A Cybersecurity Awareness Model for the Protection of Saudi Students from Social Media Attacks

Abstract

Social engineering addresses a broad category of techniques aiming to persuade someone to reveal data or perform actions for criminal purposes, such as disclosing personal information about a particular target. Cybersecurity awareness is required to raise people’s understanding of how these social engineering techniques are being used and so their capacity to exploit them. To accomplish this objective, primary focus is given to educating and training individuals on how to recognize such incidents and respond to them effectively. To protect people against social engineering threats, various cybersecurity models and approaches have been proposed. There are, however, a few differences between these models, since they are developed for specific purposes. Thus, the main objective of this study is to develop a cybersecurity awareness model specifically designed for Saudi students to protect them from social engineering attacks. The design science methodology was utilized in this study. The proposed model consists of four main stages: education and training, developing policies and guidelines, improving Saudi schools’ security, as well as monitoring and evaluation. The model introduced can ensure the safety and privacy of students, teachers, and staff across different social platforms.

Keywords

• cybersecurity
• cybersecurity awareness
• social media engineering
• Saudi Arabia
• design science