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The effects of persuasion principles on perceived honesty during shoulder surfing attacks

Keith S. Jones (Department of Psychological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA)
McKenna K. Tornblad (Department of Psychological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA)
Miriam E. Armstrong (Department of Psychological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA)
Jinwoo Choi (Department of Psychological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA)
Akbar Siami Namin (Department of Computer Science, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, USA)

Information and Computer Security

ISSN: 2056-4961

Article publication date: 8 August 2024

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aimed to investigate how honest participants perceived an attacker to be during shoulder surfing scenarios that varied in terms of which Principle of Persuasion in Social Engineering (PPSE) was used, whether perceived honesty changed as scenarios progressed, and whether any changes were greater in some scenarios than others.

Design/methodology/approach

Participants read one of six shoulder surfing scenarios. Five depicted an attacker using one of the PPSEs. The other depicted an attacker using as few PPSEs as possible, which served as a control condition. Participants then rated perceived attacker honesty.

Findings

The results revealed honesty ratings in each condition were equal during the beginning of the conversation, participants in each condition perceived the attacker to be honest during the beginning of the conversation, perceived attacker honesty declined when the attacker requested the target perform an action that would afford shoulder surfing, perceived attacker honesty declined more when the Distraction and Social Proof PPSEs were used, participants perceived the attacker to be dishonest when making such requests using the Distraction and Social Proof PPSEs and perceived attacker honesty did not change when the attacker used the target’s computer.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this experiment is the first to investigate how persuasion tactics affect perceptions of attackers during shoulder surfing attacks. These results have important implications for shoulder surfing prevention training programs and penetration tests.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under award number 1723765. Opinions, findings, and conclusions are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF.

Citation

Jones, K.S., Tornblad, M.K., Armstrong, M.E., Choi, J. and Siami Namin, A. (2024), "The effects of persuasion principles on perceived honesty during shoulder surfing attacks", Information and Computer Security, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/ICS-07-2023-0118

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited

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