A new Cyberchology report issued by ESET cybersecurity and the Briggs-Meyers Company provides an insight into how the Covid-19 pandemic affected the cybersecurity industry. The two companies have been carrying out research based on a sample population of 2000 consumers and 100 Chief Information Security Officers in the UK for over a year.
Since the Briggs-Meyers Company is a leading business psychology firm, this report explores the links between personality types and vulnerabilities to cybercrime.
The report illuminates the causes of these effects and details the behaviour of different personality types during the pandemic. Specifically, 80% of cybercrimes that took place in the lockdown period were caused by human errors. Also, during this period, the number of cybercrime incidents also shot up by 63%.
Furthermore, according to the report many firms and businesses were not equipped for a distanced digital working environment when the pandemic hit. The abrupt disruption was challenging for roughly 25% of the companies surveyed because they were unprepared for remote working job structures. However, for the remaining 75%, nearly half of the employees have been working remotely.
In its Catphishing Research in the UK, ESET surveyed 2000 individuals and discovered that 69% of Brits are concerned about their cybersecurity, but have no clue what to do about it. This problem has created stressful work environments – 47% of employees are concerned about managing their stress, especially during the Covid-19 crisis.
The MBTI analysis
Briggs-MyersThe Company is known for its personality analysis – The MBTI test. It tests candidates on 4 spectrums – Extraversion or Introversion, Sensing or Intuition, Thinking or Feeling and Judging or Perceiving.
The MBTI analysis looked at a few stress-inducing situations and observed different personalities at play.
In situations of stress, each person acts differently. The MBTI analysis looked at a few stress-inducing situations and observed different personalities at play.
In the case of a phishing incident, ENFP and ENTP (extroverted, intuitive, and perceiving) may find themselves vulnerable. Especially in cases of a simple email phishing spam campaign, both these personality types would be advised to be cautious about opening email attachments. However, these are the same people who would be the first ones to realise that a new security process is in play, and who would strive to be competent.
While dealing with a malware infestation, which may include viruses, spyware, or ransomware, the personality types ESTJ and ENTJ (extroverted, thinking, and judging) would be more vulnerable towards credible-looking malicious software. This error in judgment would happen in a moment of rush, or if someone cut corners in an effort to be efficient.
The personality types ISTP and INTP (introverted, thinking, and perceiving) would find themselves vulnerable in the case of an attack on IoT devices. This would happen because these types would ignore cybersecurity protocol.
Most people and businesses are vulnerable to cyber threats, but according to this report, each personality type is expected to let down its guard in a different way.
