10-17, 12:00–12:50 (America/New_York), Track 2 (206a)
Language: English
Incident response or cybersecurity in general is stressful, and not everyone seems to have the same ability to solve problems and make good decisions under high levels of stress. This talk will showcase my view on the various challenges and stressors that incident responders face daily. In addition, I will demystify stress, its impact on decisions, and provide the audience with tools & techniques to overcome the stress effect in the hope of upping their game and minimizing the risk of missteps during an incident.
Incident response or cybersecurity in general is stressful, and not everyone seems to have the same ability to solve problem and make good decisions under high levels of stress.
As Cybersecurity professionals, we spend countless hours mastering our craft and learning about various systems. However, when an unexpected incident hits and stress is added to the mix, everything we knew and thought we had under control easily goes out the window - a completely natural part of being human.
It’s worth remembering that perhaps the most intricate system we’ll ever navigate isn’t digital at all—it’s ourselves. To help both new and experienced incident responders level up, this talk turns inward to explore our own internal command center: the brain
To bring this journey to life, I’ll walk you through the OODA Loop—a proven framework used in high-stakes situations—to help make sense of our reactions and responses.Moreover, we’ll explore practical techniques and methodologies that helps build resilience, raise our stress threshold, and support recovery after intense or prolonged stress.
Above all, my goal is to leave the audience with greater awareness and a practical decision-making mindset and methodologies to rely on not only in high-stress events, but in their every day lives.
Kevin Awad is a dynamic Leadership, Executive, and High Performance Coach on a mission to empower and unlock the hidden potential in the cybersecurity community through his practice @The Hyper Coach. Aside from his immense passion for leadership, strategy, and human performance, he is distinguished as a SOC builder with over a decade of hands-on experience in the field and a few SOC teams later. Currently, he serves at the SOC Manager at Genetec where his focus is on leading his team to success!