Cognitive Cyber Crimes in the Era of Artificial Intelligence

18Identifying and Mitigating Psychological Bias in Cybersecurity

Yagyanath Rimal¹*, Romil Rawat², Rajesh Kumar Chakrawarti³ and Abhishek Sharma⁴

¹Department of Computer Science, Pokhara University, Pokhara, Nepal

²LabGeoInf – Research LABoratory in GEOmatics and INFormation Systems, Rome, Italy

³Sushila Devi Bansal College of Technology, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

⁴Department of CSE, Shri Vaishnav Vidyapeeth Vishwavidyalaya, Indore, India

Abstract

Psychological biases significantly influence cybersecurity outcomes, often leading to misjudgments and vulnerabilities. This study introduces a novel framework to identify and mitigate such biases, utilizing the CSE-CIC-IDS2018 dataset for cybersecurity. We used the PsybORG+ simulation environment to model attacker behaviors influenced by cognitive biases such as loss aversion and confirmation bias. Our methodology integrates the Bias-Aware Detection Algorithm (BADA), which achieved an accuracy of 83% in predicting cognitive vulnerabilities. The results demonstrate a 25% reduction in successful phishing attempts when cognitive biases are accounted for, highlighting the efficacy of incorporating psychological insights into cybersecurity strategies.

Keywords: Cognitive bias, cybersecurity, PsybORG+, Bias-Aware Detection Algorithm, CSE-CIC-IDS2018

18.1 Introduction

Cybersecurity threats [1, 2] are not solely technical challenges; they are deeply intertwined with human psychology. Cognitive biases—systematic deviations from rational ...