Cyber disruptions are rarely clear-cut. Impact is often uncertain, timelines unclear, and threats evolve quickly. Teams must make decisions under pressure, ambiguity, and while suffering from fatigue. Yet, cybersecurity as a domain continues to underestimate the role of human performance capabilities and limitations in detection, response, and recovery.
This talk introduces a cognitive readiness framework based on applied research in human factors and performance engineering. Dr. Cunningham will show how cybersecurity teams can build resilience and improve performance during disruptions by focusing on cognitive readiness. Drawing from large-scale operational testing and evaluation exercises developed for distributed, high-stress teams such as first responders, she will show how these strategies can be tailored to security teams of any size or maturity.
Effective response and recovery depend on situational awareness, shared mental models, and the ability to coordinate under pressure. Without a deep understanding of these factors, teams risk delayed action, role confusion, poor communication, and degraded performance due to cognitive overload and fatigue.
As the number of unique and complex threats continue to grow, and the barrier for entry lowers through widespread adoption of adversarial AI techniques, it is critical that human performance and cognitive readiness is central to strategies for any serious strategy for managing cyber disruptions.
