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The Social and Psychological Impact of Cyberattacks

Bada, Maria and Nurse, Jason R. C. (2019) The Social and Psychological Impact of Cyberattacks. In: Benson, Vladlena and McAlaney, John, eds. Emerging Cyber Threats and Cognitive Vulnerabilities. Academic Press, London, pp. 73-92. ISBN 978-0-12-816203-3. E-ISBN 978-0-12-816594-2. (doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-816203-3.00004-6) (Access to this publication is currently restricted. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:76899)

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https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-816203-3.00004-6

Abstract

Cyber-attacks have become as commonplace as the Internet itself. Each year, industry reports, media outlets and academic articles highlight this increased prevalence, spanning both the amount and variety of attacks and cybercrimes. In this article, we seek to further advance discussions on cyber threats, cognitive vulnerabilities and cyberpsychology through a critical reflection on the social and psychological aspects related to cyber-attacks. In particular, we are interested in understanding how members of the public perceive and engage with risk and how they are impacted during and after a cyber-attack has occurred. This research focuses on key cognitive issues relevant to comprehending public reactions to malicious cyber events including risk perception, protection motivation, culture, and attacker characteristics (e.g., attacker identity, target identity and scale of attack). To consider the applicability of our findings, we investigate two significant cyber-attacks over the last few years, namely the WannaCry attack of 2017 and the Lloyds Banking Group attack in the same year.

Item Type: Book section
DOI/Identification number: 10.1016/B978-0-12-816203-3.00004-6
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare
Q Science > QA Mathematics (inc Computing science)
T Technology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences > School of Computing
Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
Depositing User: Jason Nurse
Date Deposited: 29 Sep 2019 11:04 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Feb 2021 14:07 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/76899 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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