from Part V - Applications
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 May 2026
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.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.