The Social and Psychological Impact of Cyber-Attacks

TL;DR

This paper explores the social and psychological effects of cyber-attacks, focusing on public perception, reactions, and vulnerabilities, using recent major cyber-attacks as case studies.

Contribution

It provides a critical reflection on how cyber-attacks influence public psychology and perceptions, highlighting key cognitive factors and attacker characteristics.

Findings

Public perception varies based on attack characteristics

Risk perception influences protective behaviors

Major cyber-attacks significantly impact societal trust

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.