Review and insight on the behavioral aspects of cybersecurity

Abstract

Stories of cyber attacks are becoming a routine in which cyber attackers show new levels of intention by sophisticated attacks on networks. Unfortunately, cybercriminals have figured out profitable business models and they take advantage of the online anonymity. A serious situation that needs to improve for networks' defenders. Therefore, a paradigm shift is essential to the effectiveness of current techniques and practices. Since the majority of cyber incidents are human enabled, this shift requires expanding research to underexplored areas such as behavioral aspects of cybersecurity. It is more vital to focus on social and behavioral issues to improve the current situation. This paper is an effort to provide a review of relevant theories and principles, and gives insights including an interdisciplinary framework that combines behavioral cybersecurity, human factors, and modeling and simulation.

Leveraging human factors in cybersecurity: an integrated methodological approach

“…Organisations have formal policies, processes and procedures to guide employees in keeping the system secure. Organisations expect their employees to be compliant with them; however, the literature has long demonstrated that formal procedures themselves do not rule human behaviour (Maalem et al 2020 ). Indeed, there are many ways in which humans can configure and use a system in unexpected and/or unprotected modes and take shortcuts in the name of improving efficiency or simply being helpful, even if it implies implementing a violation (Dekker 2003 ; Gael et al 2009 ; Schultz 2005 ; Stanton et al 2005 ).…”

COVID-19 and Cybersecurity: Finally, an Opportunity to Disrupt?

“…One way to achieve these goals is generating scientific research, such as this viewpoint, to raise awareness, provide recommendations, and try new or improved solutions. However, the current times demand web-based, easy, fast, accurate, and objective but personalized and meaningful information and education that is adapted to the situation and context and to the target population [ 24 ]. Due to the unpredictable nature of human behavior and actions, humans are an important element and the main enablers of the level of cybersecurity that each system can and will have [ 24 ].…”

Proposal and Validation of a Standard Protection Profile for Homologation of Commercial Videoconferencing Equipment

“…A mechatronic background was the starting point for the present analysis, although we have focused on software-based features as basic functionalities for security analysis. We also delimit our work on cybersecurity's technological aspect based on the understanding that social and behavioral issues must be taken into account in a more general cybersecurity framework [75].…”