Psychological Barriers to Security Awareness: Subjective Danger and Control Perception in the Digital Space

Abstract

The success of raising information security awareness is in the public interest. To ensure the effectiveness of this long- term process, both on the program developer side and on the target group side, it is important to be aware of and  overcome the psychological barriers that can affect output  results. The article presents the issues raised by the “technocratic approach” to raising awareness of  information security. It presents the hidden assumptions  behind the design of the programs, the reasons behind  defence mechanisms and resistance points experienced on  the user side, and the impact of the subjective perception  of danger and control on the long-term intention to  participate in the programs.