Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Evaluating the Risks of Human Factors Associated with Social Media Cybersecurity Threats

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Human Aspects of Information Security and Assurance (HAISA 2023)

Part of the book series: IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology ((IFIPAICT,volume 674))

  • 457 Accesses

Abstract

Human behaviors and attitudes play a significant role in cybersecurity. However, studies to quantify the impact of such behaviors and attitudes are scarce, and they are not always considered when developing mitigation strategies. To compensate for this, we have looked into a large sample of employees with different levels of expertise and backgrounds across a variety of industrial sectors and organizations. We have found that age and job role constitute the main human factors associated with social media cybersecurity risks. We can confirm that the youngest employees are the most risk prone within an organization, and the employees working in the business and financial sectors are the ones who face the highest amount of cybersecurity risk. In addition, our investigation shows that employees with less than two years of working experience, and those who are at least of age 55, need more cybersecurity training, due to their lack of awareness on the subject. Our work has led us to formulate a risk equation which can assist policymakers and training providers in defining countermeasures against risks and prioritize the training for those who need it the most.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA). Cybersecurity Culture Guidelines: Behavioural Aspects of Cybersecurity (2019). https://www.enisa.europa.eu/publications/cybersecurity-culture-guidelines-behavioural-aspects-of-cybersecurity

  2. Green, J.S.: Cyber Security: An Introduction for Non-Technical Managers. Routledge, London (2016)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  3. Herath, T.B., et al.: Cybersecurity practices for social media users: a systematic literature review. J. Cybersecur. Priv. 2(1), 1–18 (2022)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  4. European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA). Cyber Europ 2010 – Evaluation Report (2010). https://www.enisa.europa.eu/publications/ce2010report/at_download/fullReport

  5. Alshaikh, M., Naseer, H., Ahmad, A., Maynard, S.B.: Toward sustainable behaviour change: an approach for cyber security education training and awareness. In: Proceedings of the 27th European Conference on Information Systems, pp. 1–14 (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Zhang, Z., Gupta, B.B.: Social media security and trustworthiness: overview and new direction. Futur. Gener. Comput. Syst. 86, 914–925 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Thakur, K., Hayajneh, T., Tseng, J.: Cyber security in social media: challenges and the way forward. IT Prof. 21, 41–49 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Alshaikh, M., Maynard, S.B., Ahmad, A., Chang, S.: An exploratory study of current information security training and awareness practices in organizations. In: Proceedings of the 51st Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, pp. 5085–5094 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Ghazvini, A., Shukur, Z.: Awareness training transfer and information security content development for healthcare industry. Int. J. Adv. Comput. Sci. Appl. 7 (2016)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Chapple, M., Stewart, J.M., Gibson, D.: Certified Information System Security Professional (CISSP), 9th edn., p. 1248. SYBEX (2021)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Rajamäki, J., Nevmerzhitskaya, J., Virág, C.: cybersecurity education and training in hospitals: proactive resilience educational 354 framework (prosilience EF). In: Proceedings of the 2018 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), pp. 2042–2046. IEEE (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Nurse, J.R., Creese, S., De Roure, D.: Security risk assessment in internet of things systems. IT prof. 19, 20–26 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. King, Z.M., Henshel, D.S., Flora, L., Cains, M.G., Hoffman, B., Sample, C.: Characterizing and measuring maliciousness for cybersecurity risk assessment. Front. Psychol. 9, 39 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Ben Salamah, F., Palomino, M.A., Papadaki, M., Furnell, S.: The importance of the job role in social media cybersecurity training. In: Proceedings of the IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops (EuroS&PW), pp. 454–462 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1109/EuroSPW55150.2022.00054

  15. Cain, A.A., Edwards, M.E., Still, J.D.: An exploratory study of cyber hygiene behaviors and knowledge. J. Inf. Secur. Appl. 42, 36–45 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Parker, H.J., Flowerday, S.V.: Contributing factors to increased susceptibility to social media phishing attacks. South Afr. J. Inf. Manage. 22, 1–10 (2020)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Furnell, S., Vasileiou, I.: Security education and awareness: just let them burn? Netw. Secur. 2017, 5–9 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Blackwood-Brown, C., Levy, Y., D’Arcy, J.: Cybersecurity awareness and skills of senior citizens: a motivation perspective. J. Comput. Inf. Syst. 61, 195–206 (2021)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Hadlington, L.: Employees attitudes towards cyber security and risky online behaviours: an empirical assessment in the United Kingdom. Int. J. Cyber Criminol. 12, 262–274 (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Hatzivasilis, G., et al.: Modern aspects of cyber-security training and continuous adaptation of programmes to trainees. Appl. Sci. 10, 5702 (2020)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Pedley, D., et al.: Cyber Security Skills in the UK Labour Market 2020 (2020). https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cyber-security-skills-in-the-uk-labour-market-2020

  22. Toth, P., Klein, P.: A role-based model for federal information technology/cyber security training. NIST Spec. Publ. 388(800), 1–152 (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Nifakos, S., et al.: Influence of human factors on cyber security within healthcare organisations: a systematic review. Sensors 21, 5119 (2021)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Van Schaik, P., et al.: Security and privacy in online social networking: risk perceptions and precautionary behaviour. Comput. Hum. Behav. 78, 283–297 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Jeong, J., Mihelcic, J., Oliver, G., Rudolph, C.: Towards an improved understanding of human factors in cybersecurity. In: Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Collaboration and Internet Computing (CIC), pp. 338–345 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1109/CIC48465.2019.00047

  26. Dulock, H.L.: Research design: descriptive research. J. Pediatr. Oncol. Nurs. 10, 154–157 (1993)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Castro, S.: Google forms quizzes and substitution, augmentation, modification, and redefinition (SAMR) model integration. Issues Trends Educ. Technol. 6(2) (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  28. University of Plymouth. Plymouth Ethics Online System (PEOS) (2022). https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/research/plymouth-ethics-online-system

  29. Alansari, M.M., Aljazzaf, Z.M., Sarfraz, M.: On cyber crimes and cyber security. In: Developments in Information Security and Cybernetic Wars, pp. 1–41. IGI Global (2019)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Cleary, G., Corpin, M., Cox, O.: Symantec internet security threat report. Technical report 23, Symantec Corporation, Mountain View, CA (2018). https://docs.broadcom.com/doc/istr-23-executive-summary-en

  31. European Union Agency for Cybersecurity. Stocktaking of Information Security Training Needs in Critical Sectors (2017). https://www.enisa.europa.eu/news/enisa-news/

  32. Kuwait Central Statistical Bureau. Population Estimates (2021). https://www.csb.gov.kw/Pages/Statistics?ID=18&ParentCatID=2

  33. Calculator.net. Confidence Interval Calculator (2022). https://www.calculator.net/confidence-interval-calculator.html

  34. McHugh, M.L.: The chi-square test of independence. Biochem. Med. 23, 143–149 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Plymouth, Plymouth, PL4 8AA, UK

    Fai Ben Salamah, Marco A. Palomino & Matthew J. Craven

  2. University of Derby, Derby, DE22 1GB, UK

    Maria Papadaki

  3. University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG8 1BB, UK

    Steven Furnell

Authors
  1. Fai Ben Salamah
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Marco A. Palomino
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Maria Papadaki
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Matthew J. Craven
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Steven Furnell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Fai Ben Salamah or Marco A. Palomino .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

    Steven Furnell

  2. University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK

    Nathan Clarke

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Salamah, F.B., Palomino, M.A., Papadaki, M., Craven, M.J., Furnell, S. (2023). Evaluating the Risks of Human Factors Associated with Social Media Cybersecurity Threats. In: Furnell, S., Clarke, N. (eds) Human Aspects of Information Security and Assurance. HAISA 2023. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 674. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38530-8_28

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38530-8_28

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-38529-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-38530-8

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Societies and partnerships

Search

Navigation