Materials

Use the raw slides (pdf) before lecture to take notes.

Summary

• One reason for the success of social engineering attacks is cognitive bias

• Behavioral, social, memory biases

• hundreds of cognitive biases have been studied in the psychology literature

• We highlight several that are especially important in security

• We review several studies on why phishing is so successful

• References on the Halo Effect and its role in other biases

  • “Name Stereotypes and Teachers’ Expectations”, Herbert Harari, John McDavid, Journal of Educational Psychology, 1973, V65, No2, p222-225.
  • Are Emily and Greg More Employable Than Lakisha andJamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination, The American Economic Review, Sep 2004.