Investigating the Experience of Social Engineering Victims: Exploratory and User Testing Study

The advent of mobile technologies and social network applications has led to an increase in malicious scams and social engineering (SE) attacks which are causing loss of money and breaches of personal information. Understanding how SE attacks spread can provide useful information in curbing them. Ar...

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Autores principales:	Bilikis Banire, Dena Al Thani, Yin Yang
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	MDPI AG 2021
Materias:	social engineering exploratory study grounded theory user testing study Electronics TK7800-8360
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/f7e81988477e44c4bb6b33c47c414825
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:f7e81988477e44c4bb6b33c47c4148252021-11-11T15:42:11ZInvestigating the Experience of Social Engineering Victims: Exploratory and User Testing Study10.3390/electronics102127092079-9292https://doaj.org/article/f7e81988477e44c4bb6b33c47c4148252021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/2079-9292/10/21/2709https://doaj.org/toc/2079-9292The advent of mobile technologies and social network applications has led to an increase in malicious scams and social engineering (SE) attacks which are causing loss of money and breaches of personal information. Understanding how SE attacks spread can provide useful information in curbing them. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has demonstrated efficacy in detecting SE attacks, but the acceptability of such a detection approach is yet to be investigated across users with different levels of SE awareness. This paper conducted two studies: (1) exploratory study where qualitative data were collected from 20 victims of SE attacks to inform the development of an AI-based tool for detecting fraudulent messages; and (2) a user testing study with 48 participants with different occupations to determine the detection tool acceptability. Overall, six major themes emerged from the victims’ actions “experiences: reasons for falling for attacks; attack methods; advice on preventing attacks; detection methods; attack context and victims”. The user testing study showed that the AI-based tool was accepted by all users irrespective of their occupation. The categories of users’ occupations can be attributed to the level of SE awareness. Information security awareness should not be limited to organizational levels but extend to social media platforms as public information.Bilikis BanireDena Al ThaniYin YangMDPI AGarticlesocial engineeringexploratory studygrounded theoryuser testing studyElectronicsTK7800-8360ENElectronics, Vol 10, Iss 2709, p 2709 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	social engineering exploratory study grounded theory user testing study Electronics TK7800-8360
spellingShingle	social engineering exploratory study grounded theory user testing study Electronics TK7800-8360 Bilikis Banire Dena Al Thani Yin Yang Investigating the Experience of Social Engineering Victims: Exploratory and User Testing Study
description	The advent of mobile technologies and social network applications has led to an increase in malicious scams and social engineering (SE) attacks which are causing loss of money and breaches of personal information. Understanding how SE attacks spread can provide useful information in curbing them. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has demonstrated efficacy in detecting SE attacks, but the acceptability of such a detection approach is yet to be investigated across users with different levels of SE awareness. This paper conducted two studies: (1) exploratory study where qualitative data were collected from 20 victims of SE attacks to inform the development of an AI-based tool for detecting fraudulent messages; and (2) a user testing study with 48 participants with different occupations to determine the detection tool acceptability. Overall, six major themes emerged from the victims’ actions “experiences: reasons for falling for attacks; attack methods; advice on preventing attacks; detection methods; attack context and victims”. The user testing study showed that the AI-based tool was accepted by all users irrespective of their occupation. The categories of users’ occupations can be attributed to the level of SE awareness. Information security awareness should not be limited to organizational levels but extend to social media platforms as public information.
format	article
author	Bilikis Banire Dena Al Thani Yin Yang
author_facet	Bilikis Banire Dena Al Thani Yin Yang
author_sort	Bilikis Banire
title	Investigating the Experience of Social Engineering Victims: Exploratory and User Testing Study
title_short	Investigating the Experience of Social Engineering Victims: Exploratory and User Testing Study
title_full	Investigating the Experience of Social Engineering Victims: Exploratory and User Testing Study
title_fullStr	Investigating the Experience of Social Engineering Victims: Exploratory and User Testing Study
title_full_unstemmed	Investigating the Experience of Social Engineering Victims: Exploratory and User Testing Study
title_sort	investigating the experience of social engineering victims: exploratory and user testing study
publisher	MDPI AG
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/f7e81988477e44c4bb6b33c47c414825
work_keys_str_mv	AT bilikisbanire investigatingtheexperienceofsocialengineeringvictimsexploratoryandusertestingstudy AT denaalthani investigatingtheexperienceofsocialengineeringvictimsexploratoryandusertestingstudy AT yinyang investigatingtheexperienceofsocialengineeringvictimsexploratoryandusertestingstudy
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Investigating the Experience of Social Engineering Victims: Exploratory and User Testing Study

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