Title: How the modification of personality traits leave one vulnerable to manipulation in social engineering

Authors: James Stewart; Maurice Dawson

Addresses: Keiser University, 1500 NW 49th St., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309, USA ' University of Missouri – St. Louis, 1 University Blvd., 228 ESH, St. Louis, MO 63121, USA

Abstract: Research on cyber security related to social engineering has expanded from its purely technological orientation into explaining the role of human behaviour in detecting deception (Workman, 2007). In the broadest definition, social engineering, in the context of information security, is the manipulation of individuals to perform actions that cause harm or increase the probability of causing future harm. Human personality traits significantly contribute to the probability that an individual is susceptible to manipulation related to social engineering deception attacks and exploits (Maurya, 2013). The outcome of the attacks and objective is the alteration of normal and rational decision making as described in behaviour decision theory (Kamis, 2011). This quantitative and non-experimental study determined what makes an individual based on personality traits predisposed to social engineering treats in the context of susceptibility to deception manipulation and exploitation.

Keywords: social engineering personality traits; social engineering; deception susceptibility; behaviour modification; cyber-attack; risk management; decision theory.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIPSI.2018.092057

International Journal of Information Privacy, Security and Integrity, 2018 Vol.3 No.3, pp.187 - 208

Received: 28 Mar 2017
Accepted: 13 Jan 2018
Published online: 30 May 2018 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article