Patients lose care. Communities lose trust.

Staff work through exhaustion. Responders face burnout and blame. Yet, behind every breach is also courage, resolve and recovery.

When cyber-attacks hit, the damage is not just digital. It is personal.

Have you been affected by a cyber incident?

Are you defending lifeline services?

Share your story and change the narrative on cyber resilience.

Your experience can help others prepare, respond and adapt.

Tell your story

  • “There’s a risk that any discussion about cybersecurity becomes a technical one, and when that happens, we tend to delegate it as an issue to technical people. In truth, healthcare attacks impact real people and speaking to them — victims and frontline responders, support staff and loved ones — is the only way we can really begin to understand what’s at stake.”

    Alexander Martin

    UK Editor, The Record

  • “For decades, humans have been the principal designers of software, the main developers of tools to hack it, and the primary losers when hacks happen. AI may change the first two of these, but it will still be humans who bear the brunt costs of cyber incidents.”

    Andrew James Grotto

    Director, Stanford Program on Geopolitics, Technology and Governance

  • “On paper, we have frameworks for every stage of a cyber incident. In the real world, those plans often fall apart at the first point of pressure. Listening to the people who have lived through these moments is the only way to understand what resilience actually looks like — and how we can strengthen it.”

    Sven Herpig

    Lead for Cybersecurity Policy and Resilience, Interface

  • “Cyber incidents place enormous strain on defenders. Malicious actors often launch attacks right before weekends or during holiday periods, such as Christmas, to maximise disruption. While most people take time off to rest and recharge, those responsible for defending against these incidents must instead intensify their focus and efforts. Gaining a deeper understanding of their experiences should help strengthen the overall cybersecurity ecosystem.”

    Valentin Weber

    Senior Research Fellow, German Council on Foreign Relations

  • “The energy sector is somewhat unique because the impact on people’s everyday life gets real quite fast: when there’s no fuel at the gas station, society stops, when power fails, everything else comes crumbling down. People die. The stakes are just too high for incomplete reports and speculations. We need to pay attention to real stories and what we can learn from them.”

    Pedro Umbelino

    Principal Security Researcher, BitSight‍

  • “I have prepared and supported large organisations through cyber incidents. The discussion begins with the technical analysis, moves on to the business concern, but always ends with the human impact, which is the most important aspect. Today, I support smaller companies and charities, and I experience the distress first-hand when owners have to deal with a crippling cyber incident that could force them out of business. These stories need to be told.”

    Gaurav Keerthi

    CEO / Knight, StrongKeep

  • “Like many people, I had heard that water utility critical infrastructure in towns and rural areas lacks staff and training in cybersecurity. But once I experienced those realities firsthand, the need to protect these networks became clearer. The basic things that people depend on each day could be disrupted overnight because of even common vulnerabilities threatening these water critical infrastructure networks.”

    Tim Pappa

    Volunteer, DefCon Franklin

  • “Cyber-attacks don’t just compromise systems — they undermine trust. Every breach has a human story behind it, and sharing those experiences helps us move beyond statistics to understand the real social and economic costs of insecurity. Transparency is how we build resilience.”

    Scott Shackelford

    Associate Vice President & Vice Chancellor for Research, Indiana University

  • “In the water sector, the scale of vulnerability is often overlooked. Without required or resourced basic cyber protections, much of the sector remains underprepared for today’s threats. Firefighting, sanitation, health care, and other critical services could all be part of the downstream effects. This is not a hypothetical risk; it’s a weakness in national security that must be addressed.”

    Gus Serino

    Control Systems Engineer, Water and Wastewater Sector

  • “Cyber-attacks don’t target systems, they target organisation, and people. When they occur, it’s the teams that pay the emotional price. Shame, guilt, loss of confidence, the psychological triggers are powerful yet underestimated, even neglected. We must take care of people, because they are both the first line of defence and the first victims.”

    Sébastien Garnault

    Founder, Cyber Task Force & Paris Cyber Summit

  • “It’s important to ground people in real stories because what happens in cyberspace can feel distant, faceless, and irrelevant. Ransomware incidents are a losing game, and we need to rethink the rules. Understanding the damage done to real people is the place to start.”

    Maxwell Bevilacqua   

    Founder, Mindful Negotiating

  • “Placing the voices and lived experiences of those affected at the centre of cybercrime and cyber resilience is key to understand cybersecurity not only as a technical, legal, or economic issue, but also as an issue with social, psychological, and physical dimensions.”

    Bassant Hassib

    Assistant Professor, University of London

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  • Your voice is valuable, whether you represent the mainstream or marginalised perspectives. Your lived experience matters.