Purpose
Help people understand how psychological principles are exploited in real-world social engineering. The tool translates academic findings into approachable prompts and actions so users can recognise and resist manipulation tactics.
About this project
About This Project
This Social Engineering Awareness Tool (SEAT) is a gamified educational web app created by Isabel B, a Cyberpsychology graduate from Bournemouth University. It bridges psychology and cybersecurity so people can recognise manipulation faster, rehearse safer responses, and feel confident verifying anything that feels off.
Features
- Instant Check: Quick, research-backed guidance for suspicious messages or interactions.
- Practice Quizzes: Channel-specific drills for email, SMS/Text, phone calls, and work chat.
- Learn: Plain-language explanations of psychological and cybersecurity principles.
Academic foundation
Content is grounded in cyberpsychology, persuasion research, and behavioural security studies.
- Hadnagy, C. (2018). Social Engineering: The Science of Human Hacking.
- Parsons, K., McCormac, A., Butavicius, M., Pattinson, M., & Jerram, C. (2017). The human aspects of information security questionnaire (HAIS-Q).
- Workman, M. (2008). Wisecrackers: A theory-grounded investigation of phishing and pretext social engineering threats to information security.
- Cialdini, R. B. (2007). Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.
- Furnell, S., & Clarke, N. (2012). Power to the people? The evolving recognition of human aspects of security.
Disclaimer
Scores and recommendations are guidance only. Always follow your organisation's incident-response protocols and report suspicious activity via official channels before taking action.