Assessing the Risk of Cyber Victimization in a Physical-Digital Environment

Abstract

This research aims to create an innovative theoretical model that merges the physical and virtual routine activities of individuals, employing the concept of a space-time path to understand their susceptibility to cyber victimization in our increasingly interconnected world. This project seeks to expand the understanding of how phishing attacks are facilitated by the daily behaviors of individuals in both real and online environments. By doing so, it will enhance the effectiveness of situational crime prevention strategies. This endeavor will evolve the Routine Activities Theory (RAT) from its traditional focus on purely physical or digital realms to a more comprehensive approach that encompasses a hybrid space. The digital era has fundamentally changed how people interact, with virtual spaces enabling connections through electronic links, allowing information exchange even when individuals are in separate physical locations. In the realm of cybersecurity, extensive research has been conducted, particularly in Computer and Information Science and Engineering, focusing on user vulnerability to various cybersecurity threats, including phishing. However, in the field of criminal justice, research on victimization has been limited due to a lack of integration between the expertise of computer scientists and social scientists. Most victimization studies within criminal justice have concentrated solely on virtual spaces, neglecting the impact of a hybrid space—a domain where human actions and interactions are influenced by both physical and virtual environments—on cyber victimization. This research proposes to bridge this gap by examining how this combined physical-virtual space affects the risk of becoming a victim of cybercrimes.