Rewind
All the content from last year’s PeepSec, Impact and flagship industry events
Investor psychology and security market under‐and overreactions
We propose a theory of securities market under‐ and overreactions based on two well‐known psychological biases: investor overconfidence about the precision of private information; and biased self‐attribution, which causes asymmetric shifts in investors' confidence as...
Habits in everyday life: Thought, emotion, and action.
To illustrate the differing thoughts and emotions involved in guiding habitual and nonhabitual behavior, 2 diary studies were conducted in which participants provided hourly reports of their ongoing experiences. When participants were engaged in habitual behavior,...
Solicitation by e-mail and solicitor’s status: A field study of social influence on the web
Personal information is scarce in computer-mediated communication. So when information about the sender is attached with his or her e-mail, this could induce a powerful effect toward the receptor. Two experiments were carried out where males and females were solicited...
The economics of information security investment
An article exploring the optimal amount of money to invest to protect information. This model looks at the extent to which a piece of information is vulnerable and the potential loss that would occur if it was breached, and notes that companies should spend a small...
Choosing passwords: Security and human factors
Password security is essential to the security of information systems. Human fallibility makes it nearly impossible to follow all of the recommended rules simultaneously. A user with many different passwords, frequently changing, will be forced to write them down...
A holistic model of computer abuse within organizations
Past studies suggest that computer security countermeasures such as security policies, systems, and awareness programs would be effective in preventing computer abuse in organizations. They are based on the general deterrence theory, which posits that when an...
Persuasive technology: Using computers to change what we think and do
Mother Nature knows best--How engineered organizations of the future will resemble natural-born systems.
Users’ conceptions of risks and harms on the web: A comparative study
In this study, we analyzed Web users concerns about potential risks and harms from Web use to themselves and to society at large. In addition, we assessed how strongly users felt something should be done to address their concerns. Seventy-two individuals, 24 each from...
Role of self‐efficacy and behaviour change
Behaviour change is an important concept in relation to health promotion and disease prevention. Self-efficacy has been identified as an important determinant of health behaviour, future health behaviour and health behaviour change. In order to effectively facilitate...
Suicide: A study in sociology (Routledge Classics)
Why does suicide happen? What goes wrong? Why is it more common in some places than others? Emile Durkheim seeks out the answers in a classic text, offering an insight into the social frameworks in which we operate.
A domain-specific risk-attitude scale: Measuring risk perceptions and risk behaviors
Researchers find people's desire for risk is not consistent in all areas, and varies between things like financial, health and social realms. Regression analysis suggests the changes are due to changes in percieved benefits and risk, as opposed to changes in...
The need for affect: Individual differences in the motivation to approach or avoid emotions
Researchers developed and tested a new measure of 'the need for affect' (ie, the probability of someone approaching or avoiding emotion-inducing situations). They concluded the need for affect is important in understanding emotion-related processes.
Fears, phobias, and preparedness: Toward an evolved module of fear and fear learning
This paper discusses how fear can trigger elicitation and learning. It proposes fear is evolutionary, automatic and largely immune to conscious control and cites studies that support its propositions.
Security engineering
Psychology is a huge subject, ranging from neuroscience through to clinical topics, and spilling over into cognate disciplines from philosophy through artificial intelligence to sociology. Although it has been studied for much longer than computer science, our...
Personal fraud: The victims and the scams
Rsearchers find that fraud attempts are less likely to succeed if: the offender is a stranger; the initial contact is by telephone or mail; the potential victim has heard of the intended type of fraud beforehand, or; the potential victim attempts to investigate the...
Emotional distress regulation takes precedence over impulse control: If you feel bad, do It!
This paper investigated why our ability to control impulses wains during emotional distress. It found when people believed emotional distress to be long-term, they were better able to control impulses – suggesting indulging our impulses during times of distress is an...
Transforming the “weakest link”: A human-computer interaction approach for usable and effective security
This paper argues that simply blaming users for security breaches will not lead to more effective security systems and that security designers must address the causes of undesirable user behaviour to design effective security systems. Focusing on passwords in...
Privacy in multimedia communications: Protecting users, not just data
As the use of ubiquitous multimedia communication increases so do the privacy risks associated with widespread accessibility and utilisation of data generated by such applications. Most invasions of privacy are not intentional but due to designers inability to...
When choice is demotivating: Can one desire too much of a good thing?
A paper that counters the popular notion of more choice being a good thing. Research in this paper suggests humans make better choices when offered less choice..
Dimensions of privacy concern among online consumers
As one of the numerous bodies investigating factors affecting consumer privacy online, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) plays a critical role. We examine these influences, integrating the existing body of research on online privacy with the FTC's fundamental...
Privacy concerns and consumer willingness to provide personal information
The authors examine potential relationships among categories of personal information, beliefs about direct marketing, situational characteristics, specific privacy concerns, and consumers' direct marketing shopping habits. Furthermore, the authors offer an assessment...