A scene from the movie Ocean’s 8 provides a surprisingly useful lesson on cybersecurity. The character played by Rihanna needs to hack into a security person’s computer. She looks up his social media to find he loves corgis. The Rihanna character sends him a phishing email featuring corgis, and he can’t help but click on it. 

With one click of a mouse, someone can accidentally give away their company’s secrets, their bank account information, or an organization’s medical records. 

I thought this movie scene was interesting because it’s a depiction of the importance of my work as a cybersecurity researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). It shows just how easy it can be to fall victim to one of these schemes. 

Many people don’t realize that they (yes, looking at you!) can be personally targeted by someone looking to get into your computer or your employer’s. It’s that easy for a hacker to find out about you and your job and write a convincing email. 

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