Emily Holyoake on Security Culture, Human Risk and Canberra Roundabouts

Recorded live at the inaugural Canberra CyberConnect 2026, David sits down with Emily Holyoake, Executive Director and co-founder of Not A Standard and one of the creators of the SAFE Framework, a multidisciplinary approach that brings cyber security, criminology and behavioural science together to map how adversaries exploit people, technology and systems. Emily is a proud Wurundjeri woman and a passionate advocate for neurodiversity in cyber.In this conversation, Emily unpacks the thinking behind one of the best titled talks on the program, Navigating Human Risk: What to Do When Your Security Culture Handles Like a Canberra Roundabout. She explains why great security culture is really a design problem, when you want people safely on autopilot and when you want them to slow down and think, and why phishing simulations so often do more harm than good. Along the way she makes the case that humans are our greatest asset rather than the weakest link, that looking after our people is the best defence against insider risk, and that we all need to be wrong more.Whether you are a new CISO building your first 30-day plan or you simply want to bring your security program back to the people it serves, this one is full of practical and genuinely human thinking.Please note this episode contains a brief reference to suicide. If anything in this episode affects you, support is available in Australia through Lifeline on 13 11 14 or at lifeline.org.au. If this conversation resonates with you, subscribe to Cyber Voices on your podcast app of choice and leave us a five-star review. It helps others find the show.Cyber Voices is the official podcast of the Australian Information Security Association (AISA).