7. Conclusions
Our society is turning into a cyberphysical society having dependence on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) across all aspects of our daily lives, which makes the need for cybersecurity paramount. The intangible nature of cybersecurity, the socio-technical dependences, the ambiguous impact and contested nature of fighting cybersecurity all make it a challenging area for policymakers. Cybersecurity can be framed in different ways, having different effects on people. Cybersecurity is a complex and multifaceted area which has no clear heroes or villains. The inability to frame cybersecurity has resulted in a failure to take appropriate measures and develop suitable policies. However, there are already ongoing cyberwars, and citizens and governments need to be better prepared. Message framing is a strategy for communicating a complex problem in such a way that the main arguments are understood and cannot be easily challenged. Simple message frames do not work for cybersecurity and therefore evidencebased message framing is necessary. In a similar vein to evidence-based policymaking, messages are framed based on the evidence and use framing strategies. Thinking in terms of framing strategies to communicate a difficult message has profound implications. We argue that it is important to take the evidence as a starting point and avoid utopian and dystopian frames, as these standard messaging strategies might be counterproductive. Instead, the following six strategies were identi- fied as offering a better way to frame cybersecurity: 1) do not exacerbate cybersecurity, 2) make it clear who the villains are, 3) give cybersecurity a face by putting the heroes in the spotlight, 4) connect cybersecurity to values other than security alone, 5) personalize the message for easy recognition and 6) connect to other tangible and clear issues.
