Predicting Cyber Security Behaviors Through Psychosocial and Demographic Conditions During COVID-19

Introduction

The United Kingdom (UK) formally declared its first lockdown on the 23^rd of March 2020 due to the rapid spread of Covid-19. The outbreak of coronavirus and the enormous lockdown measures have significantly changed people’s way of living. When people were told to remain at home and maintain physical distancing, the lives of all citizens were affected. Humans are naturally social creatures, meaning that we all rely on social interactions to survive (Young, 2008). For months, people were neither able to go to work/school nor hang out with friends occasionally. What was unexpected was that the UK had over 3 lockdowns due to the pandemic, each with varying levels of restrictions (Zhou & Kan, 2020). Two years on, people’s lives are not the way they used to be pre-pandemic, and the pandemic is still not over.

Due to the nature of humans, the observed lockdown regulations resulted to a mental and psychological breakdown of citizens. During this period, there has been an enormous increase in cyber-crime with criminals taking advantage of people’s fears, resulting in Covid-19 being classed as the biggest threat to cyber security at the time (Panda Security, 2020). The rapid growth of the pandemic had severe impacts on living including mental and financial consequences. In a report by IBM (2020), the shift to work from home (WFH) model was found to have increased the average cost of a data breach by $137,000. Within the UK alone, reports claim that over £1.3 billion was lost to cybercrime activities between 1^st of January and 31^st of July 2021 (Scroxton, 2021).

More recently, Meyer (2022) states that British taxpayers could lose at least £4 billion of Covid-19 support funds to fraudsters and mistakes. These financial impacts and damage to victims highlights the relevance of psychosocial factors contributing to cyber security during the current crisis. The pandemic has undoubtedly changed the way people use technology, and there is evidence of people increasing their use of digital devices during the lockdown. While the adoption of new technology signifies growth among the population (Feldmann et al., 2020; Király et al., 2020), a major concern is the increased rate of problematic internet use (PIU) and internet addiction (Cellini et al., 2020; Garfinn, 2020).

Similarly, the pandemic along with its stay-at-home restrictions has cause people to feel depressed and lonely, the inability to participate in social gatherings caused people to get their social satisfaction online. Research conducted by Deutrom et al. (2021) highlighted the relationship between these two social factors. It also added Life satisfaction and how all three can be used to predict security behaviour during the pandemic. This current research follows on by examining the effect of demographic conditions in the existing predictions to give a more detailed insight on the cause of these behaviors. Considering that the effects of the pandemic are long-term and the increased demand for remote work, the findings of the research could be used to provide guidance for the new post-pandemic norm, or even similar future crises.