Branded a ‘people hacker’ Jenny established a corporate career before an interest in social engineering - how people can be manipulated into revealing confidential information or permitting access - led her into the security world. With a mixture of entertaining anecdotes and revealing, sometimes worrying, insights she explains how the human element is invariably the easiest target for those out to access both the physical and digital assets of an organisation.
View / Submit“A great, interesting, upbeat and lively speaker, she met our objectives perfectly”
Chubb Group
Jenny Radcliffe is a social engineer and security expert. She focuses on the human elements that are so often exploited by those seeking to gain unauthorised access online and in the real world. Branded a ‘people hacker’, as well as bypassing the strictest security she can diffuse a crisis and spot a lie in seconds.
Having established a career in supply chain and procurement in industrial manufacturers, Jenny also trained staff in negotiation. At the same time she had a personal interest in how people were duped or manipulated into revealing confidential information or permitting access - known as social engineering. She was then approached by a bank to test their security – to see if she could talk her way in. It was the start of a new career exploring the human frailties in security systems. Since then she has ‘broken into’ over 650 locations, everything from building sites to the Tower of London, without ever picking a lock or faking a security pass.
As the value of data overtakes physical assets, in addition to the integrity of building security, Jenny’s work covers the digital domain. Malign actors are aware that attacking an organisation through technology is hard – much easier to ask a human the right questions. Jenny considers how such attacks work and what to look out for. She explains how routine is hacker’s best friend and highlights how even a private Facebook profile has enough information to lead, eventually, to someone’s job, and ultimately access to secure information.
Like ethical hackers in the digital world, Jenny exposes security flaws for the greater good – to highlight weaknesses, raise awareness, and enable fixes. She considers natural human instincts, and those enabled by organisational culture. She looks at the science of behaviour and questions our assumptions and the people we trust. She examines how to put security at the forefront without making systems and processes overly complex.
Jenny has worked with law enforcement and the military, financial services and politicians. As well as challenging the most observant gatekeepers she also trains people in non-verbal communications, and questioning and negotiation techniques. She’s worked with banks on the public awareness of fraud, and is a regular media commentator on security issues. Jenny also lectures at the University of Liverpool and is the host of the popular The Human Factor podcast.
Alongside the serious security lessons Jenny also recounts entertaining tales from testing systems designed to be impenetrable. She also explains her personal story, graduating from a childhood mischievously breaking into abandoned properties to entering high-security infrastructure projects with military guards. She also tells audiences whether someone’s honest or not (and dispells some of the popular myths of body language).
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