ABSTRACT
The social network behavior of humans is important to our understanding of how viruses and malware spread and how changes in a social network can occur to respond to this. Social networks can spread information at unprecedented speeds, and can help to reduce the impact of a large-scale cyberattack. They can also be used for nefarious purposes, as in the Cambridge Analytica scandal discussed in Section 2.8. On the other hand, by providing so much public information about individuals, they can be used as a means for designing and launching attacks. Social normsare both ubiquitous and resilient. Unfortunately, the time frame over which they change may be greater than the rate at which technology changes, increasing vulnerability to cyberattack. Cyberattacks are also mutating through the dark web, via access to malware at falling prices and by the sharing of intelligence and expertise, which means even unsophisticated novices can create havoc in cyberspace. Borrowing Nobel Laureate Richard Thaler’s [139] phrase, we look at ways of nudging social networks into more secure practices.
