Assessing the effect size of users’ consciousness for computer networks vulnerability

Abstract In this paper the conditions and the findings of a simulation study is presented for assessing the effect size of users’ consciousness to the computer network vulnerability in risky cyber attack situations at a certain business. First a simple model is set up to classify the groups of users according to their skills and awareness then probabilities are assigned to each class describing the likelihood of committing dangerous reactions in case of a cyber attack. To quantify the level of network vulnerability a metric developed in a former work is used. This metric shows the approximate probability of an infection at a given business with well specified parameters according to its location, the type of the attack, the protections used at the business etc. The findings mirror back the expected tendencies namely if the number of conscious user is on the