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George Raywood-Burke

Mr George Raywood-Burke

Research student

School of Psychology

Email
Raywood-BurkeG@cardiff.ac.uk
Campuses
Tower Building, Room 2.05, 64 Park Place, 70 Park Place, Cardiff, CF10 3AT

Overview

As an Endeavr Wales funded Human Factors Cyber Psychology PhD Student supervised by Professor Phil Morgan (Viva passed with Minor Corrections), I worked as part of the Human Factors Excellence Research Group (HuFEx) at Cardiff University and with the Airbus Accelerator in Human-Centric Cyber Security. I have also worked as a Post-Graduate Tutor (PGT) mentoring 1st year Psychology Undergradute students to facilitate development with research skills and practical report writing, and have worked as a Final Year Module Assistant for the Decision Making module (PS3312) to deliver seminars encouraging critical discussion around key scientific articles and how findings can be applied to real life scenarios. Presently, I work as a Human Factors Scientist at Trimetis - a Bristol-based Human Factors company - leading and supporting on a variety of Human Factors projects.

As part of my PhD, I developed a series of experiments collecting objective and subjective data to advance our understanding of the risks and strengths of human decision making within workplace environments whereby cyber-security is highly important. This includes investigating the significance of cognitive load and subjective time pressure, and their influence upon cyber-security behaviours. From this, interventions targeting specific maladaptive behaviours can be designed – thus attempting to bridge the gap between research and practice.

Undergraduate education

  • 2015 - 2019: BSc (Hons) Psychology with Professional Placement, Cardiff University.

Postgraduate Education

  • October 2019 - December 2023 (Viva Passed with Minor Corrections): PhD in Psychology, 'Cognitive Load and Subjective Time Pressure: How Contextual Factors Impact the Quality of Cyber-Security Decision Making' – School of Psychology, Cardiff University; Airbus Accelerator in Human-Centric Cyber-Security
  • January 2022 - January 2023: Associate Fellowship of the HEA, Cardiff University

Professional membership

  • Experimental Psychology Society (EPS) - Postgraduate Member
  • British Psychological Society (BPS) - Graduate Member (GMBPsS)

Publication

2023

2021

2020

  • Morgan, P. L., Asquith, P. M., Bishop, L., Raywood-Burke, G., Wedgbury, A. and Jones, K. 2020. A new hope: human-centric cybersecurity research embedded within organizations. Presented at: 22nd International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCII 2020), Virtual, 19-24 July 2020HCI for Cybersecurity, Privacy and Trust: Second International Conference, HCI-CPT 2020, Held as Part of the 22nd HCI International Conference, HCII 2020, Copenhagen, Denmark, July 19–24, 2020, Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science/Information Systems and Applications, incl. Internet/Web, and HCI Springer, Cham pp. 206-216., (10.1007/978-3-030-50309-3_14)
  • Bishop, L. M., Morgan, P. L., Asquith, P. M., Raywood-Burke, G., Wedgbury, A. and Jones, K. 2020. Examining human individual differences in cyber security and possible implications for human-machine interface design. Presented at: 22nd International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCII 2020), Virtual, 19-24 July 2020HCI for Cybersecurity, Privacy and Trust: Second International Conference, HCI-CPT 2020, Held as Part of the 22nd HCI International Conference, HCII 2020, Copenhagen, Denmark, July 19–24, 2020, Proceedings, Vol. 12210. Lecture Notes in Computer Science/ Information Systems and Applications, incl. Internet/Web, and HCI Springer, Cham pp. 51-66., (10.1007/978-3-030-50309-3_4)

Conferences

Research

My main research interests are primarily related to Decision Making, Human Factors, and Cyber Psychology. For my PhD, I investigated factors that influence the risk of cyber-attack from a human-focused perspective such as cognitive effort, hard time constraints, and subjective time pressure in connection with potential individual vulnerabilities.

Teaching Experience

  • September 2020 - July 2022: 1st Year Psychology Post-Graduate Tutor (PGT), School of Psychology, Cardiff University
  • September 2021 - December 2021: Final Year Module Assistant (Decision Making), School of Psychology, Cardiff University

Research Experience

  • January 2023 - Present: Human Factors Scientist, Trimetis
  • August 2021 - September 2021: Research Assistant, School of Psychology, Cardiff University
  • October 2019 - December 2023: PhD in Psychology (Viva Passed with Minor Corrections), School of Psychology, Cardiff University; Airbus Human-Centric Cyber-Security Centre.
  • October 2018 - May 2019: Undergraduate Final Year Project - The effects of difficulty and reporting routine on subjective evaluation of task performance, School of Psychology, Cardiff University.
  • October 2017 – June 2018: Research Assistant, Department of Forensic Psychiatry, Cardiff University.

PhD Thesis Summary

The quality of decision-making goes beyond simply considering outcomes, but is also determined by the suitability of the decision-making framework in the given circumstances, the probability of outcomes coming true, combined with the quality of the information available being utilised. However, with contextual pressures such as cognitive load and time pressure posing a threat to decision-making in cyber-security – how do people know whether they are making good decisions? This thesis aimed to examine the impact of cognitive load, how it applies to cyber-security decision-making quality, and subsequently how research to address this could be utilised in the development of tools and user-centric interventions to reduce risky cyber-security decision making. From theoretical cognitive science approaches to applied cyberpsychology research, 10 novel studies were developed, supported by systematic literature reviewing, with data collected from over 2000 participants. From this work, it was found increases in task difficulty could potentially increase insider threat when people are given the opportunity to act dishonestly, but this risk could be reduced by increasing awareness of time pressure. Sources of subjective time pressure, such as time urgency cues in emails, were found to increase susceptibility to cyber incidents – although, risk of such factors varies depending upon the perception of risk probability and outcomes. Whilst measures for individual differences in subjective time pressure were found to have a limited ability to predict safe cyber-security practices, other individual difference predictors were capable of explaining up to 43.5% of cyber-security behaviour variance. Through indicating when and where risky decision making results in maladaptive behaviour, gain in knowledge has culminated in the creation of a new phishing susceptibility tool, based upon Expected Utility Theory, which could accurately explain 68.5% of behaviour. By highlighting risks in the overarching decision-making process, metacognitive interventions could be targeted to support quality cyber-security decision-making.

Publications

2023

Raywood-Burke, G., Jones, D., Morgan, P. (2023). Maladaptive Behaviour in Phishing Susceptibility: How Email Context Influences the Impact of Persuasion Techniques. In: Abbas Moallem (eds) Human Factors in Cybersecurity. AHFE (2023) International Conference. AHFE Open Access, vol 91. AHFE International, USA.

2021

Raywood-Burke G., Bishop L.M., Asquith P.M., Morgan P.L. (2021) Human Individual Difference Predictors in Cyber-Security: Exploring an Alternative Scale Method and Data Resolution to Modelling Cyber Secure Behavior. In: Moallem A. (eds) HCI for Cybersecurity, Privacy and Trust. HCII 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 12788. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77392-2_15

2020

Morgan P.L., Asquith P.M., Bishop L.M., Raywood-Burke G., Wedgbury A., Jones K. (2020). A New Hope: Human-Centric Cybersecurity Research Embedded Within Organizations. In: Moallem A. (eds) HCI for Cybersecurity, Privacy and Trust. HCII 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 12210. Springer, Cham

Bishop L.M., Morgan P.L., Asquith P.M., Raywood-Burke G., Wedgbury A., Jones K. (2020). Examining Human Individual Differences in Cyber Security and Possible Implications for Human-Machine Interface Design. In: Moallem A. (eds) HCI for Cybersecurity, Privacy and Trust. HCII 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 12210. Springer, Cham

Acknowledgements

Kalebic, N., Argent, S., Austin, H., Bramley, L., O'Connor, G., Hoskins, C., Willis, A., Withecomb, J., Forrester, A., Morgan, P., & Taylor, P. J. (2022). The all-Wales Forensic Adolescent Consultation and Treatment Service (FACTS): A 5-Year Referral Cohort Study. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, 2022;1-16. 

Taylor, P. J., & Kalebic, N. (2018). Psychosis and Homicide. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 31(3), 223-230.

Supervisors

Phillip Morgan

Phillip Morgan

HuFEx Director; IROHMS Director of Research; Director - Airbus Centre of Excellence in Human-Centric Cyber Security

External profiles