The Pulse of Cyber Pulse

Cyber Pulse is ReBIT's hand-curated newsletter blended with original content, format, thought and design! Even as the world grapples with the impact of COVID-19 infection and the ensuing nationwide lockdown, our team has tried to keep it business as usual. We have been publishing the last two issues of our newsletter while working remotely and are in the process of churning the third one in June. Cyber Pulse continues to be the go-to newsletter for a quick snapshot and summaries of the latest cyber security news. As we look forward to the third anniversary edition in the next few months, here is a reflection of how the newsletter has become a widely-read publication among the cyber security community with 2000+ organic subscribers.

Watertight and Rigorous Process:

The unlimited joy of the editors after clicking the ‘good to go for publication’ checkbox is aptly captured by ‘High Five emoji’ which appears after the send button is clicked on our email campaign platform. Our maker-checker process scans for the minutest errors and reminds us that the difference between something good and something great is attention to details. Other salient aspects include:

• A daily tracker on process updates is published as a reminder of the deliverables to each member of the Cyber Pulse team

• A checklist approach to shortlist the curated stories in multiple editorial meetings

• Illustrative features are prepared with step-by-step guidance and review by subject matter experts

Curation and Editorial Filters:

We take pride in the fact that we follow very stringent editorial filters for curation. The number of checks and criteria that every selected article passes through and the guideline for contextualizing and rewriting story summaries makes it unique. Cyber Pulse team does not accept complacency and we strive for constant improvements after every publication.

Change is the Norm:

The format of our high quality content and artwork are often revamped to add more value. The team is always open to feedback. We are proud to have accomplished major changes in the newsletter within this short span of two years. Some telling examples:

• Introduction of a cyber-caricature to narrate cyber security themes in our illustrative feature

• Sourcing commentaries from in-house experts of ReBIT

• Publishing the testimonials of readers

• Publishing a section with stories on the contemporary and important issues

• Twitter campaigns on the published commentaries

We also experiment a lot. For instance, a podcast recorded by members of Cyber Pulse team was introduced in few issues. The podcast used simple examples and narrated a fictional story to explain the cyber security “term of the month” published in the newsletter.

Replicating Excellence:

The Cyber Pulse team is well-trained to emulate the creative process and output of the product in other work environments. Last year, one of the editors and illustrator of the team bagged top honors at “Curate-a-thon”, the first of its kind content curation hackathon organized by NASSCOM Future Skills and DSCI. They secured the first place despite tough competition from instructional designers of prominent IT companies and members of the academia. Apart from the excellence in content and design of the module, it was the only entry to be awarded full marks by the jury members in their assessment. Word of their work and success quickly spread to the industry. This speaks volumes of the capabilities of the Cyber Pulse team.

If you get Cyber Pulse in your mailbox every month, do share your thoughts with us @ communications@rebit.org.in And if you don't get it, then subscribe here!