Image notes

The image shows our version of the Rotating Snakes illusion (Fraser and Wilcox, 1979; Kitaoka and Ashida, 2003) an example of a peripheral drift illusion: whichever part you focus on become motionless, but the parts in your peripheral vision start to spin. Crucially, the movement exists only in your mind: the image is completely static.

We see this as a metaphor for Cybersecurity: as soon as you target one vulnerability, others become active. (It also reveals interesting things about the modularity of the mind, and the limited power of belief.)

References: Fraser and Wilcox (1979), Nature, 281: 565 – 566; Kitaoka and Ashida (2003), Vision, 15: 261-262

References. a: MITRE ATT&CK^® (2025), Techniques, https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/;  b: Cyber Kill Chain (2025), Lockheed Martin, https://www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/capabilities/cyber/cyber-kill-chain.html; c: Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC) (2025), https://capec.mitre.org/ d: European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) (2023), Threat Landscape: Health Sector, ISBN 978-92-9204-638-5.  e: Fortinet (2021), The State of Pharmaceuticals and Cybersecurity Report; f: Home Office, UK Government (2018), The Cost of Cybercrime, ISBN 978-1-78655-392-8;  g: United States Trade Representative (2022), The President’s Trade Policy Agenda, https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/ h: CrowdStrike (2025) APJ eCrime Landscape Report i: Trellix (2024), Cyberthreat Report, https://www.trellix.com/advanced-research-center/threat-reports/; j: Congressional Research Service (2025), Cybersecurity: 2012-2024, CRS Report R46974; k: Wray C, FBI Director; Speech at McCain Institute (29.4.22); l: Cybereason Inc, La Jolla; https://www.cybereason.com/blog; m: MITRE ATT&CK^® (2025), Groups, https://attack.mitre.org/groups/