The cockpit
Aviation makes the value of a checklist unmistakable. It also exposes the moment when a new situation demands judgement beyond what the manual can specify.
THE AUTHOR / TRUST WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE
Justin
Westcott.
A South African author and cybersecurity practitioner, writing about character, judgement and the limits of what we can know about the systems we trust.
Speaking & enquiries
THE EXPERIENCE BEHIND THE INQUIRY
From practice
to philosophy.
Justin Westcott is Chief Technology Officer, a director and a shareholder of DataGr8 in Pretoria. His cybersecurity career began in penetration testing, vulnerability management, digital forensics and cyber investigations, and developed through consulting, training, research and solutions development.
Before moving into the private sector, he spent roughly a decade as a pilot in the South African Air Force. He holds a Bachelor of Military Science in Technology and Defence Management and an Honours degree in Military Science, awarded cum laude. His earlier studies in psychology and physiology helped shape an enduring interest in the difference between what people say they will do and what they do.
Trust Without Knowledge grew from a 2025 thesis on Greek accounts of character. The trilogy follows the question into machine intent and the practical responsibility of protecting organisations whose understanding increasingly lives in their systems. Its movement from philosophy to professional decisions reflects the settings in which the question first became urgent for him.
SPEAKING & ENQUIRIES
Bring the inquiry
into the room.
For conversations about the books, speaking or professional discussion, these are the questions at the heart of Justin's work.
Make an enquiryCharacter and professional judgement
How people develop judgement, and what procedures can and cannot establish about the person making a decision.
Trust, intent and artificial systems
What evidence supports a decision to trust, and what changes when the party being evaluated is an artificial system.
Security and organisational memory
How meaning, accumulated corrections and institutional knowledge change the assets an organisation needs to protect.
THE BOOKS