Aušrius Juozapavičius

Today, cybernetic systems pervade all aspects of life in our society, yet their integration into daily routines, combined with the anonymity afforded by the Internet, renders them a potential vulnerability for modern civilization. The complexity of their integration results in ever-present vulnerabilities that can be exploited by malicious actors with a single mouse click, leading to significant disruption and grave consequences. While all states are susceptible to these threats, larger states typically possess greater resources to acquire more specialists and establish specialized defence units. This chapter delves into strategies for small states to bolster their cyber resilience in the face of such challenges. A number of recommendations are presented, including education initiatives for children and the general population, building networks of cyber specialists, strengthening public–private cooperation, improving risk management for critical infrastructure, and promoting threat intelligence sharing.

Human-Centric Approach to Cyber Threat Identification: The Role of Cognition, Experience, and Education in Decision-Making

Labor market analysis shows that there is a significant shortage of experienced cybersecurity professionals, and this trend is expected to continue in the future. In addition, young people who are reluctant to choose STEM subjects in school typically do not see cybersecurity as a part of their future because they believe it demands exclusive technical knowledge that is beyond their reach. We aimed to change this perception among students of the social sciences, assuming that by providing social science students with the basics of cybersecurity, it would be possible to raise their awareness and encourage them to consider this field as a potential career option. Our team has designed a concise technical course based on Kolb's model that employs experiential learning to provide students with a basic knowledge of ethical intrusion (penetration testing). During the 32-hour subject, cadet officers with no prior IT education experienced all the steps of hacking both into a remotely accessible and physically accessible computer, including initial reconnaissance, vulnerability scanning, exploitation, and privilege escalation. A hands-on practical task of breaking into a highly vulnerable remote computer allowed for the evaluation of knowledge and skills as well as the reinforcement of learning experiences. In order to assess how the students' perceptions of the cybersecurity profession have changed based on the theory of planned behavior, they were asked to provide feedback immediately after the course and one year later. The results indicate that the short, technically challenging, but practical course based on experiential learning had a significant and positive effect on participants' attitudes: they were substantially more likely to consider cybersecurity as a future career, and some of them began participating in other cybersecurity courses or activities. It is reasonable to assume, therefore, that providing similar technical courses to social science students will encourage them to pursue cybersecurity-related careers in the future.

Password hygiene plays an essential part in securing systems protected with single-factor authentication. A significant fraction of security incidents happen due to weak or reused passwords. The reasons behind differences in security vulnerable behaviour between various user groups remains an active research topic. The paper aims to identify the impact of age and gender on password strength using a large password dataset. We recovered previously hashed passwords of 102,120 users from a leaked customer database of a car-sharing company. Although the measured effect size was small, males significantly had stronger passwords than females for all age groups. Males aged 26–45 were also significantly different from all other groups, and password complexity decreased with age for both genders equally. Overall, very weak password hygiene was observed, 72% of users based their password on a word or used a simple sequence of digits, and passwords of over 39% of users were found in word lists of previous leaks.

Active usage of threat intelligence information supports effective prevention, mitigation and defence against cyberattacks by threat actors ranging from individual amateurs to state organizations. However, threat intelligence highly depends on security specialists’ ability to share incident data on threat information-sharing platforms. Unfortunately, business managers and educational institutions undervalue the information-sharing aspect when planning the professional development of cybersecurity-related specialists. Consequently, cybersecurity specialists are insufficiently motivated to correctly communicate and propagate relevant information with team members, superiors, relevant institutions and the global community about the impact of the incident. Literature review reveals many technological, legal and psychological obstacles hindering successful information exchange. This research aims to improve threat information sharing by focusing on the educational aspect of the problem and analysing the attitude of cybersecurity specialists during cyber defence exercises (CDX). Our case study disclosed nine factors obstructing both proper reporting to relevant authorities and adequate communication among teams. By addressing these factors, CDX organizers could substantially improve the development of highly beneficial soft skills of the technical specialists.

The purpose of this study is to explore how pro-environmental energy behavior is manifested at a military unit and what behavioral change factors can enhance such behavior. The military unit represents an organization dominated by an exceptionally strong sense of community and belonging where individual pro-environmental energy behavior goes in line with a collective one. The application of Capability-Opportunity-Motivation-Behavior (COM-B) approach led to a better understanding of energy-saving behavior in the military as an organization where personnel are trained to increase their awareness of their peers’ behavior. Methods: The results were obtained using data collected from two independent samples of both professional soldiers and conscripts at a military unit of Lithuanian defense forces located in a fixed installation in the time frame of 2018–2019. The total sample of respondents (professional soldiers and conscripts) was N = 454. A series of statistical tests were performed at the 0.05 level of confidence. Results: An extended COM-B model for the analysis of pro-environmental energy behavior in the military was proposed and applied. The results show that the three behavioral change factors—capability, opportunity, and motivation—are first of all positively linked with the collective energy behavior at the military unit and only then with the individual soldier’s pro-environmental energy behavior. This is a new insight into the COM-B model as collective and individual behavior are identified as separate indicators and then combined into a single measurable construct. In addition, the results indicate that in the military unit, communality plays an important role in sustaining pro-environmental energy behavior, even if an individual behavior indicates low-involvement.