Exploring the socio-technical challenge: What even are human factors?! and why should I care?
Although technical measures have played a vital role in enhancing cybersecurity, the changing landscape has shifted towards exploiting human vulnerabilities. Most recorded attacks now target behavioural vulnerabilities, highlighting the need to comprehend and encourage positive security behaviours. However, securing human behaviour poses a significant challenge, with individual motivations, environmental influences, and cognitive biases amongst a myriad of factors contributing to the complexity of the challenge. This village seeks to shed light on the complexity of the human challenge in cybersecurity. First, through a series of talks featuring academic and industry experts, we aim to showcase the diverse range of influences on human behaviour. From psychological biases to organisational culture and geopolitics, our speakers will explore the multifaceted nature of human factors and their implications for increasing positive security behaviours. In addition to the talks, attendees can participate in various human factors related interactive sessions, including a novel board game that simulates the development of a digital healthcare start-up, challenging players to make strategic product and cybersecurity decisions as board members. Finally, our village will facilitate an expert panel discussion on pressing questions surrounding human factors, including “How do we know interventions are working?” and ”What even are human factors?!”.
