Nakshathra Suresh is a cybercriminologist, founder of the safety-tech consultancy Iris, and a lecturer at the University of New South Wales, where she teaches Australia's first criminology-backed cybersecurity course. In this episode, she brings a criminology lens to product design — showing how a 1979 theory about "the perfect crime" maps directly onto how AI products get built, and why safety by design has to start on day one, not after launch.
What You'll Learn
How routine activity theory (suitable target + motivated offender + absence of capable guardianship) applies directly to AI and tech products
Why safety by design isn't a "nice to have" add-on but a user-journey decision made from the start
The three pillars of safety by design — service provider responsibility, transparency and accountability, and Nakshathra's own addition, proactive conduct shaping
Why "time" is the real obstacle founders face when it comes to building in safety — and why skipping it costs more time later
How Nakshathra defines success: not landing a client, but changing one founder's mind about their product
Timestamps
[00:00] Intro — welcome to Empowered by AI, meet Nakshathra Suresh
[00:01] Nakshathra's background: cybercriminology, Iris, UNSW, Internet Society
[00:03] Her early years online and what convinced her safety by design was non-negotiable
[00:07] Routine activity theory: the three conditions for "the perfect crime" — and how they map to AI
[00:10] From researcher to founder: why she left a stable government job
[00:14] What safety by design actually looks like in practice, step by step
[00:17] The three pillars of safety by design, plus her addition: proactive conduct shaping
[00:21] The hardest part of building in safety: time pressure vs. long-term cost
[00:25] How Nakshathra defines success as a founder
[00:29] Where to find Nakshathra and how to work with her
Resources Mentioned
Routine activity theory (Cohen & Felson, 1979)
The Australian eSafety Commissioner's Safety by Design framework
Internet Society (Nakshathra is the Oceania Youth Ambassador)
University of New South Wales — cybercriminology course
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