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42 - Behavioural Data Science of Cybersecurity

from Part V - Applications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 May 2026

Ganna Pogrebna
Affiliation:
The Alan Turing Institute
Thomas T. Hills
Affiliation:
University of Warwick
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Summary

Cybersecurity remains one of the most technically complex domains of contemporary risk management, yet much of its vulnerability stems not from systems themselves but from the behavioural patterns of their users and adversaries. This chapter introduces a Behavioural Data Science perspective on cybersecurity – an approach that foregrounds the cognitive, social and affective processes underlying digital decision-making and threat response. Moving beyond the dominant paradigm of technological hardening, this chapter explores how insights from behavioural science, combined with computational modelling, can illuminate the conditions under which individuals make secure or insecure choices. It develops the concept of behavioural cyber-risk modelling, investigates the role of human–machine asymmetries and critiques static compliance-based regimes in favour of adaptive, context-aware systems. By synthesising empirical research and theoretical developments, the chapter proposes a new agenda for cybersecurity rooted in the nuanced realities of human behaviour, data-driven learning and interdisciplinary engagement.

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