Using cyberpsychology to stay ahead of hackers

Federal agencies, as well as other entities across the private sector, are at a major disadvantage when it comes to protecting their sensitive information and systems from bad actors. Hackers are getting more sophisticated, and cyberattacks are increasing in quantity and severity. And, the vast majority of the time, humans are the weakest link in cyberattack vectors. A new program out of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency wants to turn that notion on its head, shifting the asymmetric nature of cyber defense to benefit defenders by building cyberpsychology-informed defenses and influencing and manipulating a cyberattacker’s decision-making throughout an attack. Dr. Kimberly Ferguson-Walter leads ReSCIND — the project which stands for Reimagining Security with Cyberpsychology-Informed Network Defenses — and she joins me now to discuss the idea behind the project, the field of cyberpsychology and the end goal of the novel initiative.