First Aid for the Hacked: Democratizing Cyber Response for the Rest of Us

The knowledge to survive the first hour after an attack isn't scarce — it's gated. This Tech Talk borrows a concept from public health — the "cybersecurity poverty line" — to reframe response as a public good rather than a luxury purchase. Just as we democratized physical first aid with CPR, AEDs, and 911, I argue we can democratize cyber response: calm, plain-language guidance for the moment it happens, free to the people who need it most. Drawing on the work behind HackFirstAid, I show what that looks like in practice — and why protecting the smallest makes everyone safer. What attendees take away Why the "cybersecurity poverty line" leaves most households and small organizations undefended — and what that costs everyone A simple, repeatable model for the first hour after an incident: Stop, Contain, Recover, Report Concrete ways to help make cyber response accessible in their own communities Speaker bio Travis Barlow has spent 25+ years in incident response and is the founder of the Atlantic Security Conference (AtlSecCon), one of Canada's leading security events. His latest project, HackFirstAid, grew from a simple conviction: the worst time to figure out what to do after a hack, scam, or breach is while it's happening to you. HackFirstAid delivers calm, plain-language cyber response guidance — free for households and tailored for the small businesses, schools, and organizations that traditional incident response leaves behind. #TechTalkAtlantic #HalifaxTech #AI #Robotics #AtlanticCanada​Follow us: Website: https://techtalkatlantic.com​Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/techtalk-atlantic