Cyber Horse 2016
The Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center (ICRC), Tel Aviv University
Issue 40 | September 2016
Agency
No, No, No, No, No, Yes
Creative Team
Chief Creative Officer Gideon Amichay Creatives Rony Schneider Gil Aviyam Liron Ben-Yacov Zeev Ravid
Production Team
Designers Liat Lapushin Gali Snir Namdar Construction Yaakov Turgeman Gadi Maimon Jack Robinson Documentation Ishay Hadas Orit Pinco Amnon Houri Harvey Gold Israel Ohayon Postproduction House Gravity Yoram Altman Limor Leizerovitch Uri Morag Sound Soundhouse Udi Ben Ari Photos Chen Mika
Other Credits
Account Supervisors Daphna Tsror Tamar Heilweil
Date
June 2016
Background
The Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center at Tel Aviv University organises an annual Cyber Week symposium. Attended by cyber experts, academics, leading government officials and researchers, it is designed to bring together the latest thinking in combating cyber crime and terrorism.
It wanted to draw attention to the event and highlight the dangers of cyber crime.
Idea
The idea was to build a modern version of the Trojan Horse and station it outside the event venue.
The Cyber Horse is a piece of work created with thousands of infected computer and cell phone components.
It illustrates the increasing use of malware in making cyberspace a hostile environment.
Like the legend of the Trojan Horse, the Cyber Horse is a trick designed to lure the residents into a false sense of security.
Once inside, it creates havoc.
The installation had a naturally dramatic element: would the event participants block it, or allow it inside?
Results
The installation generated huge media coverage, not just in Israel – where it was covered by all the major media – but also by 150 news outlets around the world.
Our Thoughts
What a brilliant use of metaphor. It's not easy to find a way to represent virtual cyber crime in such a way as to give it a physical symbol.
But the Trojan Horse legend fits perfectly.
Unsuspecting citizens allow an apparently harmless structure into their city, only to find themselves attacked from the inside. If that isn't a perfect way to symbolise cyber crime, I don't know what is.
And of course the lessons of the Trojan Horse have never been truer, or Trojan Horse attacks easier to manipulate. Every smartphone or device is potentially the key to our inner citadels.