The Sneaky Cyber Translation Gap
The security industry is fluent in a language most of its audience doesn’t speak. We surveyed 1,055 Americans outside the industry to find out where the message breaks down.
Your buyer isn’t your only audience.
You write for CISOs and security teams, and for your product pages, that’s the right call. But a lot of what a cybersecurity brand needs gets decided by people who have never worked a day in security.
So we measured what they understand. We surveyed 1,055 U.S. adults who have never worked in security, IT, or software, and asked what they know, what they do, and who they trust.
Everyone outside the security team is an audience you depend on.
What people think vs. what they do
are confident they’d recognize a scam
of people confident they could spot an AI image actually picked the fake
use strong, unique passwords on most accounts, though 94% say they’re essential
trust the apps they use to protect their information
Cyber lingo loses most of the room.
Only a few security terms have made it into everyday language. The rest lose a big share of the audience, and a couple barely register at all.
Even among people who call themselves very tech-savvy, 54% find security talk hard to follow. And 86% of them trust an expert more for using plain terms.
Share who know the term well and could clearly explain it.
Almost everyone thinks they have this handled.
68% rate themselves very or fairly tech-savvy. So we asked the 775 people who said they could spot an AI-generated image to prove it, using two photos of flowers: one real, one made with Google Gemini.
flagged the real photo as AI-generated
correctly picked the AI-generated image
believed both images were real
A generational paradox
Gen Z was twice as likely as average to call themselves very confident at spotting AI images. On the test, they scored 24%. Boomers scored 25%.
Everyone agrees on passwords. Fewer than half follow through.
say strong, unique passwords are essential
actually use them on most accounts
Knowledge isn’t the problem. Only 3% of holdouts say they don’t know what makes a password strong. The reasons they give are about effort.
Top reasons among respondents who don’t use strong, unique passwords on most accounts.
The public already believes AI makes attacks worse.
The fear is already there. 72% have encountered a message, call, or video they suspected was AI-generated, and nearly everyone expects it to get worse. What that fear hasn’t done is change how people use AI.
expect AI-related scams to become more common
say AI is making cyberattacks more sophisticated
have shared personal information with an AI tool anyway
70% use AI tools regularly, and 81% worry about how AI companies use their information. For security brands, that means “AI is making attacks smarter” is a message the public has already heard.
Only half trust the apps they already use.
59% say their information has been exposed in a data breach. People take security seriously. What they lack is confidence that the companies holding their data are doing their part.
People know the risks, want to do better, and say they’ll trust whoever explains it plainly.
The brands that do the translating are the ones in a position to earn the coverage, the internal champions, and the loyalty. The full report shows how.
Every finding, every chart. No form fill required.
Get the full Sneaky Cyber Translation Gap report.
Questions, answered
What is The Sneaky Cyber Translation Gap?
It’s a Kickstand research report on what people outside the security industry understand about cybersecurity, which habits they actually keep, and who they trust. It’s built for the marketers and comms leaders at cybersecurity companies who need those people on their side.
Who was surveyed, and when?
Kickstand surveyed 1,055 U.S. adults online from July 29 to August 3, 2026. Every respondent uses the internet regularly for everyday tasks, and none has ever worked in cybersecurity, IT, software development, or a related technical field.
Why survey people who don’t work in security?
Most security research surveys security people. But the press, the rest of the buying committee, and your customers’ users aren’t security experts, and they decide a lot of what a cybersecurity brand needs. This study measures how your message lands with them.
Is the report free?
Yes. Download the full PDF above, no form fill required.
Methodology
Kickstand surveyed 1,055 U.S. adults online from July 29 to August 3, 2026. To qualify, respondents had to use the internet at least a few times a week for everyday activities such as banking, shopping, email, work, or social media, and could never have worked in cybersecurity, IT, software development, or a related technical field. Respondents with a household member working for a critical infrastructure organization (healthcare, financial services, government, energy, utilities, or telecommunications) were also screened out. The margin of error for the full sample is approximately ±3 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.