Dr Maria Bada

Teaching

Associate Fellowship of the HEA

Undergraduate Teaching

Cyberpsychology (PSY312)

Research

Research Interests:

My research focuses on the human element of cybersecurity and human and computer interaction:
a) Conducting research on digital culture and the effectiveness of cybersecurity awareness campaigns aiming to identify factors which potentially lead to failure of these in changing the information security behaviour of consumers and employees;
b) Social artificial intelligence;

c) cybersecurity awareness initiatives for school learners and the role of the school at enhancing cyber safety;
d) Online victimisation;
e) The social and psychological impact of cyber-attacks and the aspects such as widespread anxiety and the social disruption caused to people’s daily lives;
f) The cybercrime ecosystem: Studying the profiles, pathways and risk perceptions of cybercriminals and how they form their groups.

Examples of research funding:

2023-2026: EPSRC, RISCS: Cyber Security Communities of Support (CyCOS) (£700.000).

2022-2023: EPSRC, REPHRAIN: Supporting organisations in making effective privacy related decisions (£97,836.12).  

2022-2023: ESRC, Discribe Hub+ (Digital Security by Design Social Science Hub+): Assessing Organisational DSbD Awareness and Readiness (£157,965).

Publications

Take a look at Maria Bada’s Google Scholar citations

Publications:

Bada, M. & Chua, Y.T. (2023). Examining risk and risk perception on LSD and MDMA in online marketplaces. Journal of Crime and Justice. doi: 10.1080/0735648X.2023.2267035 

Bada, M., Furnell, S., Nurse, J.R.C., Dymydiuk, J. (2023). Supporting Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Using Privacy Enhancing Technologies. In: Moallem, A. (eds) HCI for Cybersecurity, Privacy and Trust. HCII 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14045. Springer, Cham.

Furnell S., Bada M., Kaberuka J. (2023). Assessing Organizational Awareness and Acceptance of Digital Security by Design. Journal of Information System Security, 19(1), 3-18. 16p.

Inkster B., Knibbs C. and Bada M. (2023). Cybersecurity: a critical priority for digital mental health. Front. Digit. Health 5:1242264. doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2023.1242264

Bada M. and Nurse J.R.C. (2022). Exploring Cybercriminal Activities, Behaviors and Profiles. In Applied Cognitive Science and Technology: Implications of Interactions between Human Cognition and Technology edited by: Sumitava Mukherjee, Varun Dutt and Narayanan Srinivasan. Imprint Springer.

Bada M. (2021). Psychology of Cybercrime. In: Jajodia S., Samarati P., Yung M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cryptography, Security and Privacy. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Uchendu, Betsy, Nurse, Jason R.C., Bada, Maria, Furnell, Steven (2021). Developing a Cyber Security Culture: Current Practices and Future Needs. Computers & Security, ISSN 0167-4048. 

Bada, M., Chua, Y.T., Collier, B., and Pete, I. (2021). Exploring Masculinities and Perceptions of Gender in Online Cybercrime Subcultures. In M. W. Kranenbarg & R. Leukfeldt (Eds.), Cybercrime in context: The human factor in victimization, offending, and policing. Crime and Justice in Digital Society I. Springer. 10.1007/978-3-030-60527-8

Dutton, W., Creese, S., Shillair, R., & Bada, M. (2020). Cyber Security Capacity: Does It Matter? Journal of Information Policy, 9, pp. 280-306. doi:10.5325/jinfopoli.9.2019.0280

Nurse, J. and Bada, M. (2019). The Group Element of Cybercrime: Types, Dynamics, and Criminal Operations, in Attrill-Smith, A., Fullwood, C., Keep, M., and Kuss, D. J. (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Cyberpsychology. Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198812746.013.36.

Bada, M. and Nurse, J. R. C. (2019). Developing cybersecurity education and awareness programmes for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Information and Computer Security, vol. 27 No. 3, pp. 393-410. https://doi.org/10.1108/ICS-07-2018-0080 

Bada, M., von Solms , B. and Agrafiotis, I. (2019). Reviewing National Cybersecurity Awareness for Users and Executives in Africa. International Journal on Advances in Security, 12(1&2), p.108-118. 

Bada, M. and Nurse, J. (2019). The Social and Psychological Impact of Cyberattacks, in Benson, V. and McAlaney, J. (eds.) Emerging Cyber Threats and Cognitive Vulnerabilities. London: Academic Press, pp. 73-92. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-816203-3.00004-6.

Creese, S., Shillair, R., Bada, M. and Dutton W.H. (2019). The Cybersecurity Capacity of Nations, pp. 165-179 in Graham, M., and Dutton, W.H. (eds), Society and the Internet: How Networks of Information and Communication are Changing Our Lives, 2^nd Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Conference Proceedings:

Ng, M., Bada M., and Coopamootoo, K. P. L.(2023). What We Do in the Shadows: How does Experiencing Cybercrime Affect Response Actions & Protective Practices? 2023 IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops (EuroS&PW), Delft, Netherlands, 2023, pp. 659-672, doi: 10.1109/EuroSPW59978.2023.00077.

Bada, M. and Nurse, J. R. C. (2021). Profiling the Cybercriminal: A Systematic Review of Research.  In IEEE Cyber Science 2021 Conference. International Conference on Cyber Situational Awareness, Data Analytics and Assessment (CyberSA), pp. 1-8, doi: 10.1109/CyberSA52016.2021.9478246.

Bada M. and Y. T. Chua (2021). Understanding Risk and Risk Perceptions of Cybercrime in Underground Forums. 2021 APWG Symposium on Electronic Crime Research (eCrime), IEEE Xplore, pp. 1-11.

Bada, M. (2021). Online victimisation: the impact on victims and implications for crime prevention. 21st Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology, EUROCRIM, 8-10th September 2021.

Bada, M and Basie von Solms. A Cybersecurity Guide for Using Fitness Devices. Presented at EAI SaSeIoT 2021 - 5th EAI International Conference on Safety and Security in Internet of Things.

Bada, M. (2020). Empathy by design: The role of empathy in human-robot interaction (HRI). Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 23(10), 723-723, October 7 2020.

Bada, M. and Pete, I. (2020). An exploration of the cybercrime ecosystem around Shodan. In The 7th IEEE International Conference on Internet of Things: Systems, Management and Security (IOTSMS 2020). Conference Proceedings IEEE Xplore ISBN: 978-1-7281-7216. 

Pete, I., Hughes, J., Chua, Y. T. and Bada, M. (2020). A Social Network Analysis and Comparison of Six Dark Web Forums, 2020 IEEE European Symposium on Security and Privacy Workshops (EuroS&PW), Genoa, Italy, pp. 484-493, doi: 10.1109/EuroSPW51379.2020.00071. 

Bada, M. & Clayton, R. (2020). Online suicide games: a form of digital self-harm or a myth? In Wiederhold, B, & Riva, G. & Debb, S. Annual Review of Cybertherapy and Telemedicine (ARCTT) International Association of CyberPsychology, Training, and Rehabilitation (iACToR). Conference Proceedings CYPSY24: 24th Annual CyberPsychology, CyberTherapy & Social Networking Conference, 2019 

Bada, M.  IoTs and the need for digital norms – A global or regional issue? GigaNet Annual Symposium, 2019 November 25, Berlin.

Ioannou, M., Stavrou, E. and Bada, M. (2019). Cybersecurity Culture in Computer Security Incident Response Teams: Investigating difficulties in communication and coordination.  International Conference on Cyber Security and Protection of Digital Services (Cyber Security), Oxford, United Kingdom, 2019, pp. 1-4. doi:10.1109/CyberSecPODS.2019.8885240 

Bada, M., Creese, S., Goldsmith, M. and Mitchell, J.C. (2017). Improving the Effectiveness of CSIRTs. In proceedings of IARIA-CYBER 2017, The Second International Conference on Cyber-Technologies and Cyber-Systems, 12-16 November 2017, Barcelona, Spain, p.53-58. ISSN: 2519-8599, ISBN: 978-1-61208-605-7. 

Kritzinger, E., Bada, M. and Nurse, J. (2017). A study into the cybersecurity awareness initiatives for school learners in South Africa and the UK, In Bishop, M., Futcher, L., Miloslavskaya, N., and Theocharidou, M. (eds.) IFIP World Conference on Information Security Education. IFIP World Conference on Information Security Education, Springer, pp. 110-120. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-58553-6_10.

Nurse, J., Agrafiotis, I., Erola, A., Bada, M., Roberts, T., Williams, M., Goldsmith, M. and Creese, S. (2017). An Assessment of the Security and Transparency Procedural Components of the Estonian Internet Voting System. In Tryfonas, T. (ed.) International Conference on Human Aspects of Information Security‚ Privacy and Trust: 5th International Conference, HAS 2017, Held as Part of HCI International 2017. International Conference on Human Aspects of Information Security‚ Privacy and Trust: 5th International Conference, HAS 2017, Held as Part of HCI International 2017, Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-58460-7_26.

Bada, M., Sasse, A. M. and Nurse, J.R.C. (2015). Cyber Security Awareness Campaigns: Why do they fail to change behaviour? In proceedings of the International Conference on Cyber Security for Sustainable Society (CSSS, 2015) Coventry, UK, 118-131. SSN+.

White Papers

Bada, M.,  Steuer, N., and Jayanti, R. (Nov. 2022). Improving resilience to ransomware with cybersecurity capacity building. 

Bada, M. (2021). Online Victimisation: The impact on victims and implications for cybercrime prevention and response. RISCS.

ENISA. 2020 Report on ‘CSIRT-LE Cooperation: study of roles and synergies among selected countries’.

Contribution to the report ‘Cybersecurity Capacity Review of the Federative Republic of Brazil’. Secretariat of the Inter-American Committee against Terrorism of the Organization of American States, GCSCC, 2020.

Contribution to the report ‘Global Cybersecurity Capacity Program: Lessons Learned and Recommendations towards Strengthening the Program’ (English) 2019.  World Bank, Washington, D.C.: World Bank Group. 

Contribution to the report ‘The Role of Further and Higher Education in Cyber Security Skills’ 2018. Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport DCMS.

Dutton, W.H., Creese, S., Shillair, R., Bada, M., and Roberts, T. (2017). Cyber Security Capacity: Does It Matter? (March 20, 2017). Quello Center Working Paper No. 2938078.

Agrafiotis, I., Bada, M., Cornish, P., Creese, S., Goldsmith, M., Ignatuschtschenko, E., Roberts, T., Upton, D. Cyber Harm: Concepts, Taxonomy and Measurement (August 1, 2016). Saïd Business School WP 2016-23.

GCSCC (2014). Cyber Security Capability Maturity Model (CMM) – V1.2.