Experiences of internet users regarding cyberhate

Serkan Celik (Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey) published in Information Technology and People Volume 32 Issue 6 (2019)

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore internet users’ experiences of cyberhate in the aspects of ethnicity, religion, sexual preference and political perspective.

Design/methodology/approach
Researchers employed an exploratory survey method to examine internet users’ experiences of cyberhate. The participants of the study were determined by purposive sampling methods to attain maximum variety among internet users with high-level digital literacy skills. The data were collected from 355 internet users affiliated with two universities in Turkey and the USA using a personal data form and a survey (Cyberhate Experience Survey) of which reliability and validity indexes were ensured.

Findings
The results indicated that participants have observed and experienced cyberhate at different levels targeting their ethnic, religious, gender-based and political identities. The findings also pointed out that gender, income and socio-political identities are significant variables on exposure to cyberhate regardless of cultural and educational boundaries. The majority of survey respondents reported that they had encountered cyberhate mostly on social media platforms.

Social implications
The findings of the study imply that to address the hate speech problem comprehensively, the author must enlighten people, change their way of thinking and broaden their perspectives by using measures such as intercultural dialogue, critical thinking, media literacy, education on tolerance and diversity.

Originality/value
This research was intended to contribute into the need to elaborate on various aspects of cyberhate, which is shared by academics, thinkers, journalists and educators. It may also serve to clarify how frequently internet users encounter hateful content and harassment online, which can have social consequences and influence young people’s trust to other people.

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Solutions for counteracting human deception in social engineering attacks

an article by Curtis C. Campbell (University of Phoenix, Tempe, Arizona, USA) published in Information Technology & People Volume 32 Issue 5 (2019)

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the top three cybersecurity issues in organizations related to social engineering and aggregate solutions for counteracting human deception in social engineering attacks.

Design/methodology/approach
A total of 20 experts within Information System Security Association participated in a three-round Delphi study for aggregating and condensing expert opinions. Three rounds moved participants toward consensus for solutions to counteract social engineering attacks in organizations.

Findings
Three significant issues: compromised data; ineffective practices; and lack of ongoing education produced three target areas for implementing best practices in countering social engineering attacks. The findings offer counteractions by including education, policies, processes and continuous training in security practices.

Research limitations/implications
Study limitations include lack of prior data on effective social engineering defense. Research implications stem from the psychology of human deception and trust with the ability to detect deception.

Practical implications
Practical implications relate to human judgment in complying with effective security policies and programs and consistent education and training. Future research may include exploring financial, operational and educational costs of implementing social engineering solutions.

Social implications
Social implications apply across all knowledge workers who benefit from technology and are trusted to protect organizational assets and intellectual property.

Originality/value
This study contributes to the field of cybersecurity with a focus on trust and human deception to investigate solutions to counter social engineering attacks. This paper adds to under-represented cybersecurity research regarding effective implementation for social engineering defense.

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Responsible domestic robotics: exploring ethical implications of robots in the home

an article by Lachlan Urquhart (University of Edinburgh, UK and University of Nottingham, UK) and Dominic Reedman-Flint and Natalie Leesakul (University of Nottingham, UK)
 published in Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society Volume 17 Issue 2 (2019)

Abstract

Purpose
The vision of robotics in the home promises increased convenience, comfort, companionship and greater security for users. The robot industry risks causing harm to users, being rejected by society at large or being regulated in overly prescriptive ways if robots are not developed in a socially responsible manner. The purpose of this paper is to explore some of the challenges and requirements for designing responsible domestic robots.

Design/methodology/approach
The paper examines definitions of robotics and the current commercial state of the art. In particular, it considers the emerging technological trends, such as smart homes, that are already embedding computational agents in the fabric of everyday life. The paper then explores the role of values in design, aligning with human computer interaction, and considers the importance of the home as a deployment setting for robots. The paper examines what responsibility in robotics means and draws lessons from past home information technologies. An exploratory pilot survey was conducted to understand user concerns about different aspects of domestic robots such as form, privacy and trust. The paper provides these findings, married with literature analysis from across technology law, computer ethics and computer science.

Findings
By drawing together both empirical observations and conceptual analysis, this paper concludes that user centric design is needed to create responsible domestic robotics in the future.

Originality/value
This multidisciplinary paper provides conceptual and empirical research from different domains to unpack the challenges of designing responsible domestic robotics. In doing this, the paper seeks to bridge the gap between the normative dimensions of how responsible robots should be built, and the practical dimensions of how people want to live with them in context.

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Sharing responsibility with a machine

an article by Oliver Kirchkamp and Christina Strobel (FSU Jena, School of Economics, Germany) published in Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics Volume 80 (June 2019)

Highlights

• More and more often the partner in a decision is not another human but a machine.
• We find sharing a decision with a computer has an influence on human decisions.
• When decision makers decide on their own, the number of selfish choices is rather small.
• When the decision is shared with a computer the number of selfish choices increases.
• Humans behave quite similar when deciding with a computer than when deciding together with another human.

Abstract

Humans make decisions jointly with others. They share responsibility for the outcome with their interaction partners.

Today, more and more often the partner in a decision is not another human but, instead, a machine.

Here we ask whether the type of the partner, machine or human, affects our responsibility, our perception of the choice and the choice itself. As a workhorse we use a modified dictator game with two joint decision makers: either two humans or one human and one machine.

We find no treatment effect on perceived responsibility or guilt. We also find only a small and insignificant effect on actual choices.

JEL classification: C91, D63, D80

Hazel’s comment
No difference between human interaction and machine? I find that a little surprising but I wasn’t the person running the trial.

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Persuasion: How phishing emails can influence users and bypass security measures

an article by AnaFerreira and SoraiaTeles (University of Porto, Portugal) published in International Journal of Human-Computer Studies Volume 125 (May 2019)

Highlights

• Phishing email subject lines contain high and diverse persuasive power in just a few words.
• The paper builds on the well-known and foundational work of Cialdini's (2007), Gragg's (2003) and Stajano and Wilson (2011) to derive a unique list of Principles of Persuasion in social engineering, resulting from the application of the relational method by two independent researchers.
• The study of the relations between existing persuasion principles was applied to the content analysis, by two independent researchers, of a random sample of phishing emails subject lines (N = 194), dated from 2008 to 2017. A thematic content analysis and a sample characterization in terms of visual elements and targeted content, revealed that the most prominent persuasion principles were ‘Authority’, ‘Strong Affect’, ‘Integrity’ and ‘Reciprocation’. The persuasion principle ‘Strong Affect’ was the one containing the larger percentage of references with the presence of visual elements. The use of the pronoun ‘you’ and ‘your’ was more evident for the categories ‘Strong Affect’ and ‘Authority’, while the employment of the pronouns ‘we, us, our’ was more expressive in the ‘Reciprocation’ principle.
• This paper presents a method on the way to define a tool for automated identification of principles of human persuasion in social engineering, within phishing emails. Future solutions should focus on the use of socio-technical aspects related mainly to a small number of persuasion principles (‘Authority’ and ‘Distraction – Strong Affect’), which seem to be the most commonly used in phishing emails.

Abstract

Phishing is a very dangerous form of social engineering with the aim to deceive people into disclosing private/confidential information.

Despite widespread warnings and means to educate users to identify phishing messages, these are still a prevalent practice and a lucrative business.

The authors believe that persuasion, as a style of human communication designed to influence others, has a central role in successful digital scams. Research on persuasion applied to phishing emails is scarce and tends to build on Cialdini's work alone.

Only a single study has proposed a list of merged principles from three different perspectives but it has methodological limitations regarding the analysis’ performance by a single researcher and the testing of principles in a small, not validated sample of phishing emails. This paper aims to fill those gaps by building on Cialdini's, Gragg's and Stajano & Wilson's works to derive a unique list of Principles of Persuasion in Social Engineering (PPSE), resulting from the application of the relational method by two independent researchers.

The PPSE are identified, by two independent researchers (Kappa > 0.789) on a sample of phishing email subject lines (N = 194), dated from 2008 to 2017 and randomly selected from a reliable phishing archive (millersmiles.co.uk).

A thematic content analysis, together with the sample characterization in terms of visual elements and targeted content, revealed that the most prominent principles of persuasion in phishing emails were ‘Authority’, ‘Strong Affect’, ‘Integrity’ and ‘Reciprocation’. The larger percentage of references with the presence of visual elements was found for the ‘Strong Affect’ principle. The use of the pronouns ‘you' and ‘your’ was more evident for the categories ‘Strong Affect’ and ‘Authority’, while the employment of the pronouns ‘we, us, our’ was more frequent in the ‘Reciprocation’ principle.

This paper constitutes a step further in understanding the use of principles of persuasion in phishing emails with future applications on how their recognition can be automated.

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“Robots do not replace a nurse with a beating heart”: The publicity around a robotic innovation in elderly care

an article by Outi Tuisku, Satu Pekkarinen, Lea Hennala and Helinä Melkas, (Lappeenranta University of Technology, Lahti, Finland) published in Information Technology & People Volume 32 Issue 1 (2019)

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the publicity around the implementation of the Zora robot in elderly-care services in Lahti, Finland. The aim is to discover opinions concerning the use of robots in elderly care as well as the arguments and justifications behind those opinions. Zora is a humanoid robot intended to promote mobility and rehabilitation. The Lahti pilot was the first Zora pilot in Finland in public elderly-care services. It received much publicity, both regionally and nationally.

Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on an empirical case study on the implementation of the Zora robot in elderly-care services. The data consist of interviews with personnel who operated Zora and comments from the general public about the “Zora” robot. Two data sources were used: 107 comments were collected from online and print media, and the personnel (n=39) who worked with Zora were interviewed. The data were analysed by means of interpretative content analysis.

Findings
The results show that public opinion is mainly negative, but that the commentators apparently have little information about the robot and its tasks. The personnel had more positive views; they saw it as a recreational tool, not as a replacement for their own roles.

Originality/value
There is clearly a need for more information, for a better informed discussion on how robots can be used in elderly care and how to involve the general public in this discussion in a constructive way.

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Tertiary-level internet users’ opinions and perceptions of cyberhate

an article by  Serkan Celik, (Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey) published in Information Technology & People Volume 31 Issue 3 (2018)

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to elaborate the opinions and perceptions of internet users regarding online hate speech, and bring cyberhate to the attention of internet users and policy stakeholders.

Design/methodology/approach
A sectional research design and survey method was adopted throughout the study to examine the opinions and perceptions of internet users regarding cyberhate by descriptively exploring the existing situation from various perspectives. The participants of the study were determined by purposive sampling methods to attain maximum variety among internet users who are considered as highly literate in technology use. The data were collected through a personal data form and a survey (Cyberhate Perception Scale) from 372 internet users living in Turkey and the USA.

Findings
The findings of the study revealed that the majority of participants do not perceive cyberhate as a part of freedom of speech and they believe that online hate behaviors, which they also consider to be a violation of human rights, should be deemed illegal and be punished accordingly. The findings, which were discussed in line with the existing research, indicated some significant predictors of internet users’ perceptions on cyberhate.

Originality/value
As cyberhate is an understudied area that raises concerns in terms of internet user exposure, the objective of this research is to understand tendencies about the opinions and perceptions of internet users regarding online hate speech, and bring cyberhate to the attention of internet users and policy stakeholders.

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Contemporary morality: Moral judgments in digital contexts

an article by AlbertBarque-Duran,  Emmanuel M.Pothos and James A.Hampton (City, University of London, UK) and James M.Yearsley (Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA) published in Computers in Human Behavior
Volume 75 (October 2017)

Highlights

• This is one of the first studies on the impact of Digital Age in moral judgments.
• Moral judgments depend on the Digital Context in which a dilemma is presented.
• Choices become more utilitarian vs. deontological when using Smartphones vs. PCs.
• The results have implications regarding the Dual-Process Models of moral judgments.
• The results have also implications regarding Human-Computer Interaction.

Abstract

Nowadays, several of the situations in which we have to make decisions are in digital form.

In a first experiment (N = 1010) we showed that people's moral judgments depend on the Digital Context (Smartphone vs. PC) in which a dilemma is presented, becoming more utilitarian (vs. deontological) when using Smartphones in high conflict moral dilemmas.

To provide additional evidence, we ran a second (N = 250) and a third experiment (N = 300), where we introduced time constraints and we manipulated time instructions.

Our results provide an extended perspective on Dual-Process Models of Moral Judgment, as we showed that the use of smartphones, often assumed to be hurried which would be consistent with gut-feeling decision-making, increased the likelihood of utilitarian responses and decreased deontological ones.

We suggest that the increase in utilitarian judgments is a result of inducing high construal, increasing psychological distance and giving rise to an abstract representation of actions.

A fourth experiment (N = 1211), where we measured psychological distance, provided some first evidence for our hypotheses. This is one of the first studies to look at the impact of the digital age on moral judgments and the results presented have consequences for understanding moral choice in our increasingly virtualized world.

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