EAGER: DCL: SaTC: Enabling Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Studying Social Engineering Attacks Targeting Vulnerable Refugee Populations

最近发生的两起世界事件，一场持续不断的流行病以及持续不断的区域战争和冲突，导致相当数量的难民被迫流离失所，并在美国重新定居。由于缺乏英语和数字读写技能，难民社区很容易成为新的和增加的社会工程攻击的目标。这个项目的首要目标是研究语言和语言特征如何影响难民对社会工程攻击的感知和反应。该项目的新颖之处在于：一种以语言或语言为中心的方法，用于理解难民面临的社会工程威胁，从而开发出新颖的教育材料、开放获取数据集和改进的网络安全政策，以应对这些威胁；以及b)量身定制的数字扫盲和教育计划和研讨会，以提高难民人口的意识，减轻社会工程威胁。该项目的更广泛意义和重要性在于：a)改进了针对社会工程攻击的保护模型和预防技术；b)知情的政策和工具，从而改善了社会和经济安全，减少了弱势难民人口中的不平等差距；c)通过提高对网络安全威胁的认识，加强了难民融入美国社会的能力。项目团队系统地研究与社会工程攻击（如网络钓鱼和网络钓鱼）相关的语言线索和触发器。该项目的可交付成果和主要贡献包括：a)记录难民人口的语言特征对其对现实世界社会工程攻击的易感性的影响的初步结果；b)网络钓鱼电子邮件和语音呼叫的开放获取数据集，以及促进进一步研究的互动归因；c)改善网络安全政策的建议，包括弱势群体；从而为难民人口创建新的STEM教育材料，d)后续教育研讨会，向目标难民人口汇报，讨论和传播相关教育材料。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Two recent world events, an ongoing pandemic together with continuing regional wars and conflicts, have resulted in a sizable number of refugee population being forcibly displaced and resettled in the United States. Lack of English-language and digital literacy skills have made the refugee community an easy target for new and increased social engineering attacks. This project’s overarching goal is to study how language and linguistic features impact the perception and response of refugees to social engineering attacks. The project’s novelties are a) a language- or linguistic-centric approach for understanding social engineering threats to refugees resulting in development of novel educational materials, open access datasets, and improved cybersecurity policies to counter these threats, and b) tailored digital literacy and educational programs and workshops to raise awareness and mitigate social engineering threats among the refugee population. The project’s broader significance and importance are a) improved protection models and prevention techniques against social engineering attacks, b) informed policies and tools, resulting in better social and economic security, and reduced inequity gap within the vulnerable refugee population, and c) enhanced refugee integration into the U.S. society through increased awareness of cybersecurity threats. The project team systematically study the linguistic cues and triggers associated with social engineering attacks such as phishing and vishing. The deliverables and key contributions of the project include a) preliminary results documenting the impact of linguistic traits of the refugee population on their susceptibility to real-world social engineering attacks, b) open-access datasets of phishing emails, and voice calls, with attributions of interactions to promote further research, c) recommendations to improve cybersecurity policies including vulnerable population, resulting in the creation of new STEM educational material for the refugee population, and d) follow-up educational workshops to debrief, discuss, and disseminate relevant educational material to the target refugee population.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.