Saving lives: An interview with founder and CEO of R;pple Suicide Prevention Alice Hendy

Alice Hendy shares how she arrived at a career in cyber and why she founded a charity after losing her younger brother to suicide.

Alice Hendy did not set out with an ambition to work in cyber security. Hendy began as a cashier at her local branch of Barclays and was sponsored by the bank to do her degree whilst working for them. Towards the end of her course, Hendy found herself working in the city, as part of Barclays LifeSkills programme, which works to equip young adults with the skills they need to forge their careers.

In 2016, a role came up in the Barclays cyber security team, and Hendy was intrigued. In common with other winners of Women in Tech Excellence Awards, Hendy applied for the position despite knowing that she had not yet had an opportunity to acquire the necessary skills.

"They asked me why I was applying when I didn't have the skills and I told them I was young, enthusiastic, keen and able to learn. If you have someone with the work ethic, the reliability and the enthusiasm who wants to learn, you can teach the rest. They took a chance on me, and I haven't really looked back."

Human cyber security

Hendy learned her trade at Barclays and embodies why humanity and diversity in cyber are both so important. Cyber security threats are socially engineered to exploit diverse human vulnerabilities. If cyber security technology is to succeed in protecting individuals and organisations from those who wish them harm, it must have a human element.

"I was always interested in the human aspect of cyber. You can have the best systems in the world but if you've got staff who click on links, or open attachments, you're going to have problems. I have a passion for talking to people. I feel like I can engage with them and break things down to a human non-technical level for them to understand and watch their confidence build. I've always focused on the human element of cybersecurity because I think it's the most important."

After eight years at Barclays, Hendy built a similar programme at the much larger HSBC, then decided in 2019, that she wanted to experience building a security programme at a smaller organisation. Hendy remains European Lead, Cyber Safety at QBE Insurance.

Josh Hendy

Tragically, in November 2020, Hendy's 21-year-old brother Josh died by suicide. Hendy's family had no idea that Josh was experiencing mental health difficulties, and the shock was profound. Hendy was driven by her own grief to try to understand what had brought her brother to such a dark place. Despite her cyber security background, the discovery of the kind of content Josh was accessing continues, quite understandably, to horrify her.

"I went through his devices and put a timeline together. Josh was looking at the most unbelievably awful content. I must be honest and admit that I didn't realise this stuff was out there. There are sites rating suicide methods by pain scale, suicide forums and video tutorials. Josh had accessed content where he was egged on, told that it was the right thing to do."

Hendy's shock at discovering the content that her brother had been accessing, was matched by that of realising how many others could be accessing it too.

"Given where we were at the time with Covid, and so many people spending so much more time online I just thought Josh can't have been the only person looking at this stuff. There'll be thousands of people looking at this every day."

Hendy couldn't bear the thought of other families grieving in the way that hers was, which prompted her to ask a question:

"Why is there not something that can intercept someone when they access that content and say to them, subtly, that actually there is hope, and here are some resources that might get you through that moment, and then through another day and out of the hole that you're in? But there was nothing there. Just nothing."

R;pple Suicide Prevention

Hendy is channelling her grief into R;pple - a browser extension which is available free of charge to individuals, schools and other education settings and which intercepts searches for content relating to suicide or self-harm and presents a visual prompt to try and dissuade the user from going further. Hendy is at pains to point out that the extension is not a tracker, and it isn't monitoring web searches. The intercept is triggered by key words and phrases related to suicide and self-harm, and is very finely tuned.

"R;pple is a crisis intervention tool. It wouldn't be triggered by someone searching for content on mental health. This is for people who have had enough and are actively searching for ways to self- harm or end their life. If someone does a search for "Suicide Squad," a film, or TV show, R;pple wouldn't be triggered."

Hendy is acutely aware of the fragility of the individuals who trigger R;pple through their searches.

"When R;pple is triggered, it shows a message of hope. There are two tabs, talk to someone now and find continued support. Talk to someone now has details of free 24/7 services that you can access immediately. The find continued support tab shows resources available to manage your mental health on an ongoing basis. Mental health difficulties don't disappear overnight.

"I'm not a mental health professional, so R;pple has been built in collaboration with mental health experts, clinicians, lived experience panels, even professors in this field who are qualified to provide advice and guidance."

In an ideal world R;pple would never be seen, but with 1.2 million internet searches for content on how to take your own life, it is a valuable tool for those seeking to protect others and themselves from terribly damaging content. The extension has more than 300,000 downloads to date, and 24 individuals have approached R;pple to let them know that the tool intercepting them online at their most vulnerable saved their life and prompted them to seek mental health support.

A fitting legacy for Josh Hendy.