RCSI Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland Coláiste Ríoga na Máinleá in Éirinn
‘The CyberPsychology of Cyber Security’
World Cyber Security Technology Research Summit 2014
Mary Aiken
Director RCSI CyberPsychology Research Centre
Fellow RCSI Institute of Leadership
Research Fellow School of Law Middlesex University
Fellow IBM Network Science Research Center

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• Field within applied psychology
• Internet psychology , virtual environments, AI & IA, gaming, digital convergence, social media, mobile telephones and networking devices
• 30 peer-reviewed journals: 1,000 articles
• CyberPsychology: exponential growth due to continued rapid acceleration of Internet technologies and the ‘unprecedentedly pervasive and profound influence of the internet on human beings’ (Yan, 2012)

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• Interest in cyberspace: cognitive, social, educational, organisational, personality, clinical and experimental psychologists.
• Traditional ‘real world theories’ – will they suffice? do we need to modify - or develop new ones?
• Interdisciplinary scholars are crystalising new ideas and moving towards conquering a new scientific frontier

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• Anonymity
(Joinson, 2001)
• Online disinhibition effect
(Suler, 2004)
• Cyber immersion
(Takatalo et al., 2008)
• Cyber presence
(Riva et al., 2007)
• Self-presentation online
(Gibbs et al., 2006)
• Privacy
(McMahon & Aiken, 2014; Barnes, 2006)
• Escalation online
(White & Horvitz, 2002)
• Altruism
(Adar & Huberman, 2000)
• Trust
(Putnam, 2000)
• Identity
(Turkle, 1999; Gross & Acquisti, 2005)

CyberPsychology: Delivering insight at the human/technology interface
Privacy
Environment Trust
Needs Habits & Emotions
Identity Presence
Intelligence Amplification
Socialisation Resilience
Communication
Personality
Ethics
Human
Big Data
Regulation
Artificial Intelligence
Mobile Cyber Defence
IOT BYOD
Network Security
Malware Risk
Authentication
Ubiquitous Cities
Biometrics
Technology

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Consideration of Cyber Security in the context of CyberPsychological factors
1. Cyber security & ‘factoring in the human’
Person vs. User
- State & Trait
- Real World vs. Virtual World Self (org. insider threat)
- Organizational CyberPsychology: Hierarchical vs. Networked (zero day scenario)
- Cyber Behavioral Profiling – NB Motive (primary & secondary gains)
2. Cyberspace as an environment
- Immersive vs. Transactional
- Need to update/revise definitions? Privacy, Identity, Trust, Security, Resilience
- Minimisation of Status and Authority in Cyberspace
3. Cyber technologies
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Artificial Intelligence (A.I) v’s Intelligence Amplification (I.A)
- Scientific Creativity
- Cyber Ethics / Cyber-Tort

• Cyberpsychology approach: understanding new norms of behaviour online
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Theoretically profound, experimentally rigorous, developmentally longitudinal, technically sophisticated to achieve longlasting positive societal effects
• Adhere to principles of Virtual
Research Methodology

Our vision is that the CyberPsychology Research
Centre will become a global leader in delivering research and insight at the intersection of psychology and technology
www.cypsy.com