Humanising Cybersecurity Through Anthropology. With Lianne Potter

Our guest today is Lianne Potter. Lianne is an anthropologist, self-taught software developer, cyber security evangelist, and entrepreneur. Lianne works at Covea Insurance as their Information Security Transformation Manager where she advocates for innovation in the cyber security field.

Lianne's talk at the 2021 Response-ability Summit was titled, "Reciprocity: Why The Cyber Security Industry Needs to Hire More Anthropologists".

In this episode Lianne is in conversation with Isabelle Cotton, a digital anthropologist and social researcher, who was curious to interview Lianne for us. As Isabelle explains, "I was interested to talk to Lianne, who uses anthropology to humanise cybercrime. I find her acute awareness of the digital divide in all of the work she does particularly powerful. She has managed to carve out a space for anthropology in an industry that favours faceless data and numbers".

During their conversation Lianne explains why she's so passionate about the digital divide and why she believes a people-based, behavioural approach to cybersecurity is so important. Lianne also explains why the technical terms used in the industry can be off-putting to many general users and why she believes storytelling is a way to raise awareness and increase engagement.

Isabelle and Lianne also explore biometric security, two-factor authentication, and the 'culture' of hacking. Lastly, Lianne shares some advice for anthropologists looking to get into cybersecurity and tech more generally.

Follow Lianne on Twitter at @Tech_Soapbox  and connect with her on LinkedIn.

Connect with Isabelle on LinkedIn and check out her website.