Dr Jessica Barker MBE – Cyber Security Expert

Leverage the human side of cyber to strengthen your security.

Leader in the human side of cyber security.

Dr Jessica Barker MBE is a best-selling author and international keynote speaker.

An award-winning leader in the human side of cyber security, she has delivered face-to-face awareness sessions to over 70,000 people in over 25 countries.

She is the go-to cyber expert for media including the BBC, Sky News and Wired magazine – and has commented on cyber security issues for TV and radio over 100 times.

Jessica has delivered over 80 keynotes, including NATO, the World Government Summit, RSA, Gartner and Arm.

Her speaking engagements bring the sociology and psychology of cyber security to life. She serves on numerous industry boards, including the UK Government Cyber Security Board.

In June 2023, Jessica was awarded an MBE for services to cyber security by King Charles III in his first Birthday Honours

Known for her ability to engage everyone from senior executives to ethical hackers, she brings energy, enthusiasm, and fun to cyber security.

Jessica is co-Founder of the cyber security company Cygenta, where she focuses on her purpose to advance cyber security awareness, behaviour, and culture in organisations around the world.

The author of the best-selling books Hacked: The Secrets Behind Cyber Attacks and Confident Cyber Security, she helps audiences around the world understand why people are the heart of cyber security.

When Jessica is not working, she loves learning and over the years she has taken classes in everything from horse riding to singing to circus skills.

Born in the North East of England, she now lives in Las Vegas, USA.

Talks & Topics

Why Social Engineering is BS

Social engineering is involved in most ‘hacks’, with phishing the number one threat to organizations.

In this keynote, Dr. Jessica Barker explores the psychology, neuroscience, and sociology of scams.

She explores the emotional bait that criminals use to manipulate us and the human biases that make us all vulnerable.

Using real-world examples of phishing emails, messages, and calls, Jessica walks through how criminals push the emotional buttons of their targets and get us to click before we think.

Participants leave with a greater awareness of how and why we are manipulated, helping them spot scams and be more vigilant against cybercrime.

Why Culture is Key to Cyber Security

Cyber security culture eats breaches for breakfast. In this session, Dr. Jessica Barker explains what this really means: what actually is security culture and why is it so important?

Jessica makes cyber security culture real: it is not something intangible but rather something that we can define, understand, measure, and influence.

She explains why it is the foundation of an organization’s security posture.

Participants leave this session with a greater understanding not only of what culture is but also of how they can play a part in building a positive security culture.

Jessica shares practical advice to help everyone stay safe online at home as well as at work.

How a Hack Works: Demonstrating a Phishing Attack

Year after year, phishing attacks keep on growing. It is now the biggest online threat to organizations.

This session brings the who, how, and why of phishing to life.
Dr. Jessica Barker explores how phishing attacks work, the human factors behind them, and what we can do to mitigate them.

Including a demonstration of a spear-phishing email attack (from the attacker and victim side), participants leave with an insight into the reality of cyber insecurity and both the human and technical elements at play.

The Human Nature of Cyber Security

Cyber security is so often presented and discussed in deeply technical terms. While technology is at the heart of cyber security, so is human awareness, behavior and culture.

In this session, Dr Jessica Barker highlights how human bias makes us all susceptible to online manipulation and how we can practically apply psychology, sociology, and neuroscience to understand how cyber criminals operate.

These insights are especially paramount with the growth of AI, as Jessica demonstrates.

You will leave this session looking at cyber security in a different light, leaving you with an understanding of how to unlock the human element of this field.

“Jessica did an amazing job covering the material and answering all the questions that were addressed. I even raved to my daughters about her presentation! Job well done”. Autodesk

“It was awesome to have Jessica keynote. It is speakers like her who move the quality needle for us”. Cisco Cloud Security