The Gaming-Cyber Nexus Feds Should Explore

Walking around E3, the annual video game conference and show being held this week in Los Angeles, is an experience. Innovation at its best on display throughout the LA Convention Center through Thursday. As a gamer, I was thrilled to be at the show and see the new consoles and games coming out in the near future.

While attending the show this week, I was able to attend the Fourth Annual Games and Learning Roundtable, which explored a number of initiatives engaging youth and others to pursue STEM fields and become inventors and designers. Those looking to improve our cybersecurity posture would do well to look at ways to better integrate their efforts with those in the gaming world.

While some work has been done in this area over the years, including games relating to cyber ethics and online safety, so much more can be done. Gamers are natural recruits to be the cybersecurity workers of the future.

At the same time, the gaming industry's efforts to promote STEM and use games to encourage kids to pursue science benefits our cyber efforts. Some may become game developers and designers, which requires attention to cybersecurity, especially as today's games go online and are integrated with other technologies. Others may become non-game software developers, engineers, and even rocket scientists.

As the private sector and the government  continue their efforts to create secure technologies and a strong cyber workforce, let's hope they learn from E3 and the gaming world: Technology can be fun.