Northampton Electronic Collection of Theses and Research

Culturing defensive immunity: hardening psychological targets against cyber attack

Hills, M. and Batchelor, G. (2015) Culturing defensive immunity: hardening psychological targets against cyber attack. In: Abouzakhar, N. (ed.) Proceedings of The 14th European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security ECCWS-2015, The University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK, 2-3 July 2015 :. Reading: Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited. pp. 95-103.

Item Type: Book Section
Abstract: Academics in business science and elsewhere have begun to look at what Vaughan (1999) called the “dark side of organisations” and started to engage with the fact that people connected to cyber systems can be the source of great opportunity for exploitation. MacGillivray (2014) notes that organisations should be seen as socio-technical: where infrastructure and systems shape and are shaped by the people that work with them. The current paper puts these sociotechnical systems at the heart of cyber-attack and defence - where we see ‘cyber’ as being shorthand for any computer dependent technologies used to achieve dark effects on the human mind and subsequent behaviour (e.g. SMS received on a mobile phone).There is no logic to restrictively focussing on user behaviour around laptops and desktops. This paper provides some unconventional examples of cyber-attack. Our concern is with enabling decision-makers (or those supporting them) to challenge their assumptions about information received, adjust behaviours accordingly and thereby render them and their organisations increasingly resilient to the efforts of creative adversaries, no matter whether those adversaries motivation is commercial, political or personal. From such target-hardening arises organisational competitive advantage.
Uncontrolled Keywords: Cyber-security, information warfare, situational awareness, risk, socio-technical risk
Creators: Hills, Mils and Batchelor, Guy
Editors: Abouzakhar, Nasser
Publisher: Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited
Faculties, Divisions and Institutes: Research Institutes > Institute of Logistics, Infrastructure, Supply & Transport
Faculties > Faculty of Business & Law > International Strategy & Business
Date: 2 July 2015
Date Type: Publication
Page Range: pp. 95-103
Title of Book: Proceedings of The 14th European Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security ECCWS-2015, The University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK, 2-3 July 2015 :
Place of Publication: Reading
Number of Pages: 467
Language: English
ISBN: 9781910810286
Status: Published / Disseminated
Refereed: Yes
URI: http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/id/eprint/11548

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