As digital technologies proliferate and the points of direct and indirect influence between computer-mediated operations and the physical world increase, issues of cyber-security have burgeoned commensurably. Here, we argue that the critical criterion of interest proves to be each individual user’s state of mind, as mediated by the technologies with which they now necessarily interact. In consequence, human factors and ergonomics lie at the very heart of all ‘cyber’ endeavours. ‘Cyber’ might well be the scientific word of the decade. Everything cyber is now hot and many researchers (including ourselves) want in. Authorities in many nations are now worried, or even downright terrified of what this new and rather amorphous ‘threat’ might represent.