2025-10-30 –, Main Hall
I’ll be sharing my story of being cyberstalked — luckily for me (and now, for you), my stalker was pretty bad at it. That meant I was able to collect evidence, piece together what was happening, and now I get to share it with the world.
This session aims to raise awareness about a topic that often goes undiscussed, along with some cyber safety tips, and a touch of humour to make sense of a scary situation. I’ll walk you through how things escalated and what I did to protect myself. Expect some laughs and real-world advice to help you and your loved ones stay safer online.
In this talk, I want to provide the audience with insight into what cyberstalking can look like based on my experience. Stalking affects 1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men. It's no longer a matter of if, but when someone you know or yourself will be impacted. As security-curious folks, we have both the awareness and the tools to help protect ourselves and our whānau — but only if we’re paying attention.
I'll be sharing the lessons I learnt. This includes how to assess your digital footprint (a.k.a. how to stalk yourself), how to spot early warning signs, and what the reporting process looks like, along with examining your digital footprint and identifying the early warning signs. It’s also a reminder that online safety isn’t just about phishing and 2FA — it’s about people, community, and how we protect ourselves and each other in digital spaces.
I'm not just a researcher studying this; I lived it. I’m a consultant at SafeAdvisory, and at the time this all started, I was studying cybersecurity at AUT and co-founding a digital privacy startup. (You would think my stalker would've been a bit more careful after stalking my LinkedIn - but they weren't LOL) I've been active online since childhood, often playing Club Penguin and Minecraft, where I chatted with strangers. I genuinely thought I had my digital footprint locked down. I didn’t. This talk is about the real-life incident response process I had to run… on my own life. From tracking what was out there about me, to warning my friends, to eventually filing police reports — I’ve been through it all. I hope the mix of lived experience, professional insight, and a 10/10 sense of humour makes this session informative, real, and maybe just a little unhinged
Hi, I'm Bernie - you might know me from the AUT cybersecurity club or AKL ISIG. I'm quite new to the industry, having only graduated in August 2024. I'm a cybersecurity consultant by day and a roast kumara vendor by night :) A few years back, I was cyberstalked, and I became somewhat obsessed with stalking myself to ensure I understood my digital footprint.