As the digital divide closes and more groups have access to the Internet, cybersafety is an increasingly relevant issue. With the connectivity provided by the Internet comes an inherent interdependency between devices connected to the Internet. Compromised devices are used in various forms of cybercrime (e.g., spam campaigns) that can affect the Internet as a whole. Thus, to increase cybersecurity, it is important to understand the ways and extent to which certain groups may be more susceptible to Internet crime. Previous studies have focused on how factors such as age, gender, occupation, and level of STEM background affect one?s susceptibility to Internet crime (i.e., phishing attacks), however little work has focused on how social class factors into Internet crime susceptibility.
This project focuses on understanding new sociological factors that may render particular groups more or less likely to be affected by cybercrime (in particular, phishing attacks that highlight opportunities for economic advancement).
The expected results from this project impact both the fields of cybersecurity and sociology. From a cybersecurity perspective, understanding whether particular demographics are disproportionately affected by online attacks can lead to: 1) efforts for prevention (e.g., Internet Service Providers that offer government subsidized broadband access can also provide cybersafety training); and 2) the identification of the spawning point of a cybercrime ecosystem, which if caught and addressed early, can make cyberspace at large more secure. Sociologically speaking, attention to whether social class influences susceptibility to cybercrime helps to highlight some of the previously understudied consequences of economic inequality.
