{"id":3037,"date":"2025-05-02T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/?p=3037"},"modified":"2025-05-02T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T06:00:00","slug":"neurohacks-to-outsmart-stress-and-make-better-cybersecurity-decisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/?p=3037","title":{"rendered":"Neurohacks to outsmart stress and make better cybersecurity decisions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n

Cybersecurity is one of the most high-stress professions in the world \u2014 and it\u2019s only worsening. According to ISACA\u2019s 2024 State of Cybersecurity survey<\/a>, 60% of cybersecurity professionals say their role is more stressful than five years ago. The biggest cause? A more complex threat landscape, followed by budget constraints, staffing shortages, and retention challenges.<\/p>\n

For those on the frontline of cyber defence, it\u2019s more than just burnout \u2014 it\u2019s a full-body response to a crisis. Neuroscientist and senior lecturer at the University of Tasmania Dr. Lila Landowski says the pressure that cybersecurity professionals feel<\/a> mirrors life-and-death situations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bit like being a first responder,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s the same kind of situation but instead of dealing with a dying person, it can be a dying company. As far as the body is concerned, it\u2019s the same sort of stress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Short bursts of stress aren\u2019t necessarily bad. In fact, Landowski says the stress response is what allows us to reach peak performance. \u201cIt increases oxygen flow; it opens up your lungs, so you get more oxygen in your blood vessels\u2026 and the regions of the brain that allow you to deal with that challenge and thrive in that situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

But when this response becomes constant, the body and brain can begin to suffer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe longer you\u2019re stuck in this fight-or-flight mode, it\u2019s ultimately going to have a more negative impact on your body and brain. In fact, it changes every cell in your body \u2014 right down to the level of your genes,\u201d Landowski tells CSO.<\/p>\n

As Landowski explains, chronic stress alters the brain structure by shrinking the hippocampus, which affects memory and learning, and enlarging the amygdala, which fuels emotional reactivity. She also points out that the prefrontal cortex, the decision-making part of the brain, will experience a disconnect.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll be more emotional, but you\u2019ll also be using less of that decision-making part of the brain, so you make bad decisions, your attention span reduces, and you\u2019re more selfish because you can only see your perspective and not others,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

In cybersecurity where clarity and composure are essential, particularly during a data breach or threat response, these changes can have high-stakes consequences. \u201cThe longer your brain is stuck in this high-stress state, the more of those changes you will start to see and burnout is just an extreme case of chronic stress on the brain,\u201d Landowski says.<\/p>\n

According to her, the tipping point between healthy stress and damaging chronic stress usually comes after about eight to 12 weeks, but it varies between individuals. \u201cIf you know about some of the things you can do to reduce the impact of stress on your body, you can potentially last a lot longer before you see any effects, whereas if you\u2019re less resilient, or if your genes are more susceptible to stress, then it could be less.\u201d<\/p>\n

Socialise, label and move<\/strong><\/h2>\n

One of the most effective ways to lower the stress hormone, cortisol, and release more oxytocin, often affectionately known as the love hormone, is surprisingly simple: socializing. But Landowski says cortisol levels will only lower when socializing happens face-to-face.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re texting someone, you\u2019re not getting that release of oxytocin \u2014 that only happens when you\u2019re talking to someone face-to-face,\u201d she points out. \u201cIf you\u2019re actually with people in a group setting, and you\u2019re all talking about something similar, we get this synchronization of brain waves \u2026 and that\u2019s possibly part of the reason why hanging out in groups can be so good for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talking openly about it is also helpful. \u201cPut a label on your feelings, because when you do, you reduce activation in that emotion processing part of the brain, so there\u2019s less aggression and anger. For leaders in the workplace setting, it\u2019s an amazing way of de-escalating conflict because if you ask someone, \u2018How do you feel?\u2019 the moment they put a label on it, you can see the relief they get from being honest about how they feel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other stress-busting tools Landowski recommends include mindfulness meditation where just 13 minutes a day over eight weeks can shrink the amygdala and strengthen the prefrontal cortex, 20 minutes a day in green space, regular gratitude practices, and exercise. \u201cExercise is a physical stress on your body, which makes you more resilient to psychological stress, like stresses in the workplace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Think like a hacker<\/strong><\/h2>\n

For neuroscientist, business professor at Columbia University, and former hacker Moran Cerf, the link between cybersecurity and neuroscience is instinctive. He points out that working in cybersecurity, particularly as a hacker, is often about understanding how people think and then spotting the gaps.<\/p>\n

That same shift in understanding \u2014 tuning into how the brain works under different conditions \u2014 can help cybersecurity leaders make better decisions and build more resilient teams. As Cerf highlights, he works with organizations to identify these optimal operating states, testing how individuals and entire teams respond to stress and when their brains are most effective.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe brain is not just a solid thing,\u201d Cerf says. \u201cIt operates differently when you\u2019re in different conditions; when you\u2019re hungry versus full, when you\u2019re alone versus with others, just before a deadline versus when you\u2019re a few hours ahead. Once you know that, there\u2019s the element of finding \u2026 the conditions that make a person\u2019s brain operate and perform their best.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says this understanding can inform how CISOs divide tasks, assigning roles based on who thrives under which conditions, resulting in a reduction in burnout and a boost in performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stress isn\u2019t the enemy \u2014 confusion is<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Cerf, who once consulted global leaders on nuclear decision-making, says a key lesson from neuroscience is \u201cwe all like to believe we\u2019re rational, composed, and logical thinkers, but rather our thinking is shaped by unseen assumptions, and the stories we tell ourselves\u201d. That\u2019s why Cerf urges leaders to challenge their own assumptions to help make better decisions under pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell CEOs to assume for a second that you\u2019re wrong about the fundamentals. It forces you to see how others might understand how things would work, how competitors do things\u2026and ask them to see how far you can stretch your thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Landowski and Cerf agree that stress in cybersecurity isn\u2019t going away. But by understanding how the brain works \u2014 and taking small steps to support it \u2014\u00a0cyber leaders can build teams that not only endure high-stakes environments but excel in them.<\/p>\n

As Cerf puts it: \u201cThe thing is to know when your stress is debilitating and you can\u2019t do anything, and when you\u2019re stressed, but you\u2019re still productive. If you learn to manage that \u2014 for yourself and your team \u2014 to be in the sweet spot then you can get more out of it and [stress] stops being negative.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cybersecurity is one of the most high-stress professions in the world \u2014 and it\u2019s only worsening. According to ISACA\u2019s 2024 State of Cybersecurity survey, 60% of cybersecurity professionals say their role is more stressful than five years ago. The biggest cause? A more complex threat landscape, followed by budget constraints, staffing shortages, and retention challenges. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3037"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cybersecurityinfocus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}