What the Giant Flying Squid's Color Language Teaches Us About Cybersecurity Communication in 2026

Marine biologists studying the giant flying squid found it communicates complex messages through color changes, a language of shimmering signals that helps avoid conflict and improve coordination. This unique discovery offers parallels for cybersecurity, where clear, rapid communication can reduce threats and improve team coordination.

Ozan Ucar, Founder and CEO of Keepnet

Last Updated: 2026-06-01

Giant Flying Squid’s Unique Color Language: What We Can Learn for Cybersecurity

In the vast depths of the ocean, giant flying squid (Dosidicus gigas) exhibit a remarkable form of coordinated communication through rapid color changes. Researchers studying these animals have observed that their color signaling enables precise group coordination during hunting, predator evasion, and social interaction. In 2026, as organizations grapple with increasingly complex threat landscapes requiring faster and more coordinated security responses, the squid's communication model offers a useful lens for examining why human communication systems so often fail under pressure — and what organizations can do to improve them.

Understanding the Color Language of the Giant Flying Squid

Squid use specialized cells in their skin called chromatophores to rapidly change color. In a 2022 study published in the journal PNAS, researchers documented that giant flying squid use at least two distinct chromatic patterns: one for individual communication and one for group coordination during collective behavior. The speed and specificity of these signals, changing in milliseconds and conveying context-specific information, represents a level of communication efficiency that most organizational security teams would benefit from emulating. By 2026, research into cephalopod communication has advanced further, with neurobiologists identifying that squid coordinate attacks and defensive maneuvers through a distributed signaling system with no single coordinator — a model that maps surprisingly well to modern distributed security operations.

For example, the squid would go fully dark when chasing prey, then switch to a half light, half dark mode just before an attack. This sequence appears to communicate a clear intention—“I’m about to attack”—allowing other squid to act accordingly. Beyond this, the squid use subtle pigment variations to provide context and enhance the message, creating a complex yet efficient system of non verbal communication.

How Could the Squid's Communication Apply to Cybersecurity?

In cybersecurity, a coordinated and efficient flow of information is crucial. Much like the squid’s dynamic signaling, teams and systems need to transmit alerts, warnings, and updates swiftly to avoid conflicts, prevent breaches, and address vulnerabilities. The giant flying squid’s communication model shows us three key lessons for cybersecurity:

1. Clear, Immediate Signals Reduce Confusion

The squid’s color changes are unambiguous signals that everyone in the group understands and responds to immediately. Similarly, in cybersecurity, clear and consistent communication is critical, whether it’s between team members or between automated systems and human operators. Using streamlined alerts and automated messages can help teams coordinate quickly and avoid misunderstandings.

In cybersecurity, unclear or delayed security alerts create exactly the type of confusion that attackers exploit. When employees receive ambiguous phishing warnings, inconsistent IT communications, or unclear instructions during an incident, response is slower and errors are more likely. Organizations that invest in standardizing their security communication, including how phishing reports are acknowledged and what employees should expect after reporting a suspicious email, reduce response friction in the same way the squid's unambiguous color signals reduce hunting coordination errors.

2. Sequence and Context Can Improve Team Response

Just as the squid arrange their colors in sequences to give additional context, security teams benefit from well structured communication protocols that help team members quickly understand what action is needed. For example, a phishing simulation from Keepnet Labs’ Phishing Simulator can train employees to recognize and respond to cyber threats. Through repeated, context rich exercises, employees learn how to recognize the “signals” of a phishing attempt.

3. Flexible Communication Systems Enhance Coordination

The squid’s communication system is adaptable. They can change their patterns to suit different circumstances, which is similar to how adaptive security protocols adjust to new threats in real time. Just as squid adjust their behavior based on the message they receive, adaptable security training programs can help employees become more agile and responsive. Training like security awareness training—offered through Keepnet Labs’ Security Awareness Training, helps users understand the full range of cyber threats and the best responses, building a flexible approach to security.

Why Consistent, Context Rich Messaging Matters in Cybersecurity

The squid’s color language also underscores the importance of consistency in communication. When the giant flying squid signals an action, all members of the group understand it the same way, reducing the likelihood of accidental collisions or missed hunting opportunities. In cybersecurity, consistent messaging reduces misinterpretation and improves response time to cyber incidents.

Consider how phishing attacks can exploit confusion and inconsistency in security messaging. A well coordinated phishing attack can easily bypass defenses if the response is not immediate and cohesive. By training teams to recognize phishing signals, and by ensuring the entire organization is on the same page, businesses can minimize the damage.

Explore Phishing Risk Scores to see how structured scoring improves user awareness and reduces vulnerabilities.

Moving from Reactive to Proactive Security

In the ocean, the squid’s color language allows it to preemptively signal an action before it happens. Similarly, cybersecurity teams can benefit from proactive messaging systems that signal potential risks before they escalate into full scale incidents. For example, multi factor authentication phishing simulations can act as proactive training tools, giving employees advance preparation on how to identify MFA phishing attacks before encountering them.

Check out How MFA Phishing Simulations Reinforce Digital Walls for more insights on proactive security measures.

Building a Culture of Rapid Response with Coordinated Communication

The squid’s coordinated color language also exemplifies a strong, shared understanding of roles. In cybersecurity, building a culture of rapid response can ensure that every team member knows their role during a security event. This coordinated approach is particularly important for incident response, where quick decisions can make all the difference. With tools like Keepnet Labs’ Incident Responder, teams can implement structured response workflows that allow them to respond to threats effectively.

Final Thoughts: Learning from Nature to Strengthen Cybersecurity

The giant flying squid shows us how powerful a well-coordinated communication system can be. By applying these principles, cybersecurity teams in 2026 can develop faster, more coordinated responses to threats. The squid's model is essentially a zero-latency, context-rich, role-specific signaling system that produces immediate coordinated action. Security teams that develop the equivalent through well-designed incident communication protocols, trained employees who know exactly how to respond to specific threat signals, and security awareness programs that build shared threat vocabulary are demonstrably more resilient than those that rely on improvised communication during incidents.

As cyber threats grow more complex in 2026, businesses can learn from these natural systems to enhance their own cybersecurity frameworks. The parallel is not merely poetic: the research on collective animal communication has directly influenced thinking about distributed security operations, automated threat response coordination, and the design of security awareness programs that build instinctive recognition rather than procedural compliance. Organizations that treat security communication as a core competency rather than an afterthought will consistently outperform those that do not.

Editor's Note: This article was updated on June 1, 2026.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the cybersecurity lesson from the giant flying squid's color language?

The giant flying squid coordinates hunting behavior through rapid, unambiguous color signals using specialized skin cells called chromatophores. The cybersecurity parallel is clear communication under pressure: just as squid use precise, context specific signals that the group immediately understands, security teams need communication protocols that are fast, unambiguous, and adapted to the specific threat context. Vague or delayed alerts are as useless as a squid flashing the wrong color pattern at a critical moment.

Why does communication quality matter in incident response?

During a security incident, the speed and clarity of internal communication directly affects how quickly the threat is contained. Ambiguous escalation paths, inconsistent terminology, and unclear role assignments cause delays that attackers benefit from. Organizations that establish clear incident communication protocols, including who receives what alerts, what the severity levels mean, and what action is required at each stage, contain incidents faster and with less collateral damage. Keepnet's Incident Responder provides structured workflows that ensure phishing reports reach the right people with the right context immediately.

What is contextual communication in cybersecurity and why does it improve outcomes?

Contextual communication means providing not just an alert but the surrounding information needed to act on it correctly. An alert that says only 'suspicious login detected' requires investigation before action. An alert that says 'suspicious login from an unrecognized country on an account that never previously logged in remotely, following a phishing simulation click three hours ago' gives a responder immediate context for triage. Investing in security tools and training programs that produce contextual, actionable information reduces mean time to respond significantly.

How does nature inspired thinking apply to cybersecurity defense strategies?

Many effective cybersecurity concepts draw on principles observed in natural systems. Swarm intelligence informs distributed threat detection. Immune system analogies underpin anomaly detection models. The squid example highlights how coordinated, rapid signaling within a group enables collective defense. These analogies are useful not just for inspiration but as mental models that help non technical stakeholders understand complex security concepts. Communicating security principles through familiar analogies improves employee engagement with security awareness training.

What is proactive security and how does it differ from reactive security?

Reactive security responds to threats after they have occurred: detecting malware after it has executed, investigating a breach after data has been exfiltrated, or training employees after a phishing click has happened. Proactive security anticipates threats and addresses them before they cause damage: running phishing simulations before a real attack tests employee readiness, patching vulnerabilities before exploitation, and monitoring for early indicators of compromise before an attacker achieves their objective. The squid's preemptive color signaling is a natural model of proactive coordination.

How does security awareness training improve organizational communication about threats?

Security awareness training creates a shared vocabulary and response framework across the entire organization. When all employees understand what phishing looks like, what to do when they receive a suspicious email, and how to report it, the organization functions with the coordinated clarity of the squid's color signaling. Without this shared understanding, different employees respond differently to the same threat, creating the confusion and inconsistency that attackers exploit. Keepnet's Security Awareness Training builds this shared framework across roles and teams.

What is a culture of rapid response and how do organizations build it?

A culture of rapid response means employees treat security incidents as everyone's immediate responsibility rather than something to escalate slowly through formal channels. It is built through clear reporting procedures that remove friction from the reporting process, training that gives employees confidence they will not be blamed for reporting mistakes, regular practice through phishing simulations, recognition of correct reporting behavior, and leadership that visibly treats security seriously. Organizations with this culture have shorter dwell times and smaller breach impacts than those without it.

What are chromatophores and why is the squid's signaling system remarkable?

Chromatophores are specialized pigment containing cells in the skin of cephalopods including squid and octopuses. They can expand and contract rapidly under neural control, producing instant color changes across large areas of skin. What makes the flying squid's system remarkable is the complexity and speed of the coordination: different body regions can display different patterns simultaneously, and the patterns change in coordinated sequences that appear to convey specific information to other squid in the group. This represents a sophisticated distributed communication system that operates without a central coordinator, a principle that also underlies effective distributed security architectures.

How does phishing exploit confusion and inconsistency in security communication?

Phishing attacks succeed in part by exploiting the inconsistency between how legitimate organizations communicate and how attackers impersonate them. When employees are uncertain what a genuine IT request looks like, what a real password reset notification contains, or what sender domain their bank actually uses, they cannot reliably distinguish real from fake. Attackers deliberately introduce urgency and authority to short circuit careful evaluation. Organizations that establish clear, consistent communication patterns for sensitive requests, and train employees to recognize deviations from those patterns, make phishing significantly less effective.

What is human risk management and how does it relate to organizational communication?

Human risk management is the practice of measuring, tracking, and reducing the security behaviors that create organizational risk. It treats human vulnerability as a manageable organizational variable rather than an unavoidable constant. Effective human risk management requires clear communication: employees need to understand their risk scores, why certain behaviors are risky, and what specific actions will reduce their risk. Keepnet's human risk management platform provides the measurement and communication tools organizations need to build a security aware workforce.