It requires a lot of effort and expense for computer hackers to program a Trojan virus and infiltrate individual or company computers. They are therefore increasingly relying on psychological strategies to manipulate computer users into voluntarily divulging their login details. These methods are known as “social engineering”. For the first time, psychologists at the University of Luxembourg have conducted a large-scale study (involving 1,208 people) to investigate how people are manipulated into sharing their passwords with complete strangers in return for small gifts.
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