BSidesChicago 2017

Bridging the socio-technical divide is imperative to creating a secure future. The thing is, technologists and "normals" (i.e. non-technical folk, whom I've also heard called "Muggles" at cons-- because that's not demeaning or anything) work differently. We think differently. We speak differently. And until we're able to show normals that we understand their needs and are here to help, they will continue to view us with mistrust.

That, of course, requires that technologists actually be able to understand their needs. In my talk, I leverage insights from cognitive science, psychology, economics, design and other disciplines to help techies and infosec professionals engage with normals, be they executives or users, companies, customers or kids.

This topic should be considered because it is critical to the future of information security. Security won't work until it works for everyone, which includes the non-technical folks who shy away at any mention of "cybersecurity," "hackers," or "two-factor authentication."
 
Technologists are realizing this, and we are at the beginning of a shift in the infosec community: user experience and user interface designers are finding roles at cybersecurity companies; we're seeing tools with dashboards, not the command prompt. But successful user adoption requires education, interaction, and trust-- and that only comes with real-life, in-person interactions.