The extent of awareness of social engineering methods and their impact on electronic shopping: a field study on a sample of members of Saudi society

Abstract

 Amid the rapid digital transformation taking place in Saudi society and the growing shift toward e-commerce, cyber risks facing consumers have become more prevalent. One of the most prominent of these risks is what is known as social engineering, which relies on the psychological and behavioral manipulation of individuals to easily obtain their personal or financial information, without the need for direct technical hacking. The security and confidentiality of information exchanged between the seller and the buyer are among the most critical and essential issues for the success of e-commerce. The research problem is to understand the impact of Saudi society’s awareness of social engineering techniques used through digital technologies and how individuals deal with them during the online shopping process. This study aims to explore the relationship between social engineering and various aspects of online shopping, and its impact on members of Saudi society. The main question is: What is the level of awareness among the sampled individuals from Saudi society regarding social engineering? Is there a correlational relationship between social engineering and the dimensions of electronic shopping among individuals in Saudi society (research sample)? This study adopts the descriptive, correlational, and comparative approach. It aims to accurately describe the level of the awareness of the research sample, then to describe the correlation between social engineering techniques and electronic shopping. The sample of the study (200) was individuals from Saudi society across various regions of Saudi Arabia. Key findings revealed a significant positive correlation at the (0.01) level between the participants’ scores on the social engineering variable and the electronic shopping variable.