Cybersecurity SME Survey

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Dear Cybersecurity Experts,

I need your help in providing feedback on developing two sets of validated experimental tasks and eight experimental protocols for my upcoming doctoral research study. I am a Ph.D. Candidate in Information Assurance at the College of Computing and Engineering, Nova Southeastern University (NSU), working under the supervision of Dr. Yair Levy, and a member of his Levy CyLab.

My research seeks to assess users’ judgment when exposed to two types of simulated social engineering attacks (phishing & Potentially Malicious Search Engine Results (PMSER)). I am also seeking to develop eight experimental protocols to assess the measures of users’ judgment when exposed to two types of simulated social engineering attacks (phishing & PMSER), in two kinds of environments (distracting vs. non-distracting), and two types of device (mobile phone vs. computer).

In this part of the research, I need your assistance in the validation of environmental distractions, A/V distraction levels, phishing email samples, and PMSER samples.

I also need your assistance in the validation of the two sets of experimental tasks for device vs. environment and eight experimental protocols measuring user judgment errors in device vs. environment simulations. , In addition to the randomization of the mini IQ tests for phishing and PMSER. The sets are as follows:

Set 1: Phishing

1. Mobile phone usage in distracting and non-distracting environments.
2. Computer usage in distracting and non-distracting environments.

Set 2: PMSER

1. Mobile phone usage in distracting and non-distracting environments.
2. Computer usage in distracting and non-distracting environments.

The eight protocols are:

1. Distracted via Mobile Phone (phishing).
2. Not Distracted via Mobile Phone (phishing).
3. Distracted via computer (phishing).
4. Not Distracted via Computer (phishing).
5. Distracted via Mobile Phone (PMSER).
6. Not Distracted via Mobile Phone (PMSER).
7. Distracted via Computer (PMSER).
8. Not Distracted via Computer (PMSER).

This survey will be broken down into five sections as follows:

1. Demographic Information
2. Physical Environment and Audio/Visual Distractions.
3. Phishing IQ Test Samples
4. PMSER IQ Test Samples
5. IQ Test Randomization Table

The information provided will be used for this research study and in an aggregated form. No Personally Identifiable Information (PII) will be collected. As a participant, you agree to keep all information regarding this research confidential and to refrain from disclosing any details related to this survey or the material contained within it. If you are willing to participate in developing these research protocols, please respond to this survey.
Thank you in advance for your consideration. I appreciate your assistance and contribution to this research study. Should you wish to receive the study's findings, please indicate it with your reply to the provided e-mail address below. I will be happy to provide you with information about the academic research publication(s) resulting from this study.

Respectfully,
Tommy Pollock
Doctoral Candidate in Information Assurance
College of Computing and Engineering
Nova Southeastern University
tp809@mynsu.nova.edu

Survey link:  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScUoLIPFk7eSCOUhYik3Z17JHv0LfzmP86NKbsljhSbRLP6_g/viewform?gxids=7628