difficult to prepare for it beforehand. Therefore you need to be equipped with all your resources to ensure that you can handle anything that may come up.
It didn’t take long for players in "Squid Games" to realize that there is no benefit in fighting alone. If they wanted to last the entire duration of the game, the best strategy was to group together and create an alliance. There were many instances in which a single person in the alliance came up with a strategy that saved the entire group. Similar is the situation in cybersecurity.
Doing it alone will only get you so far, but having a diverse team will help you leverage the combined experience and knowledge of the team and take down much larger threats that you would probably not be able to do on your own.
Sometimes your tools are only as good as your strategy. In different instances, in the game, a certain piece of knowledge, observation, or information made the difference between life and death. Knowing how to do something the most efficient way is actually more effective than having the most powerful and robust solution. Rather than relying on full security suites, if a security professional or a security team knows how to analyze a situation effectively they have a much better chance of solving the problem and protecting themselves from similar threats in the future.
Overall there is a lot that goes into digital security but it is often these basic and fundamental principles that make all the difference. In the race against the competition, we forget just how important it is to stick to the basics and ensure that our strategy is relevant at all stages of our process.