Cyber security and mental health are directly linked as our mental health affects the way we receive and process information. Many current cyber-attacks are achieved by social engineering, a term used for a broad range of malicious activities that are accomplished through human interaction.
Mental health issues, no matter how small, can change our tendency to detect cyber threats, resulting in us falling victims as well as causing serious damage to others. Researchers at the University of Greenwich showed that under normal circumstances a person would be able to detect a potential social engineering attacks around 70% of the time. However, when someone is stressed, fatigued or depressed they are more likely to fall victim to these kind of attacks.
Research has also shown that common mental health problems such as stress can have a big impact on our memory. This means that when stressed, we tend to forget our cyber-security training and are more likely to click on malicious links, forget to check email originators and are more likely to reply to obviously fraudulent messages.
