A study of e-banking users has shown that cybersecurity depends not only on knowledge of digital threats but also on attitudes toward them, memory and how a person interacts with technology. The work was published in the International Journal of Information and Computer Security.
The authors studied how bank customers turn cybersecurity knowledge into actual behavior. According to them, earlier such studies mainly concerned company employees rather than ordinary customers.
Structural modeling (a statistical method that tests relationships between variables) was used for the analysis. The survey involved 772 e-banking users in India. They were asked about their knowledge, attitudes and behavior in the area of security.
It emerged that a bank's efforts to educate customers about cybersecurity and users' own initiatives help accumulate general knowledge. Customers with a positive attitude toward security who remember the necessary information and know the risks and ways to avoid them well more often behaved cautiously online.
However, the more technically savvy a customer was, the more positive their attitude toward the security of their banking was - and the more often they took risks. Such people relied on their confidence and familiarity with technology, believing this would protect them from fraudsters and attackers.
The researchers emphasize that these are statistical associations, not proven causes. The work does not claim that technical savvy in itself makes people take risks. But the results show that knowledge about cyber threats alone is not enough - attitudes toward security and memory matter.