(Art by Abraham Pena, Claudio Rousselon and Afsal CMK licensed under CC By 4.0.)

A picture can be worth a thousand words. But can one image accurately explain a complex topic like encryption, the risks of a data breach, or why you need to be careful around suspicious emails?

A group of professional artists recently took on the challenge, and just released the results. Gone are the stereotypical images of hackers in hoodies. Instead, the images depict unsuspecting consumers as wildlife under the attack of larger predators, countries as interconnected computer circuits, and encryption as a printer-like machine that can scramble your messages into gobbledygook.

The images were submitted as part of a public contest announced in July by the Hewlett Foundation, which wanted better cybersecurity stock art. Most of the existing imagery contains glowing digital lock symbols or neon screens full of 1s and 0s, which do little to explain to consumers the real-world risks of getting your PC infected with malware or an online account hijacked.

(Art by Abraham Pena licensed under CC By 4.0.)

The Hewlett Foundation's goal was to develop new art depicting hacking, privacy, and cyber conflict that actually made sense.

"Sophisticated organizations are attacking the security of the internet and we believe the images produced by the participating artists will help increase understanding of these issues for policymakers and the broader public alike," Eli Sugarman, program officer at the Hewlett Foundation, said in a statement.

On Thursday, the contest announced the five winners, two of whom come from the US. Web designer Abraham Pena of Doral, Florida, came up with several images involving wildlife to illustrate the online dangers surrounding every consumer. They include a moose accidentally wandering into a deserted wasteland full of dead carcasses. The lesson: If an online website looks like a shady place, it probably is.

Another image shows a guppy drawn to the glowing light of a hungry Anglerfish. "I realized that there are obvious similarities in the behaviors, abilities, and characteristics of the predators and prey of the animal kingdom, with respect to their human counterparts, hackers and victims," Pena wrote in explaining his intentions behind the artwork.

(Art by Claudio Rousselon licensed under CC By 4.0.)

Visual artist Claudio Rousselon of Cancun, Mexico, tackled the topic of international cyber conflict by showing the US and Mexico as interconnected computer circuits. Another image depicts the European Union as countries on a motherboard, but with the UK as one module that's been broken off.

"A system this complex can only function if every piece works, take away a component and things can tumble downwards," he wrote in explaining the art.

(Art by Afsal CMK licensed under CC By 4.0.)

On the topic of encryption, designer and coder Afsal CMK, who is based in Kerala, India, focused on how the technology can prevent third parties from viewing your sensitive information. The image above illustrates a person making an entry in a health-tracking related app. The app shows the data being safely encrypted. A stranger who tries to view it would only see unreadable, seemingly random text.

The foundation is hoping news organizations, academic groups, and nonprofits will use the submitted artwork when reporting on cybersecurity topics. As a result, all the winning images are free for public to use as long as the artist behind the work is correctly attributed.

The five winning artists each received $7,000.

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