Launching Tomorrow: CyberPsych Podcast with Dr. Stacy Thayer
I have been studying cyberpsychology since 2002 and the most common question I’m asked is: “what is it?” Even on safari in Africa last month, amid the wildebeests, warthogs, and zebras, I found myself explaining cyberpsychology. While the zebras and wildebeests weren’t very interested, the humans really wanted to understand why, despite the overwhelming role that technology plays in our lives, we know so little about the impact on human behavior. It was hard to get a read on what the warthogs thought.
Cyberpsychology is the focus and study of the intersection between psychology and the human-technology connection. In other words, cyberpsychologists look at the relationship between humans and technology. While some may look at the impact of humans on technology, my preference is to look at how technology impacts humans. Why? For the last 20+ years, billions of people around the world have been connected by and have participated in the internet. So, why wouldn’t we want to understand how we are all impacted by this? The field of cyberpsychology is still relatively unexplored and unknown, and I believe humans would be better off if we changed that.
I love studying and teaching cyberpsychology, but what I love more is helping people learn to apply cyberpsychology to their daily lives. So, I am especially excited to announce the release of my new CyberPsych podcast. CyberPsych exists to pull back the technical curtain and look at human behavior; to ask questions and identify how the security decisions that are made every day impact people and the people in their lives.
I believe that the human factor is the thread that weaves through every interaction, incident, and investment. For every security move made, an employee is hoping it’s enough and likely losing sleep over the fear of something going wrong. For every security team, there is someone burnt out, anxious, overworked, or unsure of their career path. For the security community, mental health, burnout, neurodivergence, introversion and extraversion, and substance use and abuse are all rising topics. CyberPsych takes these topics head-on and explores the common challenge we all face – our own humanity – and how to make it better.
CyberPsych launches October 3, 2023 at 1 p.m. ET.
Episode 1: “Understand the Defender to Understand the Attacker” with Dr. Max Kilger, University of Texas at San Antonio and Founding Member of The Honeynet Project
Future Episodes Include:
Episode 2: “Wingsuitting: Security Leadership Without Fear” with Jamie Fullerton, Head of Security, Branch
Episode 3: “CISOs: Empathy for Neurodivergence Required” with Wendy Nather, Head of Advisory CISOs, Cisco
Episode: 4: “Creating a (Security) Community Around Mindfulness” with Chris Gates, Sr. Offensive Security Manager, Robinhood
Starting tomorrow, you can find on our podcast page on Netography.com and on popular podcast platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. Have a topic you’d love to discuss on the show? Email me.