Computer security isn’t just about technology, it’s about people.
Most security breaches don’t happen because encryption fails but because someone clicks the wrong link, reuses a password or trusts a message that looks legitimate. Attackers take advantage of human habits like urgency, curiosity and trust through phishing and social engineering.
When security tools are confusing or annoying, people look for shortcuts. This often makes systems less secure, not more. Good security should be easy to understand and hard to misuse.
Designing safer systems means accepting that humans make mistakes and building protections that support them, not punish them.
References:
Khadka, K., & Ullah, A. B. (2025). Human factors in cybersecurity: An interdisciplinary review and framework proposal. International Journal of Information Security, 24, Article 119. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10207-025-01032-0
Gentile, D., Gallo, L., Botta, A., Ruggiero, S., & Ventre, G. (2023). The human factor in phishing: Collecting and analyzing user behavior when reading emails. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167404823005813
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