Free Your Mind: Battling Our Biases

This non-technical talk looks at how cognitive biases shape the way people in security ask questions, share information and make decisions. The speaker starts with newcomers and the feelings that often come with being new, such as fearing you look foolish when you ask something basic. These feelings are linked to self-handicapping, where people avoid challenges to protect their self-esteem, and to shared information bias, where groups spend their time on what everyone already knows and skip what only a few people know.

The second part addresses experienced practitioners. Accumulated knowledge brings status quo bias, confirmation bias and a blind spot about one's own biases, which can make it hard to hear good ideas from less experienced colleagues. The speaker argues that experts should ask clarifying questions even when they know the answer, and that teams should make room for others to fail safely and speak up. The talk also covers divergent thinking, illustrated with the many uses of a paper clip, a red team interview scenario about controlling a light, and a classroom exercise on getting out of a test.

The closing takeaways are practical: beginners should stay curious and question claims regardless of seniority, while experts should model open questioning. The session ends with an audience exchange about other ways to turn a light off or prevent it from being switched off.