McGregor, Richard, Reaiche, Carmen, Boyle, Stephen, and Correal de Zubielqui, Graciela (2025) Consumer perceptions of personal cyber awareness, knowledge, and risk. Journal of Cybersecurity, 11 (1). tyaf029.

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Abstract

Despite the effectiveness and increasing proliferation of security controls designed to protect personal and sensitive information, there is increasing recognition that humans are susceptible to cyber exploitation and thus, individual users are deemed a causal element of personal cyber risk. Exposing personal perceptions and capabilities, such as cyber awareness and knowledge, is crucial to understanding personal cyber risks and allowing a holistic interpretation of an individual’s cyber risk profile. This study uses a survey comprising n = 263 participants to explore to what extent awareness influences cyber knowledge and thereby impacts the level of personal cyber risk. We find that personal cyber awareness positively influences knowledge and personal cyber risk, whereas awareness independently fails to impact personal cyber risk, suggesting that knowledge acts as an influential mediator when determining an individual’s personal cyber risk profile. Further, this paper acknowledges the importance of consistent definitions and addresses upfront a notable gap by defining personal cyberspace—a critical and foundational prerequisite to any research focused on the human cyber condition. The study contributes by proposing a unique definition of personal cyberspace, a conceptual model articulating an individual’s personal cyber risk profile, and extending extant knowledge about relationships among personal cyber awareness, knowledge, and risk.

Item ID:	89856
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	2057-2093
Keywords:	cybersecurity, personal risk , cyber
Copyright Information:	© The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial reproduction and distribution of the work, in any medium, provided the original work is not altered or transformed in any way, and that the work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site-for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com
Date Deposited:	10 Dec 2025 22:44
FoR Codes:	35 COMMERCE, MANAGEMENT, TOURISM AND SERVICES > 3503 Business systems in context > 350302 Business information management (incl. records, knowledge and intelligence) @ 100%
SEO Codes:	22 INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION SERVICES > 2201 Communication technologies, systems and services > 220199 Communication technologies, systems and services not elsewhere classified @ 100%
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