Human Sciences and Cyber-Security

In this talk, I will discuss three ways we have applied a human science approach to understanding specific cyber-security related issues. First, I will present our work on ideological communities where a combination of computational linguistics, social role theory, forensic psychology and social network analysis has been used to understand the social composition of online groups, and how people rise to influence, and fall from grace. The second investigated how novel measures of the dynamics of communication can be used to assess power within dyadic conversations, and (to a degree) to remotely assess dark triad type traits. Finally, I will present our initial work on susceptibility to phishing attacks via simulated social engineering attacks, alongside our theoretical work on individual susceptibility to malevolent influence.