Online Security Attack Experience and Worries of Young Adults in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Online security attacks are a worldwide issue, and increasing rapidly in the Middle East. Much of the research on the human aspects of online security has been conducted in developing countries, and although there have been a number of studies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), none of which compared experiences of users in different cultures. This study investigated the experiences and worries about online security attacks of 45 young adults in KSA and compared them with a previous study of young adults in the UK. Saudi young adults were most likely to have encountered phishing attacks and least likely to have encountered ransomware attacks. Their worries grouped into Theft Worries and Phishing Worries. These results were very similar to those found in the previous study in the UK, in spite of differences in the educational level, self-reported online security knowledge and ability to identify security attacks between the two samples. This suggests that online security attacks and the resulting worries are more international than might be predicted.