In Brief

The Challenge

Our challenge is to ensure that minority groups are not more vulnerable to cyber-attacks because of a difference in ability. Any engagement with technology requires appropriate ‘cyber hygiene’ measures. In the Creating Our Future report, mitigating the digital divide in society, and in particular for older people, was a core concern to citizens. Our challenge is to provide vulnerable populations with the guidance to allow them to interact securely and confidently in our increasingly digital world. 

The Solution

Our solution to the challenge is to develop tailored cybersecurity advice for end users and to take advantage of technology to ensure this advice can be practically implemented by the intended users. This is novel because it is a move away from one-size-fits-all standard cybersecurity advice with no support of usable ways to follow it. The approach will identify online user profiles, self-efficacy of technology users, and develop tailored advice based on these combinations. This solution will remove barriers to safe online behaviour and reduce the risk of attack for individuals. Technological development enables this solution as applications and processes now exist for most online tasks. Our goal will be to tie these together into a single user-centric solution. This digital resource will allow us to gamify the individual solution, and to allow a user to set reminders to audit their own security protocols. 

The Team 

  • Team Lead: Dr Hazel Murray, Munster Technological University  
  • Team Co-Lead: Dr Aoife Long, Munster Technological University  
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Societal Impact Champion  

  • James Caffrey, National Cyber Security Centre