A Culture of Trust Threatens Security and Privacy in Qatar

This paper describes experiments in the State of Qatar to test Qataris' vulnerability to e-mail phishing in reality through two penetration tests. Factors which make Qatari citizens vulnerable to e-mail phishing attacks are identified, such as culture, country-specific factors, interests, beliefs, religion and personal characteristics. It has been found that Qataris put too much trust in technology and their own abilities to detect email phishing, making them an easy target for phishing. The paper identifies the need for an awareness programme to enhance Qataris' level of awareness of the phishing threat.

I. Introduction

Identity theft was considered as one of the five increasingly common security risks in the USA in 2006 [1]. The records show an escalation in the number of victims of identity theft in the USA, which amounted to 10 million adults, leading to huge losses of approximately $15 billion [2]. Hence the Executive Order of President George W. Bush which established the Identity Theft Task Force to develop an inclusive approach to defend against identity theft [3], [4]. Research has shown that phishing is a common form of identity theft [5], [6]. There is a strong relationship between the two as phishing is an attack aimed at gathering personal information, such as a username and password, which the phisher could then use to access the victims information. This can then used to take money from online accounts, carry out criminal acts in the name of the victim or just maliciously corrupt the victim's data and good name [7], [8].