Welcome To Cyber Kindness
Cyber Kindness is a global campaign to tackle bullying, harassment and toxic behaviour in the cyber security industry. We exist to raise professional standards, strengthen psychological safety and build a more respectful, inclusive and resilient industry.
Cyber security protects people. That protection should start inside the industry.
Take the pledge. Use the resources. Help us make kindness a security control.
The Case For Cyber Kindness
Abuse is not expertise. Silence is not neutrality. Kindness is not weakness. Cyber security depends on people noticing what others miss, owning mistakes early and challenging assumptions before they become incidents. None of that happens when people are afraid to speak.
It is easy for safety to be framed as something only some people need. It is not. Men are bullied, harassed and stalked just as much as women are. So are people of every background, identity and level of experience. When we treat safety as a problem for one group, we let everyone else down and we miss the point.
Cyber Kindness is for every person in this industry. The behaviours we ask for, and the safety we want to see, are for all of us.
Our Core Principles
Challenge Ideas
Rigour and hard questions are welcome. We debate the work, never the worth of the person doing it.
Respect People
Dignity is not optional. Different routes into the industry and different backgrounds make us stronger.
Raise Standards
Kindness is professional conduct, a leadership responsibility and a measure of a healthy industry.
Active Support
Provide active support to those who find themselves in difficult situations, as a form of allyship.
Take The Cyber Kindness Pledge
The Cyber Kindness Pledge is a simple public commitment to a kinder, safer and more respectful cyber security industry. By taking it – either publically or anonymously – you agree to challenge ideas without attacking people, to call out bullying, harassment and exclusion when you see it, and to support those who are new to the field, returning to it or still finding their voice. It is open to individuals and organisations alike, and it takes moments to sign.
The pledge is not about lowering standards or avoiding hard conversations. It is about making clear that high standards and human decency belong together. Every name added sends a signal that toxic behaviour is not the price of working in this industry, and that respect, accountability and psychological safety are things we are willing to stand behind in public.
Our Latest News and Blog
A Letter to Anyone New to Cyber Security
by Lisa Ventura MBE FCIIS, Founder of Cyber Kindness If you are new to cyber security, there are a few things I wish someone had told me at the start. Consider this the letter I did not get. You will not know everything, and you never will. The field is enormous and...
Psychological Safety for Security Leaders
Psychological safety is not about comfort. It is about whether your team will tell you the truth in time to act on it.Psychological safety is the shared sense that you can speak up, admit a mistake or ask a question without being punished or made to feel small. It is...
What Kindness as a Security Control Really Means
"Kindness as a Security Control" can sound like a slogan. Here is what it means in practice and why it belongs in every security conversation. When we talk about kindness being a security control, it is meant literally. The way people are treated changes the way...