The social and psychological impact of cyber-attacks

During my presentation, I will talk about cyber-attacks and their impact from a social science perspective, with the aim of exploring the social and psychological impact of these attacks on members of the public. The social impact of cyber-attacks refers to aspects such as the social disruption caused to people’s daily lives. Psychological impact can be informed by social impact, and includes aspects such as widespread anxiety, loss of confidence in cyber, and outrage. From initial investigations, it is obvious that the current level and scale of cyber-attacks is more likely to do psychological, rather than physical harm. Lastly, this presentation will reflect on some of the key issues relevant to understanding public reactions to malicious cyber-events. This will touch on areas including: (i) risk perception and protection motivation (ii) attacker identity and (iii) target identity and attack scale.