Swear words are only words, really. If you use them the same way you would use any other verb, noun, or adjective, they have no distinct power. Their rarity (and the way people are trained to respond to them) is what gives them their power to offend.
Lewis Black jokes that, in New York, "Fuck" isn't a swear word, it's a comma. If used in such frequency, I am certain the reaction to it is significantly less interesting than if you were to utter it in the middle of a small town Southern Baptist Church during Sunday service.
But, swear words do have a purpose. They provide a way, in our language, to raise attention to a point that is above what is normal. It is how you make a distinction between a problem, a big problem, and a big fucking problem. How do you emphasize the significance when people are so used to the language that they are able to simply tune out? You shock them by saying something they haven't heard in common conversation.
So, how does this apply to Information Security? Think about the words that are bandied around in common circles for Information Security news and topics. Think about the reaction the term "Incident" probably has now with all the coverage about Sony in the news, and all the legislative language that tries (and mostly fails) to define due diligence for Operations.
Is it a problem, a big problem, or a big fucking problem? And are we turning it into mere punctuation or offending the people we hope to influence?
