EPISODE 22: Hands Off My Amygdala! The Psychology Behind Cybersecurity

Compromising Positions - A Cyber Security Podcast

This week we are joined by Bec McKeown, a chartered psychologist with extensive experience in carrying out applied research for organisations including the UK Ministry of Defence and the founder and director of Mind Science, an independent organisation that works with cybersecurity professionals

In this episode, Hands Off My Amygdala! The Psychology Behind Cybersecurity, we are going to hear about Bec’s varied and interesting career in advising people in highly stressful situations to be reflective and not reactive, and how they cannot only learn from their actions but become masters of them.

This episode is a smorgasbord of psychological concepts that will make you think twice about how you normally run your security awareness programme and but also your tabletop exercise too. And crucially, learn why people act the way they do during an actual cybersecurity incident.

Key Takeaways:

The curse of knowledge: Understanding what it's like to not understand cybersecurity from a technical perspective can be an advantage in helping you communicate better. By putting yourself in the shoes of the listener, you can convey complex ideas in a way that is easy to understand and relatable

Zero trust: While zero trust may make sense from a technical standpoint, it can lead to frustration and workarounds when it hinders employees. Theory Y suggests that people given more agency and autonomy are likely to work well, if not harder, than when constantly surveilled.

Just culture: Accepting that mistakes will be made and analysing the steps that lead to that mistake happening with a view of learning how to avoid it without blame can improve the learning culture. Most people don't come to work to be malicious, if a mistake happens it is due to other factors like stress or bad processes.

Microlearning: Nobody wants to sit in training for three hours! Microlearning helps by breaking up information into bite-sized chunks that are easy to digest. It's also important to account for different learning styles and provide information in various formats.

Amygdala hijacking: Cybercriminals leverage amygdala hijacking, which occurs when the amygdala activates the fight-or-flight response when there is no serious threat to a person's safety. It's essential to recognize the contextual cue that led you to act that way and develop strategies to deal with it before it happens.

Links to everything we discussed in this episode can be found in the show notes and if you liked the show, please do leave us a review.

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We hope you enjoyed this episode - See you next time, keep secure, and don’t forget to ask yourself, ‘Am I the compromising position here?’

Keywords: cybersecurity, curse of knowledge, covid, zero trust, psychology, reciprocity, autonomy, security awareness, military, learning styles, gamification, leader boards, crisis, tabletop exercises, amygdala hijacking

SHOW NOTES

Immersive Labs

Bec’s Article in Immersive Labs on Workforce Resiliency

Christian Hunt’s episode - Compromising Positions

Article on Theory X and Theory Y - Mind Tools

Influence by Robert Cialdini

Actionable Gamification -Yu-Kai Chou

ABOUT BEC MCKEOWN

Bec McKeown CPsychol is the Founder and Director of Mind Science, an independent organisation that works with cyber security professionals. She helps businesses to advance the human aspect of system resilience, so a collaborative culture of innovative thinking and an agile threat response becomes the norm.

As a Chartered Psychologist with extensive experience of carrying out applied research for organisations including the UK Ministry of Defence, Bec has gained a unique perspective on the ways humans react in times of crisis. She works at both operational and strategic levels, with a focus on situational awareness, decision-making and problem-solving in complex environments.

LINKS FOR BEC MCKEOWN

Bec’s LinkedIn

Mind Science LTD