The women’s level of awareness regarding shoulder surfing attacks with reference to harassments occur in public transportation

Abstract

Public transportation is a widely used convenient mode of transport in Sri Lanka. People at all levels of society use this mode of transportation to achieve their daily commute. With the demand for public transport, the occurrence of incidents catering to violence concerning women using this service has also increased significantly. Therefore, revitalizing the safety of women using public transportation has become a major obstacle. Although this violence is classified as physical and psychological abuse, with the advancement and the misuse of technology, the amount of violence that women face has considerably increased. These technological misleads have helped to put a different texture to the ways of harassment. The objective of this study is to examine the level of women’s awareness about shoulder surfing attacks that transpires to them while using public transportation. Preliminary data was gathered by distributing a well-structured google survey consisting of open and close-ended questions. Convenience sampling technique was used to facilitate sample selection as the questionnaire was dispersed amongst 110 women who belonged to age groups from under age of 20 to over 60. Subsequently, 100 satisfactory responses were accumulated. The data which gathered from over 60 category had to be emitted due to the inaccurate and beleaguered answers which were provided. This issue can be described as a limitation in terms of the data collection technique. Based on the findings, Sri Lankan women (55% from the sample) who consume public transportation are unaware of shoulder surfing attacks and have null comprehension to state whether they have been a victim of this attack. Only 45% of respondents stated that they had a clear understanding that they have experienced or are aware of shoulder surfing attacks. They have encountered Password breaching, social media accounts hacking, identity theft and stealing public photos as post shoulder surfing attacks. Many respondents indicated that they have no acquaintance as to where to report if an incident similar to shoulder surfing occurred. The respondents in use numerous actions to avoid the aforementioned post shoulder surfing attacks such as deactivating the social media accounts, deleting publicly post photographs. The “today” of women has changed drastically due to the rapid transformation and spread of technology which is intertwined with timely commutes. Technology and social media have become an integral part of life. To avoid shoulder surfing attacks the research recommends using biometric security systems such as fingerprint scanners and face detection technologies to provide a quick, easy, and secure way to access accounts without revealing passwords. Additionally recommends conducting workshops to educate women about shoulder surfing, how to identify attacks and respond to them. The outcome of workshops should be taken into consideration when formulating strategies to prevent and intervene in technological harassment which women face while accessing social media in public transportation. Nurture social engineering awareness, directing women to use technology and public transportation services safely. Technological Violence and harassment aiming at women who use public transportation must be engaged solemnly stopped by the authorities.