An assessment of people's vulnerabilities in relation to personal and sensitive data
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publisher
University of Plymouth
Faculty
Faculty of Computing, Health and Science
School
School of Computer and Security Science / Centre for Security Research
RAS ID
8779
Abstract
Social engineering refers to a number of techniques that are used to exploit human vulnerabilities and manipulate people into breaking normal security procedures. Evidence suggests that this problem is rapidly increasing and cyber criminals are using a magnitude of different avenues to reach their intended victims. This paper presents an assessment of people's vulnerabilities in relation to personal and sensitive data. The experiment used an online web survey which comprised of both direct and non-direct social engineering attack scenarios. In addition the survey measured and assessed the level of risk that social networking users are currently exposing themselves to. The results showed that respondent's security awareness levels had improved on previous studies but significant problems still existed with user's abilities to detect and appropriately respond to social engineering threats.
Comments
Sanders, B. G., Dowland, P. S., & Furnell, S. (2009). An Assessment of People’s Vulnerabilities in Relation to Personal and Sensitive Data. Advances in Communications, Computing, Networks and Security: Proceedings of the MSc/MRes programmes from the School of Computing, Communications and Electronics, 2007-2008, 6, 124. Available here