Personality Traits and Resistance to Online Trust Exploitation

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Author

Vaishnavi Mahindra

Tech report number

2023-3

Entry type

mastersthesis

Abstract

Social engineering attacks, especially trust exploitation, have become a focus of attention for cybercriminals attempting to manipulate or deceive users to take actions that further expose their vulnerabilities. This has also become a budding field for researchers as these interactions are based on complex social equations that are constantly taken advantage of. Identifying the "weakest link" is a popular method of identifying how these exploits take place, generally by observing when individuals fall for a social engineering attack. However, valuable insights may be used to harden security by observing patterns in users resistant or vigilant to these attacks. Primarily, this trend may be discovered in resistant users’ personality traits. This has been found to be a more accurate indicator of behavior than self-reported intentions. Survey responses (n=120) indicate correlations between high test scores in trust exploitation exercises and Conscientiousness in the Big 5 Personality Model (p<0.001). No significant correlation was seen between self-reported cybersecurity habits and actual security behavior.

Date

2023 – 7 – 26

Key alpha

Mahindra

School

Purdue University, West Lafayette

Publication Date

2023-07-26

LIST OF TABLES LIST OF FIGURES ABSTRACT 1. INTRODUCTION 2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 4. RESULTS 5. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, and RECOMMENDATIONS REFERENCES A. APPENDIX - SURVEY QUESTIONS B. APPENDIX - SURVEY

Subject

Personality traits correlating to lower susceptibility of specific social engineering attacks.

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@Mastersthesis{ Mahindra,
	title = "Personality Traits and Resistance to Online Trust Exploitation",
	author = "Vaishnavi Mahindra",
	year = "2023",
	month = "7",
	school = "Purdue University, West Lafayette",
	day = "26",
	abstract = "Social engineering attacks, especially trust exploitation, have become a focus of attention
for cybercriminals attempting to manipulate or deceive users to take actions that further
expose their vulnerabilities. This has also become a budding field for researchers as these
interactions are based on complex social equations that are constantly taken advantage of.
Identifying the "weakest link" is a popular method of identifying how these exploits take
place, generally by observing when individuals fall for a social engineering attack. However,
valuable insights may be used to harden security by observing patterns in users resistant
or vigilant to these attacks. Primarily, this trend may be discovered in resistant users’
personality traits. This has been found to be a more accurate indicator of behavior than
self-reported intentions. Survey responses (n=120) indicate correlations between high test
scores in trust exploitation exercises and Conscientiousness in the Big 5 Personality Model
(p&lt;0.001). No significant correlation was seen between self-reported cybersecurity habits
and actual security behavior.",
	contents = "LIST OF TABLES
    LIST OF FIGURES
    ABSTRACT
1. INTRODUCTION
2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
4. RESULTS
5. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, and RECOMMENDATIONS 
    REFERENCES
A. APPENDIX - SURVEY QUESTIONS
B. APPENDIX - SURVEY",
	subject = "Personality traits correlating to lower susceptibility of specific social engineering attacks.",
}