In the Know: Cyber vernacular

The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet has recently considered an early draft of a document defining a new 'cyber lexicon' at a roundtable hosted by Alastair MacGibbon, Special Adviser to the Prime Minister on Cyber Security. The document, titled 'Words Matter: Australia's Cyber Security Lexicon' aims to improve clarity in government communications about cyber security.¹

The draft considers 'contentious' cyber security terms that belong to the commonly used, but perhaps not properly understood, cyber vernacular, including: cyberattack, cyber terrorism, cyber warfare, cyber war, cyber weapons and active cyber defence. The draft recognises that these terms are sometimes sensationalist, confusing and have been used to describe a wide variety of activity with differing sophistication and impact.

The draft also addressed whether 'cyber' could be used as a noun or verb, preferring that the term be limited to use as an adjective or a prefix. One point that the roundtable clearly agreed upon was that hyphens have no place in the cyber vernacular.