Susceptibility to phishing on social network sites: A personality information processing model

Today, the traditional approach used to conduct phishing attacks through email and spoofed websites has evolved to include social network sites (SNSs). This is because phishers are able to use similar methods to entice social network users to click on malicious links masquerading as fake news, controversial videos and other opportunities thought to be attractive or beneficial to the victim. SNSs are a phisher's “market” as they offer phishers a wide range of targets and take advantage of opportunities that exploit the behavioural vulnerabilities of their users. As such, it is important to further investigate aspects affecting behaviour when users are presented with phishing. Based on the literature studied, this research presents a theoretical model to address phishing susceptibility on SNSs. Using data collected from 215 respondents, the study examined the mediating role that information processing plays with regard to user susceptibility to social network phishing based on their personality traits, thereby identifying user characteristics that may be more susceptible than others to phishing on SNSs. The results from the structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis revealed that conscientious users were found to have a negative influence on heuristic processing, and are thus less susceptible to phishing on SNSs. The study also confirmed that heuristic processing increases susceptibility to phishing, thus supporting prior studies in this area. This research contributes to the information security discipline as it is one of the first to examine the effect of the relationship between the Big Five personality model and the heuristic-systematic model of information processing.