The IT Pro Podcast: The psychology of security
How hackers exploit our brains as well as our binary

Security is an unusual field; while it’s one of the fastest-moving areas of IT in some ways, in other aspects it hasn’t changed in decades. For example, phishing, business email compromise and physical infiltration tactics have remained largely unchanged over the years.
That might seem odd, compared to the rate of change in other areas, but it’s because these techniques rely on exploiting fundamental quirks of human nature – quirks that allow hackers to manipulate us for their own ends. But what buttons do these attack methods push in our heads and is there any way for us to fight back? In this episode, we talk to Stephen Burke, CEO and founder of Cyber Risk Aware, to learn more.
In the news this week, we discuss Minecraft’s migration to Azure, Salesforce silencing Einstein, and the government accidentally breaking data protection rules with its Track and Trace programme.
Footnotes
News
- UK gov admits Track and Trace scheme 'breaches GDPR’
- Salesforce quietly kills off Einstein Voice Assistant and Voice Skills
- Microsoft will shift Minecraft from AWS to Azure
In-depth
- What hackers don’t want you to know
- Why business resilience matters in times of crisis (and beyond)
- IT pros air their opinions on phishing employees
- The top 12 password-cracking techniques used by hackers
- What is ethical hacking? White hat hackers explained
- Inside the mind of a hacker
- The truth about hacking
- The IT Pro Podcast: The secret life of hackers
- Stories from the front line: The secrets of the Red Team revealed
- An inside job: The human factor of cyber security
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