Device and Risk Aversion in the Context of Cyber Security Phishing Attacks

This research-in-progress suggests that smartphone users are more risk averse in their online behavior than PC users, presumably because of their lower attention and consequent tendency to avoid risky behavior. We analyze data from a cyber security startup company, which provides security solutions for domestic networks, about online user behavior in all devices in a sample of households. The analysis of about half a million URL requests shows that the use of a smartphone is positively associated with target URL safety, implying that a PC is more likely to be used than a smartphone to target unsafe URLs. Future stages of this study will include a controlled experiment in which device and risk will be exogenously manipulated. This work contributes to the mobile use literature, as well as to the security and privacy literature, by highlighting device-related boundary conditions in the susceptibility of users to phishing attacks.