Human Firewall: Cyber Awareness using WhatApp AI Chatbot

Abstract

The use of technology is a necessary component for the success of business operations. Yet cyber risks related to technology are well known. In previous works, three different layers were defined to be responsible of the cyber physical security of any given system: the network layer, the device layer and the human factor layer. However, statistics and experience have proven that the third factor is the weakest link in the cyber security of any company. This factor is divided into two subsections: the ignorance of the user (which will be treated in this paper) and the malignancy of the user. As the two previous layers were presented in previous works, this paper will focus on enhancing security by raising the cyber awareness of users thus creating a human firewall. For that, an AI-based conversational bot that focuses on cyber threat awareness and acts as a personal assistant relating to security issues was developed. This bot is based on AI-approach and it is used to make the interaction with the user appealing and friendly through the use of WhatsApp as a mean of communication. The implementation and testing of this bot has shown great interest for the users who have tried it due to its simplicity, the quality of deliverable data and the evaluation technique.