This book discusses the role of human personality in the study of behavioral cybersecurity for non-specialists. Since the introduction and proliferation of the Internet, cybersecurity maintenance issues have grown exponentially. The importance of behavioral cybersecurity has recently been amplified by current events, such as misinformation and cyber-attacks related to election interference in the United States and internationally. More recently, similar issues have occurred in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The book presents profiling approaches, offers case studies of major cybersecurity events and provides analysis of password attacks and defenses. Discussing psychological methods used to assess behavioral cybersecurity, alongside risk management, the book also describes game theory and its applications, explores the role of cryptology and steganography in attack and defense scenarios and brings the reader up to date with current research into motivation and attacker/defender personality traits. Written for practitioners in the field, alongside nonspecialists with little prior knowledge of cybersecurity, computer science, or psychology, the book will be of interest to all who need to protect their computing environment from cyber-attacks. The book also provides source materials for courses in this growing area of behavioral cybersecurity.

Since the introduction and proliferation of the Internet, problems involved with maintaining cybersecurity has grown exponentially, and have evolved into many forms of exploitation. Yet, Cybersecurity has had far too little study and research. Virtually all of the Research that has taken place in cybersecurity over many years, has been done by those with computer science, electrical engineering, and mathematics backgrounds. However, many cybersecurity researchers have come to realize that to gain a full understanding of how to protect a cyber environment requires not only the knowledge of those researchers in computer science, engineering and mathematics, but those who have a deeper understanding of human behavior: researchers with expertise in the various branches of behavioral science, such as psychology, behavioral economics, and other aspects of brain science. The authors, one a computer scientist and the other a psychologist, have attempted over the past several years to understand the contributions that each approach to cybersecurity problems can benefit from this integrated approach that we have tended to call "behavioral cybersecurity." The authors believe that the research and curriculum approaches developed from this integrated approach provide a first book with this approach to cybersecurity. This book incorporates traditional technical computational and analytic approaches to cybersecurity, and also psychological and human factors approaches, as well. Features Discusses profiling approaches and risk management Includes case studies of major cybersecurity events and "Fake News" Presents analyses of password attacks and defenses Addresses game theory, behavioral economics and their application to cybersecurity Supplies research into attacker/defender personality and motivation traits Techniques for measuring cyber attacks/defenses using crypto and stego