In the transmedia universe of Blade Runner, replicants are artificial human beings manufactured by bioengineering by Tyrell Corporation. They are physically indistinguishable from a human, except for one detail: their lack of empathic response. The Pavlov Institute developed the Voigt-Kampff test to trigger emotional responses in the subject that allowed it to be identified as an android because of its lack of empathy.
How do humans make decisions? When we don’t have access to all the necessary data to make a perfectly informed decision or don’t have enough time to collect such data, we use thinking shortcuts, simple math, stereotypes, prejudgments and hunches. Psychologists call these shortcuts heuristics and biases.
Actually, we make judgement errors that no replicant ever would. Our rationality is bounded. Maybe an irrationality test would have been better to unmask them.
Download the book ‘Irrational Decisions in Cybersecurity’
In order to help ourselves to overcome thinking errors that bias our judgements, we have published a free book: Irrational Decisions in Cybersecurity. And what better time to do it than during our Security Innovation Day 2019? Our security event based this year on the Blade Runner universe and the hunting of replicants.
The book illustrates the psychological concepts previously mentioned within its twelve chapters including examples from the cybersecurity world. Through its challenges, you will identify with the role of CISO and will see how you are not so rational when making decisions. Being aware of your biases and heuristics is the first line of defense against them.
The chapters end with specific recommendations and easily applicable ideas to detect when you are thinking wrongly. Moreover, at the end of the book you will find a comprehensive checklist to guide you when making decisions alone or in a group. By applying the principles explained in its pages, you will improve the quality of your economic and cybersecurity decisions.
You can download it for free from the book’s website, in .epub and .mobi formats, for your favorite e-Reader.
Say Goodbye to Biases, Heuristics and Thinking Errors
In particular, this book addresses the following twelve biases, heuristics and thinking errors:
- A Story about Two Minds: The Vast Difference between Real and Perceived Risks
- Risk Homeostasis: How Adding Security Measures May Make You Unsafe
- Loss Aversion: You Are Less Rational Than You Think When You Make Risk Decisions Under Uncertain Conditions
- The Framing Effect: You Make Your Choices Depending on How Information Is Presented
- The Confirmation Bias: We Seek the Information That Confirm Our Decisions, Refusing Their Opposed Evidences
- The Availability Bias: Don’t Confuse the Frequency of an Incident with How Easily You Remember It
- Nudges: If You Want to Change Your Employees’ Security Habits, Don’t Call on Their Will, but Modify Their Environment Instead
- The Representativeness Heuristic: In Pursuit of the Perfect Phishing That Would Trick Even You
- The Planning Fallacy (and other optimistic biases): Why You Are Late Delivering All Your Projects and Finally They Are More Expensive Than Expected (and What You Can Do to Address It)
- The Affect Heuristic: Your Feelings Influence Your Perception of Risk and Benefit More Than You Might Think
- The Anchor Bias: A Cybercriminal’s Blinking in Brazil May Cause a Phishing Tsunami in Russia
- The Sunk Cost Fallacy: If It Doesn’t Work, Don’t Touch It. Let It Sink
The book ends with a comprehensive checklist intended to help you make better decisions:
- Checklist: 12 Questions to Make Decisions Avoiding Bias Distortions
Warning! After reading this book, you may not pass an irrationality test because you may start making 100% rational decisions.
