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Cybersecurity Insights

a NIST blog

Learning, Sharing, and Exploring with NIST’s New Human-Centered Cybersecurity Community of Interest

September 4, 2024

By: Jody Jacobs and Julie Haney

Human-centered cybersecurity (also known as ‘usable security’) involves the social, organizational, and technological influences on people’s understanding of and interactions with cybersecurity. By taking a human-centered cybersecurity (HCC) approach, we can both improve people's cybersecurity experiences and achieve better cybersecurity outcomes, which is so important in today’s digitally interconnected world.

At NIST, we understand the value of making connections, listening, and interactivity. We also understand that researchers and practitioners want to hear directly from each other—and talk directly with each other. Since it can be difficult to make connections in the HCC space (and figure out how exactly to get involved), we realized it was time to create a Human-Centered Cybersecurity Community of Interest (COI). We are truly excited to get this long-awaited group off the ground and create a space for researchers and practitioners to interact and begin tackling human-centered cybersecurity issues together.

This new COI provides a mechanism for researchers and practitioners around the world to share information and discuss HCC topics. Researchers can also use the COI to enlist the help of practitioners in their research. This opportunity for a mutual exchange of ideas and feedback will hopefully provide practitioners with a better awareness of HCC, help researchers understand practitioner contexts, and could shape future research. This will help us all grow and learn together.

We are excited about the launch of this COI and look forward to learning, sharing, and exploring with you soon.

We encourage researchers, practitioners, or anyone interested in this field
to learn more and sign up for our Human-Centered Cybersecurity COI.

Feel free to email the team with questions: human-cybersec [at] nist.gov (human-cybersec[at]nist[dot]gov).

Want to learn about other COIs at NIST?

Last year, we launched a unique Small Business COI and wrote a blog about it. We also have several COI’s at the NIST NCCoE and under the NICE program, among others, across NIST.

Partnerships

About the author

Jody Jacobs

Jody Jacobs is a Computer Scientist in the Visualization and Usability Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Her research interests include user susceptibility to phishing attacks, security adoption, and security awareness. Previously she spent over 20 years working in the private sector in security networking, network and systems operations, and business continuity. She was a member of the NIST FISMA team, which produces security standards and guidelines required by Congressional legislation. She has a B.S. in Environmental Science from the University of Rochester and an M.S. in Information Systems from Strayer University.

Julie Haney

Julie Haney is a Computer Scientist in the Visualization and Usability Group at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. She leads the NIST Human-Centered Cybersecurity Program and conducts research about the human element of cybersecurity and privacy. Previously she spent over 20 years working at Department of Defense as a cybersecurity professional and technical leader. She earned a Ph.D. in Human-Centered Computing from University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She has a B.S. in Computer Science from Loyola University Maryland and an M.S. in Computer Science from University of Maryland.

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