Members of parliament get hacker thriller as summer gift from the security sector

Today, six hundred books will be sent to Sweden’s members of parliament and heads of government authorities. A number of people and companies in the security sector have joined together to give the hacker thriller ”De 7 nycklarna” as a summer gift. The reason is that they are concerned about the country’s cybersecurity and want to create a debate ahead of the Almedalen Week and the election.

That the choice landed on the thriller “De 7 nycklarna” by author Åsa Schwarz is because the epilogue contains ten items on how to increase cybersecurity in Sweden. The group simply took to heart what Johanne Hildebrandt said about the book: ”The epilogue is a must for our politicians and heads of authorities.”

“It feels natural to take part in this,” says Carolina Angelis, Yobany, who has worked for twenty years in both civil and military intelligence. “We are entirely dependent on IT and our leaders must realize the risks inherent in this.”

The book analyses, in a fictional form, what happens when the internet stops working, and closes with ten items on how Sweden’s cybersecurity can be improved (the items are presented in full on the author’s website: asaschwarz.se), Ahead of the election, they are more relevant than ever:

1. Our politicians must take their personal cybersecurity seriously.

2. We must learn about digital security starting in elementary school.

3. We must stop the fast increase in IT-based fraud.

4. We must increase awareness about how propaganda works.

5. We must actively ensure competence in cybersecurity.

6. Our authorities and municipalities must be subject to follow-ups.

7. We must have centralized and powerful incident management.

8. We must find a reasonable balance between security and privacy.

9. Product companies must take responsibility for the security in their products.

10. We need to future-proof our infrastructure.

One of the people who has contributed to this project is Tobias Ander, who was CISO at the Swedish Transport Agency between 2012 and 2018.

“I have seen, at close range, what happens in an organization that does not take security matters seriously enough, and therefore want to contributing to increasing knowledge and getting these matters on the agenda,” says Tobias Ander.

“We are happy to support an initiative that can increase awareness about cybersecurity among our politicians. Our vision is to create a safer digital society and also collaborate with several authorities on these issues,” says Peter Lindstedt, CEO Knowit Secure.

The companies and individuals behind the idea are:

Junglemap – Is a leader on the Nordic market in digital training on information security and GDPR through its concept NanoLearning.

Yobany – Works with Human information security, offering training regarding for instance espionage and various methods of information gathering, both technical and person-based.

Knowit – We create a secure digital world in which everyone can feel safe.

Nikka Systems – We increase security awareness among users through continual, objective and threat-adapted online education.

Atea – At the cutting edge when it comes to cybersecurity and works under the motto: We make Sweden safe again.

Tobias Ander, former CISO at the Swedish Transport Agency 2012–2018

Martin Waern, Unit manager

Eva Hyenstrand, Head of IT security and risk

Henrik Häggstrom Vilselius, CEO

Anne-Lie Lokko, Digital Strategist

Per-Erik Eriksson, Privacy and Security Analytics specialist

Mikael Åkerman, Expert Mobility