Compromising Positions - A Technology Podcast · Compromising Positions

Are Our Cybersecurity Controls Inclusive? Going Beyond Hiring When It Comes to Diversity in Cybersecurity

October 9, 2024·48 min·4 clips

Leanne Potter argues cybersecurity fails by ignoring how controls like passwords exclude people based on their backgrounds.

The question starts right where security teams live: with the control everyone says will make things easier. Easier for who, though? This episode keeps coming back to the people left outside that promise. Marcy Shawar brings a social-tech view that treats inclusion as something built into authentication journeys, interfaces, and real user testing, not something solved by hiring alone. Representation matters, but the control still has to work for the people expected to use it. That makes usability testing the hard, practical test. A product can be technically sharp and still miss if nobody asks diverse final users whether it works for them. The France comparison gives the conversation some bite. Marcy describes resistance to asking questions, while Geoff notes that user interviews in the UK were treated as oddly radical. That discomfort is part of the story. Without interviews and honest testing, security teams may be smoothing the path for the users they already understand. Alba Villamil's work gives the episode a useful way forward. Learn from user research methods for working with marginalized people, then structure testing so participants are selected before the interview. The hosts bring it back inside the organization: talk to user research teams and look again at the user journey. Authentication needs a reset. By the end, inclusive cybersecurity sounds less like a slogan and more like a habit: ask who benefits, test with the people affected, then ask again.

As heard by us

A practical case for designing security around real users, not ideal ones.

Compromising Positions frames diversity, equity, and inclusion in cybersecurity as a design problem rather than a hiring slogan. Marcy Shawar steers the hosts toward practical ground: accessible security controls, more inclusive password design patterns, and usability testing…

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Why you'd press play

You want cyber inclusion that reaches the authentication flow, not just the hiring plan.

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