Insights on media literacy and social engineering vulnerability predictors: Lifelong learning gravity

Abstract

Effective learning in the current 4.0 Industrial Revolution era may not happen if a learner is insensitive to two types of social engineering, namely phishing and tailgating. This study aims at investigating the predictors of vulnerability to phishing and tailgating from the psychological perspective. The study was conducted on a sample of Indonesians (125 males, 137 females; M_age = 28 years old, SD_age = 8.319 years); considered as the ‘millennial’ age group. Multiple linear regression analyses covering seven predictors of the vulnerabilities, i.e. insufficient knowledge/media literacy, excitement of victory, fear of authority, desire to be helpful, fear of loss, laziness, and appeal to ego, showed that the psychological models predicting vulnerability of experiencing phishing and tailgating were confirmed, with an effect size range between 18.5% to 19%. Media literacy alone was proven to be inadequate in managing/deterring the variables that embrace vulnerability to the two social engineering techniques. The relevance of this study to lifelong learning gravity is discussed throughout this article.

Keywords: lifelong learning; literacy; phishing; psychological vulnerability; social engineering; tailgating