The article to be reviewed has four authors who are Keren Snider, Ryan Shandler, Shay Zandani, and Daphna Canetti and it is called Cyberattacks, Cyber Threats, and Attitudes Toward Cybersecurity Policies. The article answers the question “What would it take to have a wide general audience accept government intervention in cybersecurity?”

The thesis is answered by employing surveys of 1,022 participants and exposing them to certain videos. The first group of 387 people presented a video that showed physical destruction caused by cyber-attacks. These clips contained a cyber attack that caused a power grid to lose power affecting a hospital which resulted in many Israelis losing their lives. The clips also presented a malicious user that hacked into a military navigation system. They altered the course of a missile killing three Israeli soldiers.

The second group contained 374 participants. They were exposed to nonlethal cyber attacks. This includes videos on how mobile phone users would download certain applications that exposed their phones to malware or how privacy is invaded through certain Internet-of-things technologies. The control group was not exposed to any news clips. All participants had to take the survey before and after the experiment is completed.  The results show that the more educated people are on cyber threats and crimes the more willing they were to accept and follow regulations and policies set by management or by the government.

This article relates to social science because it is an experiment on personal behaviors. It explains the motivation behind people that follow strict policies and regulations. The article explains what triggers people’s emotions the most; loss of lives or loss of finances. This article uses a classical experiment approach where the researchers used a randomly selected group of people from all over Israel and had them complete pre-test/post-test to get an accurate scale of the experiment. It also proves that lack of awareness and training causes computer users to be naïve and not want to practice good security practices. Such as long unique passwords, password sharing, clicking on appealing links in emails, etc. Another concept that this experiment showcased is that many people do not practice good cyber hygiene because they are unaware that they are the victim. The videos that were played in front of the audience not only taught them of the threats out there but also informed them that the apps they downloaded could have malicious intent.  

Not only did this article inform the Israelis of the different cyber threats out in the world but it educated them on why having strict policies and regulations is important. Especially in a business because it will lead to financial losses and loss of confidence. This experiment also educated a large group of Israelis who can spread the news about cyber crimes and threats to their friends so they can spread it to their friends and so on to where the majority of the population is now aware of the dangers that exist.

https://academic.oup.com/cybersecurity/article/7/1/tyab019/6382745?searchresult=1