Increasing Implementation of Cybersecurity Advice: Comparing Effectiveness of Communications About Cybersecurity Tools and Evaluating User Acceptance of the CyberBarometer
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2022-07-08
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en
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Abstract
Cybercrimes are an increasing problem in the Netherlands and human mistakes are the main
reason for victimisation which increases the relevance of making end-users more resilient.
Advice on how to protect oneself better is available, but implementation is still insufficient. This
paper investigates a new tool (‘CyberBarometer’) to convey advice on protection against
cybercrimes (Experiment 1) and how to inform potential users about it (Experiment 2). The tool
offers a single advice instead of multiple, which is hypothesized to result in more intention to
implement. This is tested in experiment 1 using an independent sample t-test comparing self reported intention between the multi-advice and single-advice groups. No significant difference
was found between the groups (t(245.93) = 1.16, p = .25).The sample consisted of 248
participants (206 men, mean age = 60) which were gathered through the research panel of the
insurance company for which the research was conducted. Experiment 2 tested the influence of
different communicative approaches in e-mails on click-rate. The content was constructed using
protection motivation theory but the way in which the information was conveyed differed
between conditions. Advise given by experts was compared with a story told by a victim, a
combination of both and a control group. It was hypothesized that the combination condition
would result in the highest click-rate, and that the story would be more effective than the advice.
Only the control condition achieved a higher click-rate than expected. The experiments offered
insights on how to improve the CyberBarometer and communication about it.
Keywords: cyber-resilience, advice, cybercrimes, click-rate
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Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen