| NSF Org: |
CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 18, 2012 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | October 15, 2014 |
| Award Number: | 1228937 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
heng xu
CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems CSE Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2012 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2015 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $490,758.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $490,758.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
2200 VINE ST # 830861 LINCOLN NE US 68503-2427 (402)472-3171 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
NE US 68588-0430 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | Secure &Trustworthy Cyberspace |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.070 |
ABSTRACT
Unauthorized online behavior motivated by social, political, economic and cultural (SPEC) conflicts is increasing. However, research dealing with cyber-attacks has tended to be reactive and to focus on defense, instead of proactive and focused on the root psychological and social causes of such attacks. Despite considerable evidence that trust and distrust impact rule-following behaviors and obedience to the law, little research investigates the role of distrust in promoting unauthorized online behaviors. Critically, trust/distrust research in other areas suggests the cyber-attacks might be reduced through interventions aimed at forms of distrust. Thus, advancing knowledge about distrust in general and in this specific domain is important both for social science and cybersecurity.
The present project will answer questions about whether different types of distrust have different effects on willingness to engage in or provide support for cyber-attacks, and will investigate the effectiveness of sociotechnical interventions designed to reduce unauthorized online behaviors. The central hypothesis is that relationships between distrust and unauthorized online behaviors (or support of such behaviors) depend on the specific bases of distrust, and require different remedies. The project will achieve its aims by the development of vignettes that systematically vary conditions likely to foster trust or distrust and motivation for unauthorized online behaviors. The effects of the variables manipulated in the vignettes will be tested in other groups of students using online experiments and simulation (role-playing) activities. The project will also develop and test an online deliberative space that can both take advantage of the research findings and provide an environment for theory-testing. Specifically, the online prototype will be able to manipulate key trust/distrust-relevant features of the deliberative space while measuring and tracking participant online behaviors, providing data that can then be subject to data mining procedures in order to find important patterns of behavior related to trust and distrust.
The intellectual merit of the current research is that it uses distrust as an organizing construct to understand individual behaviors and attitudes toward security in cyberspace and innovatively uses science communication as the specific application domain to investigate cybersecurity. By examining the antecedents and consequences of distrust, and by integrating a variety of research approaches, this research will both (a) advance theoretical models of trust and distrust generally, and (b) enhance the prevention of cyber-attacks specifically by providing insights that contribute to the design of institutions and interventions perceived as legitimate and obedience-worthy even in the context of culturally divisive issues.
The broader impacts of the proposed activities are that the research findings will contribute to the creation of online spaces for public engagement that encourage optimal behavior and reduce destructive and ethically questionable behaviors (e.g., cyber-attacks, hacktivism). The platform developed for our research will be widely applicable to studying problems in other domains, and can be used to further research, as well as in applied educational and policy contexts. Through this project, hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students will be exposed to topics beyond their discipline including cybersecurity, climate change and public deliberative engagement. Finally, by educating students about online deliberation, pros and cons of argumentative discourse, public engagement and policy making, we are training future scientists to be leaders and world citizens.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Unauthorized online behavior motivated by social, political, economic and cultural (SPEC) conflicts is increasing. However, research dealing with SPEC and other cyber-attacks has tended to be reactive and to focus on defense, instead of proactively focused on the root psychological and social causes of such attacks. Despite considerable evidence that trust and distrust impact rule-following behaviors and obedience to the law, little research investigates the role of distrust in promoting unauthorized online behaviors or the public support of (vs. resistance to) such behaviors. Critically, trust/distrust research in other areas suggests the cyber-attacks might be reduced through interventions aimed at reducing distrust. This project therefore aimed to advance knowledge about distrust in general and in the specific domain of cybersecurity.
Through multiple vignette experiments and studies of online role-playing, the present project examined the impacts of different types of distrust on willingness to engage in or provide support for SPEC cyber-attacks, as well as the effectiveness of sociotechnical interventions that aimed to reduce unauthorized online behaviors. Our central hypothesis was that relationships between distrust and unauthorized online behaviors (or support of vs. resistance to such behaviors) depend on the specific bases of distrust, and require different remedies. We used vignettes that systematically varied conditions likely to foster trust or distrust and motivation for unauthorized online behaviors, and found (a) distrust in institutions was not as important as trust in hacktivists, when it came to public support for hacktivist activities; (b) of the various bases of trust investigated, trust based on shared values and perceived integrity of the hacktivists was most predictive of support for hacktivism, and trust based on perceived benevolence and competence of the hacktivists was less important; (c) distrust of target (of hacktivism) institutions’ integrity and competence may increase public support for hacktivism, while trust in target institution benevolence may increase public resistance to hacktivism; (d) low benevolence and integrity of targets was associated with greater blame and harm attributions; (e) although trust in technology did appear to be related to public support for hacktivism in our correlational studies, experimental manipulations of technology transparency and accountability did not impact support for hacktivism.
The project also developed and tested an online deliberative space that can provide an environment for discussion of controversial SPEC issues and future theory-testing. The online prototype allows researchers to manipulate key trust/distrust-relevant features of the deliberative space while measuring and tracking participant online behaviors, providing data that can then be subject to data mining procedures in order to find important patterns of behavior related to trust and distrust.
The intellectual merit of this research is that it used distrust as an organizing construct to understand individual behaviors and attitudes toward security in cyberspace, thereby advancing theory relating to institutional trust/distrust and to hacktivism. This research advanced theoretical models of trust and distrust generally, by providing evidence of different relationships among different trust-related constructs across situations. It also provided evidence relating to the prevention of cyber-attacks by shedding light on institutional and technology factors that impact support for hacktivism.
The broader impacts of the proposed activities include that the research findings may contribute to finding interventions perceived as legitimate and obedience-worthy even in the context of culturally divisive issues, thereby contributing to the creation of on...
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