What is Cybersecurity? An anecdote about a Marvel’s Avengers survey

Photo by Fredrick john on Unsplash

Several years ago, I was at Disney California Adventure. They had a Marvel section set up. One of the attractions was a set of kiosks with an Avengers survey. You answered the survey to learn which Avenger you are most like. You also got a sticker and picture with the character.

A parent answered the survey on the touch screen kiosk while holding their baby. The baby must have liked the colors because he was reaching for the screen. The baby’s hand was opening and closing as he reached to grab the screen. The survey closed when he touched the screen and showed an iPad home screen.

The baby had minimized the Avenger’s survey app!

The app developers should have done the following:

  • Disable the multitouch gestures in the iPad settings.
  • Prevent the user from minimizing or closing the app with the Guided Access settings.
  • Conduct user testing.

The staff has done the following correctly:

  • Set up the kiosk to prevent access to the physical home button and side buttons.
  • Made the app full screen so it wasn’t obvious the device was an iPad.

What is cybersecurity?

We should think about edge cases and atypical users. Sometimes we can learn how to design and protect our apps from children.

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Miguel A. Calles · Serverless CISO

Author of "Serverless Security" · Specializing in CMMC, SOC 2, serverless & engineering.