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

EAGER：DCL：SaTC：实现跨学科合作：研究针对弱势难民群体的社会工程攻击

• 批准号: 2210185
• 负责人: Mythili Menon
• 金额: $ 29.65万
• 依托单位: Wichita State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-07-01 至 2024-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2210185&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; DCL; SaTC; Enabling; Interdisciplinary

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.

最近发生的两次世界性事件，一次是正在发生的大流行病，另一次是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扫盲技能，难民社区很容易成为新的和越来越多的社会工程攻击的目标。该项目的总体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。该项目的创新之处在于：a）以语言或语言为中心的方法来理解难民面临的社会工程威胁，从而开发出新的教育材料，开放获取数据集，并改进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，以提高难民人口的认识并减轻社会工程威胁。该项目更广泛的意义和重要性是：a）改进保护模式和预防技术，防止社会工程攻击，B）知情的政策和工具，导致更好的社会和经济安全，减少弱势难民人口中的不平等差距，以及c）通过提高对网络安全威胁的认识，促进难民融入美国社会。项目团队系统地研究了与网络钓鱼和网络钓鱼等社会工程攻击相关的语言线索和触发因素。该项目的可交付成果和主要贡献包括：a）初步结果，记录了难民人口的语言特征对其对现实世界社会工程攻击的敏感性的影响，B）网络钓鱼电子邮件和语音电话的开放访问数据集，以及互动的属性，以促进进一步研究，c）改善网络安全政策的建议，包括弱势群体，从而为难民人口编制了新的STEM教育材料，以及d）后续教育讲习班，听取情况汇报，讨论，该奖项反映了NSF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进行评估，被认为值得支持审查标准。