Off Script Hey! Radio

"Why The Cyber Security Industry Needs to Hire More Anthropologists"
with Lianne Potter and Josh Nesbitt


Date of recording: 18th March, 2021


Why does the cyber security industry need to hire more anthropologists? Because the criminals already are.


By 2025 it is estimated $10.5 trillion will be lost to cyber criminals. Hacking humans is a very lucrative business.


Social engineering is one of the easiest and most effective ways to access a secure system. Cyber criminals know this, and they are increasingly leaning on the research and techniques of the social science disciplines to leverage the human element into letting them into our lives, our businesses and our bank accounts. Yet, while the security industry is always striving to be ‘one step ahead’ of the criminals in terms of technical capabilities, it often neglects the need to consider the very social nature of hacking.


As more of our lives are now online, how can security practitioners increase security awareness and build up our resilience to unite against malicious actors looking to leverage our weakest, but what could be our strongest, defences in cyber-warfare - our people?


This discussion puts people and social science at the centre of the solution. Utilising anthropological theories and methodologies - such as reciprocity, participant observation and tribalism - Lianne will demonstrate why cyber security teams need to hire beyond technical expertise and look towards the social sciences for the next advancements in cyber fortification to respond to this ever-increasing threat.


To face this threat, we need to readdress the fact that technology does not exist without human interaction. Cyber security practitioners must cater for a wide breadth of expertise, capabilities, experiences, cultural norms, along with all equalities and disparities that frame these individuals. This task is not one for the computer scientist alone and it highlights the urgency to address this problem from an anthropological perspective.

"Empathy at work"
with Sharon Steed, Communilogue and Josh Nesbitt, Hey!


Date of recording: Tuesday, 10th November, 2020


We welcomed Sharon Steed to Hey! Live as our guest in November for a special, free live-streamed lecture. Sharon and Hey! Founder, Josh Nesbitt explored "Empathy at work".


Transformational culture starts with empathy. But how do you make that happen? How do you create a culture that everyone feels heard in? Respected? Where each individual knows them and their ideas are valuable to not only their coworkers, but the company at large?


These are the ideas Communilogue’s founder and principal Sharon Steed examines in her ebook "Empathy at work". Communilogue is also an empathy consultancy, so we can't wait for Sharon's insight into this fascinating topic at our live-streamed event.


Sharon speaks at companies and conferences globally on empathy at work. Her story is unique in that she got her start speaking and consulting in a non-traditional way.


Sharon is a life-long stutterer, and she uses her speech impediment to teach what empathy is and how to use it as a foundation for positive and effective communication. Stuttering has informed her view of communication as a result of years of being both terrified to speak but also fascinated with the the intricacies of conversation. She has spoken about empathy and communication, vulnerability and her experiences as a stutterer at conferences and companies globally.


"Empathy at work" is a topic Sharon has fantastic insight into. She has written an ebook about it facilitates a training course of the same name.

We're happy to welcome Lu Liu, software engineer from Fintech industry to Off Script by Hey! Radio.


This is a story with practical lessons about how it's never too late to get into technology. Lu shares her journey into tech, how she got into the industry and how she overcame the difficulty and obstacles she encountered at the beginning of her career. She extracts key advice and takeaways she's learned that will be useful for people who are trying to change their career path into tech or students who want to pursue a career in tech.


There are lessons in Lu's talk that also benefit anyone with more experience in the industry who wants to reconnect with what that journey feels like if say, you manage a team with people who are. It's easy to lose sight of what the beginning feels like so there is something in this for all levels of industry experience.

In this discussion with Laura and Hey! founder Josh Nesbitt, we’ll cover technologies that improve our everyday lives as well as powering online movements, and how those same technologies can be used against us. Over the past few years, Laura has invested her time fighting for the regulation of surveillance capitalism, while building alternatives in her work for the Small Technology Foundation. In today’s world, activism increasingly relies on technology, making now a more important time than ever to discuss how technology can be used quickly and safely to spread facts and support action.


Do you have any thoughts on the topics covered or your own experiences? Join the conversation and let us know with a review or via our social media channels. Subscribe for future episodes.

In this episode of Off Script, All Day Hey! co-founders Josh Nesbitt and Harry Roberts break down what it takes to run a conference and how it came to be.


We discuss:



How All Day Hey! Came into existence
Why we do it
The responsibility of hosting people and bringing them into the city
This year’s ADH lineup and how we curate it
Reflecting on an event


Talk referenced in episode:
Chris Kershaw’s Lightening Talk from All Day Hey! 2018


Full conference information and tickets available at:
alldayhey.com


Do you have any thoughts on the topics covered or your own experiences? Join the conversation and let us know with a review or via our social media channels. Subscribe for future episodes.

I'm excited to welcome James Hall to the first episode of Off Script as we explore a favourite topic of mine, "Wasn't the web better 10 years ago?". James is a good friend who I've known for many years. We've have had plenty of conversations about the state of web technology as we've progressed through our careers and during this episode James gives a good insight into how web technologies have changed over the years. In this episode we discuss:



Historical traits of the web
What has changed with the web compared to 10 years ago?
The evolution of web frameworks
How JavaScript tooling has has become more complicated
The problems solved by package managers


Do you have any thoughts on the topics covered or your own experiences? Join the conversation and let us know with a review or via our social media channels. Subscribe for future episodes.