Cybersecurity vulnerability ranks among the foremost global business risks. Phishing attempts, in particular through email, persistently challenge organizations despite substantial investments in IT security and awareness training. Recognizing the limitations of unilateral technology- or human-centered approaches, this study explores how visual risk indication can support employees in detecting phishing attempts. To do so, we conducted an eye-tracking lab experiment in which participants rated the trustworthiness of emails with varying levels of credibility. Our analysis focuses on human information processing in identifying phishing attempts, indicating that the availability of a visual risk indicator can significantly influence trust and response behavior, without incapacitating implicit phishing cues (such as conspicuous senders or anonymous recipients). Our findings suggest that organizations should appropriately calibrate visual risk indicators to achieve the intended guiding effects. However, the calibration remains a trade-off and depends on the organization's environment. We discuss implications for integrative cybersecurity approaches to mitigate phishing attempts more effectively.

While the cybersecurity literature on behavioral factors has expanded, current countermeasures often overlook employee-specific behavioral differences, leading to generic solutions. This study addresses this gap by introducing a typology of knowledge worker cybersecurity behaviors through cluster analysis. Based on online survey data (n=264), we identify six main dimensions of cybersecurity attitude and behavior and, based on these, four behavioral cybersecurity types with distinct characteristics and demographic profiles: Naïve Greenhorns, Traditional Examiners, Flexible Mavericks, and Reliable Troupers. Contrary to common beliefs, the study found that older employees demonstrate high cybersecurity resilience, while younger ones pose a higher risk. These findings underscore the importance of tailored, human-centered cybersecurity approaches.

Time pressure, a common phenomenon in everyday workplace environments, is an important driver for non-secure cybersecurity behaviour in organisations. Under time pressure, users are more likely to rely upon fast, affect-driven decision making, increasing their susceptibility to make mistakes and justify non-secure workarounds. This contributes to the role of human error in cybersecurity and counteracts cybersecurity measures (CSMs) designed to protect organisations from threats and vulnerabilities. In this study, we report results from an online survey (N = 207), investigating how users perceive the effectiveness of CSMs for facilitating secure behaviour under time pressure. Understanding how users perceive the effectiveness of CSMs is important to inform the design and implementation of such measures in practice. We find that perceived CSM effectiveness differs greatly across measures. Thereby, users’ appreciation of incident severity and the general level of time pressure in their daily lives emerge as important antecedents. We discuss theoretical and practical implications for the design and implementation of CSMs.

Purpose A growing body of research has identified time pressure as a key driver of cybersecurity (CS) risks and vulnerabilities. To strengthen CS, organizations use CS documents (e.g. best practices, guidelines and policies) intended to strengthen CS. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of how specifically time pressure is addressed by CS documents. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a systematic search for CS documents followed by a content analysis of the identified documents. First, the authors carried out a systematic Web search and identified 92 formal and informal CS documents (e.g. security policies, procedures, guidelines, manuals and best practices). Second, they systematically analyzed the resulting documents (n = 92), using a structured approach of data familiarization and low-/high-level coding for the identification and interpretation of themes. Based on this analysis, the authors formulated a conceptual framework that captures the sources and effects of time pressure along the themes of industry, operations and users. Findings The authors developed a conceptual framework that outlines the role of time pressure for the CS industry, threats and operations. This provides a shared frame of reference for researchers and practitioners to understand the antecedents and consequences of time pressure in the organizational CS context. Research limitations/implications While the analyzed documents acknowledge time pressure as an important factor for CS, the documents provide limited information on how to respond to these concerns. Future research could, hence, consult with CS experts and policymakers to inform the development of effective guidelines and policies on how to address time pressure in the identified areas. A dedicated analysis within each area will allow to investigate the corresponding aspects of time pressure in-depth along with a consideration for targeted guidelines and policies. Last, note that a differentiation between CS document types (e.g. formal vs informal and global vs regional) was beyond the scope of this paper and may be investigated by future work. Originality/value This study makes three main contributions to the CS literature. First, this study broadens the understanding of the role of time pressure in CS to consider the organizational perspective along the themes of industry, threats and operations. Second, this study provides the first comprehensive assessment of how organizations address time pressure through CS documents, and how this compares to existing research in academic literature. Third, by developing a conceptual framework, this study provides a shared frame of reference for researchers and practitioners to further develop CS documents that consider time pressure’s role in secure behavior.

User interfaces often utilise imagery of pristine natural environments, even if the system’s purpose and context are unrelated to nature. In this paper, we build on evolutionary psychology to develop a theoretical model for the influence of nature imagery on user perceptions of trust, visual aesthetics, and purchase intentions in a corporate sales setting. We evaluate our model by means of an online experiment (n = 408) using a website with different configurations of nature imagery. The results provide support for our theoretical model and hence confirm a positive influence of nature presence, that is, the extent to which the website allows a user to experience the natural environment as being present, on trust, visual aesthetics, and purchase intentions. Thereby, user perceptions of nature presence are specifically linked to nature imagery depicting water as well as vegetation. This study furthers our understanding of how the environmental context of on-site imagery can have subtle information processing benefits for users. For practitioners this study offers insight to the types of imagery that could be utilised more effectively in corporate interface designs.

While previous research established that culture plays an important role in technology adoption, there is only limited work on the role of cultural appropriateness in user interface design for users from a specific background. In this study, we focus on the case of avatar design as a user interface element for facilitating positive user experience. Building on the theoretical lenses of social response theory and the “Computers Are Social Actors” paradigm, we develop a research model to investigate how cultural appropriateness of avatar design is a vital driver for users’ trust. We evaluate our research model by means of an online experiment ( n = 313) in the context of online health advice for users from Saudi Arabia. The avatars differed in appearance (Arab, non-Arab), gender (male, female), and clothing (athletic, medical, everyday). Our results show that Arab avatars exhibited significantly higher cultural appropriateness than non-Arab avatars. Furthermore, participants were more inclined to select an Arab avatar (88.2%) that matched their gender (77.3%). Confirming the critical role of cultural appropriateness, our study demonstrates the importance of carefully considering the target audience in designing user interfaces.

In this paper, we present an evolutionary trust game to investigate the formation of trust in the so-called sharing economy from a population perspective. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to model trust in the sharing economy using the evolutionary game theory framework. Our sharing economy trust model consists of four types of players: a trustworthy provider, an untrustworthy provider, a trustworthy consumer, and an untrustworthy consumer. Through systematic simulation experiments, five different scenarios with varying proportions and types of providers and consumers were considered. Our results show that each type of players influences the existence and survival of other types of players, and untrustworthy players do not necessarily dominate the population even when the temptation to defect (i.e., to be untrustworthy) is high. Our findings may have important implications for understanding the emergence of trust in the context of sharing economy transactions.