Cyber Empathy Andra Zaharia

My guest, Lianne Potter, feels utterly differently about how to educate people on cybersecurity. Instead of fear, she advocates for empowering them through trust, autonomy, and, above all things, reciprocity.

One thing that I think you'd be intrigued to discover in this episode is that we're actually mad at the wrong people; we're angry at the wrong people in cybersecurity, and you're going to see exactly what I mean by this towards the end of this episode

Of the massive number of brilliant and skillful ethical hackers working their eyes out to fight back against cybercrimes, only a few could remove the blinkers and realize the importance of fixing the areas where bits and bytes meet flesh and blood. 

That's why the world needs more people like Joshua Corman, a true cybersecurity visionary, not because he predicted things like cyber terrorism but because he realized and preached the importance of authenticity, collective action, and human connection in driving positive change decades ago.

Can the people around you tell the difference between phishing, vishing, and smishing? Probably not. And it doesn’t really matter - because that’s now what cybersecurity is about.

As information security specialists, it’s up to us to teach people how to navigate the digital world safely, how to recognize suspicious activity, and deal with it. It’s not their job to understand how cookies collect their data or how security products work.

There’s no one who can better explain this in a way that feels personal and true the way Javvad Malik does. I’m SO thrilled to have him on Cyber Empathy!

Sharing our personal information online as a condition to access content has become a reflex. We hit the "I've read and agree to the terms and conditions" button without thinking about it. In fact, only a handful would notice if anything else is written in that box.

Yet things are starting to change; those worried about data privacy aren't only hackers anymore. The wave of awareness that questions what companies do with the personal information we share with them has started spreading to every corner of the cybersphere.

If you boil cybersecurity down to its essence, you'll find a hacker doing their best to educate, communicate, and help people see the world the way they do: with curiosity and the innate desire to understand it and make it better.

Yet what's the community reaction when a message fails to land as expected? It’s (still too) often victim-blaming, a sarcastic remark, or a vague piece of advice to do more of… something.

Welcome to Season 5 of Cyber Empathy! Today, Vivek Ramachandran joins me to discuss the importance of empathy, compassion, and vulnerability and how instrumental they were in the relationships he built at the multiple companies he founded, his personal life, and with himself. As the Founder of SquareX, Pentester Academy (acquired), Defcon and Blackhat speaker, and book author, Vivek's experience spans geographies, evolutionary stages in cybersecurity, and an intense personal growth journey.