Cybersecurity breaches often target human psychological vulnerabilities.

Cyber threats affect millions.

Cybersecurity is an important new career opportunity.

Media psychology is fundamental in cybersecurity.

Cyber threats are are not only ominous and real, affecting millions of citizens, but growing in sophistication and frequency. Cybersecurity breaches often target human vulnerabilities.

Media psychology, particularly the study of how and why people perceive, process, and act on digital information—offers key insights into why individuals fall for cyber manipulation. In my media psychology courses, we study more than 50 theories that may apply to cybersecurity situations and how they can be used to protect against breach and manipulation. Among the 50 are the following five.

Cyber attackers frequently embed persuasion cues such as authority, urgency, and scarcity into their phishing messages. During the COVID‑19 pandemic, for example, the FBI discovered a spike in phishing emails impersonating corporate IT departments by having subject lines like “Mandatory Password Reset—Action Required Immediately.”

Attempts such........

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