Social media awareness campaigns on cybersecurity
The heavily-connected world we now live in has given rise to a plethora of advanced digital services and automated applications. The increased integration and advancement of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence increases the risks of smart, advanced cyber-attacks. So let’s talk honestly for a second, how vigilant are you when you’re online?
Even the most prudent among us are maybe guilty of reusing the same password, installing an app without reading how data will be used/shared, connecting to an unsecured Wi-Fi network in a cafe abroad, or scanning a QR code without fully knowing where it will send you. If even the most digitally active users sometimes fail to correctly interpret cyber risks, what can we do to better protect ourselves online?
Don’t panic, BEiNG-WISE are here to help with their social media campaign, the BEiNG-WISEr series. This COST Action, that launched in 2023, is taking a human approach to effective cybersecurity solutions. A new 12-part awareness initiative launched by the Action translates multidisciplinary BEiNG-WISE knowledge into accessible, visually coherent, and socially relevant formats for the public. The materials developed use a recurring structure based on attention hooks, real-life examples, quick checks, and practical takeaways in order to make cybersecurity more understandable and actionable for everyday users.
With the campaign now almost half way through, we catch up Prof. Sonay Caner-Yildirm from Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University in Türkiye, Dissemination Lead for BEiNG-WISE, to learn more about the project:
Where did the idea for the BEiNG-WISEr series come from?
I created the BEiNG-WISEr series as part of my Virtual Mobility Grant within the COST Action, in collaboration with Action members. More specifically, it emerged from a Virtual Mobility project titled ‘Empowering Cyber Awareness: Launching the BEiNG-WISEr Series and Optimizing BEiNG-WISE Website.’ This gave the initiative a dual purpose: creating accessible public-facing cybersecurity awareness materials while also strengthening the Action’s digital dissemination environment.
My academic background bridges computer science and pedagogy, and this combination, together with the interdisciplinary nature of BEiNG-WISE, made one gap very visible to me: cybersecurity is often treated as a purely technical field, while in reality many online risks are deeply shaped by human behaviour, trust, routine, misunderstanding, and social context. As an educator, I saw that even digitally active users, including highly confident ones, often struggle to interpret cyber risks accurately. As a researcher working on inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility, I wanted to translate complex cybersecurity concepts into formats that are accessible, evidence-informed, and usable by ordinary people. This is also closely aligned with the BEiNG-WISE mission, which explicitly brings together technical, social, and legal perspectives to develop more responsible and human-centred approaches to cybersecurity.
Who is the target audience of this campaign?
The primary audience is the general public and everyday internet users. We all live in digital environments, yet many people still approach cybersecurity from one of two vulnerable positions: overconfidence or underconfidence. Some assume they are already safe because they are familiar with technology; others feel cybersecurity is too technical and therefore “not for them.”
The BEiNG-WISEr series was designed to reach both groups. It aims to help overconfident users become more critical and evidence-based, while helping underconfident users feel more capable, informed, and included in digital life. In that sense, the campaign is not just about awareness. It is also about digital self-efficacy and more balanced, realistic cybersecurity literacy. Although the primary audience is the general public, the materials are also relevant for students, educators, parents, and other non-specialist but digitally active groups who increasingly face cybersecurity-related choices in everyday life.
What are some of the most common misconceptions about cybersecurity?
One major misconception is “It won’t happen to me“. Many people assume that cybercriminals only target large organisations, highly vulnerable users, or people with something obviously valuable to steal. Another common misconception is “I already know enough” where familiarity with digital tools is mistaken for real security awareness. The opposite misconception also exists such as “Cybersecurity is too technical, so I could never really understand it” and this is what the BEiNG-WISEr campaign helps to address: translating multidisciplinary BEiNG-WISE knowledge into accessible, visually coherent, and socially relevant formats for the public.
What impact are you hoping to achieve? What behaviour change would you like to see from people?
The main impact we hope to achieve is a shift from automatic, comfort-based online behaviour to more reflective, evidence-based decision-making. In practical terms, we want people to develop the habit of pausing before they trust, click, approve, share, or ignore something online.
Our materials are designed to challenge common but unsafe assumptions, such as believing that familiarity means safety, that polished design equals trustworthiness, or that confidence alone is enough for protection. At the same time, we also want to support users who avoid digital tools out of fear or low confidence. The goal is therefore not to make people more afraid, but to make them more calibrated: less driven by panic, less guided by false comfort, and more able to judge digital situations critically. More specifically, the series aims to replace automatic trust, passive familiarity, and digital overconfidence with small but meaningful habits of verification, context-checking, and evidence-based judgment. This fits well with BEiNG-WISE’s objective of developing new approaches to raise awareness among cyber users and to integrate human factors into cybersecurity by design.
How can social media improve knowledge and understanding of your field?
Social media can play a powerful role in cybersecurity communication because it reaches people where they already are. It allows complex concepts to be translated into short, visually engaging, and behaviour-oriented micro-learning formats that are easier to process than traditional academic outputs.
For a field like cybersecurity, this is especially important. Risks evolve quickly, new attack types appear constantly, and many people do not engage with formal training or technical documentation. Through social media, BEiNG-WISE can make its interdisciplinary paradigm visible in a way that is immediate and usable. In our case, social media is not only a promotional channel. It also becomes a public-facing learning environment, where interdisciplinary cybersecurity knowledge is translated into structured, reusable, and accessible awareness materials. In line with the Action’s objectives, this supports not only awareness raising, but also the wider promotion of a new cybersecurity paradigm that combines technical, societal, and legal dimensions, while improving knowledge transfer across communities beyond academia.
Further information
Follow BEiNG-WISE on LinkedIn for upcoming entries of the BEiNG-WISEr series covering new topics such as QR code security, digital footprint awareness, public Wi-Fi security, and deepfakes and AI-generated content.
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