Research and analysis

Cyber security: using behavioural insights to keep people safe online

Report investigating how best to influence people to behave in a way that will keep them safe online.

• From: Government Office for Science
• Published: 8 May 2014

Documents

Using behavioural insights to improve the public’s use of cyber security best practices: summary report

Ref: GS/14/835

PDF, 344 KB, 20 pages

Details

A significant part of maintaining cyber security is the insecure behaviours of internet users. This report applies social and behavioural insights to cyber security challenges to answer the following questions:

• what behaviours should people display to reduce their vulnerability to cyber security attacks?
• why do people not behave securely online?
• what can theories of behaviour tell us about how to effectively influence behaviour?
• what is the role of communication campaigns in changing behaviour?
• how can interventions be designed to motivate appropriate cyber security behaviour?

Published 8 May 2014