ABCK holds webinar in partnership with (ISC)²

‘Cyber Psychology’

KUWAIT CITY, May 13: The American Business Council Kuwait–AmCham Kuwait (ABCK), in collaboration with (ISC)² Kuwait Chapter, hosted a webinar on the topic of Cyber Psychology on Thursday May 7. The webinar was presented by Dana Winner, Msc. Cybersecurity Policy, and Certified Information System Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Knowledge Manager (CKM).

In her opening remarks, Winner thanked ABCK for their invaluable support and the opportunity to partner on this initiative. She then greeted all attendees and gave an overview of (ISC)² and the concept of Cyber Psychology: “I’m very happy to be here with ABCK today and to have this collaborative meeting between ABCK and ISC Squared Kuwait Chapter, (ISC)² is the oldest and largest cybersecurity certification authority in the world” said Winner. She further added: “Cyber and Psychology are two very general diverse words to put together, but that was done on purpose because I think we have a very diverse group of people to appeal to and speak to today, so the title of the subject gives us the flexibility to examine several directions within the scope of Cyber Psychology.”

Relationship

Following that, Winner introduced the topic of Cyber Psychology by explaining the definition and history behind these two terms and the history and various contexts in which they are used. She highlighted the context of the relationship between Cyberspace and Psychology, especially as it impacts Kuwait, and explained several dimensions of the relationship between Cyber & Psych, such as how Cyber Systems support Psychology, and how the internet business model takes advantage of, and amplifies the extremes of human psyche and behavior.

She further discussed how human behavior impacts the creation, management and security of Cyber Systems, including organization insiders, IT insiders, and crime and pathology.

Winner then proceeded to examine in depth the history and evolution of Cyber Psychology, highlighting various milestones that spanned through different periods in time from 1962 to present day. Adding onto that, she discussed Kuwait’s “New Kuwait 2035 Vision” and strategy to create a Knowledgebased Economy (KbE).

She stressed how a digital economy and information society support KbE, and that knowledge assets management, risk assessment are the foundation for Cybersecurity. She then examined some cultural changes that are the critical path to the KbE, such as reforming the education system to adopt lifelong learning, self-directed eLearning, and connect to work life, and diversity of thought.

Thereafter, Winner examined the ways in which the Cyber space can support Psychology and gave examples of how the intersection of the two plays out in our daily lives such as phone/web anonymous conseling services like Suicide Prevention Hotline, online medical and health advice like WebMD, and many more applications for both indoviduals and corporates.

One notable example that highlights the importance of the intersection of the two disciplines and historic advancement is the 1995 Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Interactive Voice Response System which provided behavior reinforcement for patients on drugs that required behavior change to be effective.

Discussed

Following that, Winner discussed in great detail literature pertaining to the topic, providing a summary and insights into each from a behavioral and cyber perspective.

She highlighted some of the challenges to Cybersecurity, the two major challenges being: the absence of behavioral requirements-driven embedded cybersecurity system engineering, and the fact that user behavior favors convenience over security. She then provided an overview of main conclusions and takeaways from the literature.

“A ‘Technology Alone Solution’ is insufficient to address cybersecurity needs. Security is not the primary task for most people, they are rewarded for their main task, and therefore resent, and if possible, circumvent, security measures when those measures negatively impact productivity,” said Winner.

Notably, the takeaway is that all online or electronic transactions are essentially human-to-human transactions, no matter the tools that may be used as mediators. Therefore, skills training, especially from an early age, is of vital importance; the cyber equivalent of crossing the street without holding anyone’s hand.

Adding onto that, Winner gave some recommendations and highlighted the importance of interdisciplinary fields pertaining to behavioral science such as Socialogy which related to system architecture, Economics which shows the relationship between reputation and trust and integrates psychology into monetary value of items such as perceived cost, and decision-making on the individual level.

She then discussed various concepts from an indidvidual’s perspective such as the ‘Internet Business Model’ as it pertains to cyber security, and how to address perceived challenges such as cyber attacks.

Winner then concluded the webinar by opening up the floor to a Q&A, in which she entertained questions and engaged in insightful discussion with the attendees.