Psychosocial Characteristics of African American Cybersecurity Victims, 2023

Pew Research Center indicates that cybercrime is getting more dangerous with rising costs related to ransomware and that damage costs will hit trillions annually. Resources are being invested in training and understanding the human factors that contribute to these crimes to help deter them. However, most of the research has focused primarily on the Caucasian population with African Americans (AA) and other minorities being overlooked. This study with AA college students, included an experimental manipulation of phishing emails with various message content on student participant responses. Results indicated a significant contribution of computer knowledge, expertise, and time spent online, to cyber-risky behaviors such as opening the email or clicking on the links embedded in the phishing emails. The results confirm the need of an engaged cybersecurity training for our students and shed new light on these relationships in the minority population. Keywords: Psychosocial, minority, cybersecurity victim, phishing emails