![]() ![]() Because people are optimistic, they tend to underestimate risks. It doesn’t take a great deal of thought to connect the dots. Sadly, though, the optimism bias in cyber security leaves us overly-vulnerable to cyber attack. The optimism bias is an intriguing concept that comes with a host of benefits, such as shielding us from depression and ensuring we respond positively to failure. At the time, actual risks were around 30% – but the average response was just 10%. Tali Sharot asked people to estimate their risk of contracting cancer at some point in their lifetime. In a classic demonstration, the neuroscientist Dr. Social psychologists and behavioural scientists have known for a long time that humans typically harbour an “optimism bias” – an inherent bias for optimism. To the psychologists behind the above experiment, the outcome wasn’t surprising. The optimism bias in cyber security is one of the reasons cyber crime continues to soar. ![]() The experiments demonstrates the optimism bias. According to participants, the future was certain to be rosy. The results were telling.Īs opposed to a fairly even mix of yellow and blue magnets, the board depicting the future was filled almost entirely with yellow magnets. Next, Prudential asked participants to stick magnets describing things that might happen in the future to a new board. Participants did so, and the board was a fairly even mix of yellow and blue magnets – so a fairly even mix of positive and negative experiences. The company then asked participants to stick the scenarios they’d personally experienced on a magnetic board. Blue magnets said things like ‘divorce’ or ‘unemployment’. Similarly, they labelled a series of blue magnets with negative experiences. The company labelled a series of yellow magnets with positive experiences, such as ‘graduation’ or ‘marriage’. In 2015, financial services giant Prudential ran an experiment they called ‘magnets’. The optimism bias in cyber security, however, causes security problems… The optimism bias is an age-old human trait essential to our well being.
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