The Only Criminologist in the Room: Nakshathra Suresh on Human Centred Resilience

Recorded live at AISA SydneySec 2026, host David Savva-Willett sits down with Nakshathra Suresh, a cyber criminologist and one of very few people in Australia bringing a social science lens to artificial intelligence and emerging technology safety. Nakshathra is co-founder of eiris, a safety technology consultancy, Oceania Youth Ambassador for the Internet Society, and teaches with the Faculty of Law and Justice at UNSW where she created the university's first criminology backed cyber security course. The conversation covers what a cyber criminologist actually does and why the discipline is still so young, how generative AI has turned catfishing and cyberstalking into something that runs itself once a public profile is scraped, the long tail of harm for victim survivors who end up retiring their online lives entirely, and why human centred resilience is a question of culture and conduct rather than another vulnerability to patch. Nakshathra also makes a direct case about who is missing from the room when security decisions get made. Content note: this episode includes discussion of cyberstalking, technology facilitated abuse, image based abuse and harm to children in online environments. If anything here raises something for you, support is available. 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or Lifeline on 13 11 14, and image based abuse can be reported to the eSafety Commissioner at esafety.gov.au. Cyber Voices is the official podcast of the Australian Information Security Association. Share your feedback at cybervoices@aisa.org.au.