Ordinary user's cybersecurity

The main objective of the thesis was to determine, through an anonymous questionnaire or interviews, what percentage of users had engaged in risky behavior on the Internet in the past and how many of them were affected by successful attacks. Based on these results, the thesis presented proposals for raising awareness of cyberattacks and possible available solutions for attack prevention. The theoretical part discusses various types of attacks and threats on the Internet, including a description of the attacker’s process and effective defense against such threats. This part also includes an overview of company practices used to protect its cyberspace, i.e., the steps taken, technologies used and implemented functions. The conclusion of this part presents statistics on the most used types of attacks in the past and at present. The practical part was based on a questionnaire survey and other methods aimed at determining users’ awareness of different types of attacks, the methods and practices they use for safe behavior on the Internet, the risky behaviors they engage in, and whether they had ever become targets of a cyberattack, social engineering, or similar threats. The survey was conducted anonymously in order to achieve the most accurate results possible, as affected users may feel ashamed of their actions and might otherwise be unwilling to admit them. Respondents were divided into groups according to age ranges, meaning that no one had to share their exact age. This allowed further examination of the influence of age on security in cyberspace. Another part of the practical section involved testing users by sending a fake phishing email to employees of the company Greenometer in order to obtain original data on the success rate of such attacks. The collected results were analyzed and evaluated. Based on these findings, options for improvement, effective defense, and prevention were proposed.