Research on marketing and deception has identified principles of persuasion that influence human decisions. However, this research is scattered: it focuses on specific contexts and produces different taxonomies. In regard to frauds and scams, three taxonomies are often referred in the literature: Cialdini’s principles of influence, Gragg’s psychological triggers, and Stajano et al. principles of scams. It is unclear whether these relate but clearly some of their principles seem overlapping whereas others look complementary. We propose a way to connect those principles and present a merged and reviewed list for them. Then, we analyse various phishing emails and show that our principles are used therein in specific combinations. Our analysis of phishing is based on peer review and further research is needed to make it automatic, but the approach we follow, together with principles we propose, can be applied more consistently and more comprehensively than the original taxonomies.

Background: iSupport is an online program developed by the World Health Organization to provide education, skills training, and social support to informal carers of persons with dementia. This pilot study examines the feasibility of the protocol for a main effectiveness trial of iSupport-Portugal and explores how the intervention and control arms compare over time on well-being outcomes.Methods: A mixed-methods experimental parallel between-group design with two arms is followed. Participants were recruited nationwide, by referral or advertising, through the National Alzheimer’s Association. Inclusion criteria are being Portuguese adults, providing e-consent, providing unpaid care to someone with dementia for at least 6 months, experiencing relevant scores on burden (≥ 21 on ZBI) or depression or anxiety (≥ 8 on HADS), and using webpages autonomously. Participants were consecutively randomized to receive iSupport-Portugal or an education-only e-book and were not blinded to group assignment. Data were collected online with self-administered instruments, at baseline, 3 and 6 months after. Outcomes comprise caregiver burden, depression, anxiety, QoL, positive aspects of caregiving, and self-efficacy. Generalized estimating equations were used to estimate group, time, and group-by-time effects. Intervention engagement data were extracted from iSupport’s platform. Semi-structured interviews were conducted.Results: Forty-two participants were allocated to the intervention (N = 21) and control (N = 21) arms. Participation (78.1%) and retention rates (73.8%) were fair. More carers in the control arm completed the study (N = 20, 95.2%) than in the intervention arm (N = 11; 52.4%) (χ² = 9.98,p = .002). Non-completers were younger, spent less time caring, and scored higher on anxiety. Among carers in the intervention arm, the average attendance rate was of 53.7%. At post-test 38.9% of participants still used iSupport; the remainder participants interrupted use within 2 weeks (Mdn). For per-protocol analyses, significant group-by-time interaction effects favouring the intervention were found for anxiety (Wald χ2 = 6.17,p = .046) and for environmental QoL (Waldχ² = 7.06,p = .029). Those effects were not observed in intention-to-treat analyses adjusted for age. Interviewees from the intervention arm (N = 12) reported positive results of iSupport on knowledge and on experiencing positive feelings. No adverse effects were reported.Conclusions: This study provides information for a forthcoming full-scale effectiveness trial, as on the acceptability and potential results of iSupport-Portugal. iSupport is suggested as a relevant resource for Portuguese carers.Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov,NCT04104568. 26/09/2019.

Access control models describe frameworks that dictate how subjects (e.g. users) access resources. In the role-based access control (RBAC) model access to resources is based on the role the user holds within the organization. RBAC is a rigid model where access control decisions have only two output options: grant or deny. break the glass (BTG) policies on the other hand are flexible and allow users to break or override the access controls in a controlled and justifiable manner. The main objective of this paper is to integrate BTG within the NIST/ANSI RBAC model in a transparent and secure way so that it can be adopted generically in any domain where unanticipated or emergency situations may occur. The new proposed model, called BTG-RBAC, provides a third decision option BTG, which grants authorized users permission to break the glass rather than be denied access. This can easily be implemented in any application without major changes to either the application code or the RBAC authorization infrastructure, apart from the decision engine. Finally, in order to validate the model, we discuss how the BTG-RBAC model is being introduced within a Portuguese healthcare institution where the legislation requires that genetic information must be accessed by a restricted group of healthcare professionals. These professionals, advised by the ethical committee, have required and asked for the implementation of the BTG concept in order to comply with the said legislation.

Phishing is a widespread practice and a lucrative business. It is invasive and hard to stop: a company needs to worry about all emails that all employees receive, while an attacker only needs to have a response from a key person, e.g., a finance or human resources' responsible, to cause a lot of damages. Some research has looked into what elements make phishing so successful. Many of these elements recall strategies that have been studied as principles of persuasion, scams and social engineering. This paper identifies, from the literature, the elements which reflect the effectiveness of phishing, and manually quantifies them within a phishing email sample. Most elements recognised as more effective in phishing commonly use persuasion principles such as authority and distraction. This insight could lead to better automate the identification of phishing emails and devise more appropriate countermeasures against them.

EHealth interventions have been explored to provide convenient support and training to informal dementia carers. Design and usability issues may however hinder user acceptance of Web-based interventions. iSupport is an online program developed by World Health Organization (WHO) to support informal dementia carers. This study gathers user-feedback and evaluates the usability of the European-Portuguese version of iSupport. A mixed-methods study was conducted. Two focus groups discussions (n = 15) and 15 usability test sessions were conducted with carers and health/social support professionals to collect data on user satisfaction and requirements on the program's contents and Web interface. The usability testing protocol comprised pre/post-test surveys, a structured interview and observation of task performance in the Web platform. Content analysis of text data was performed by two independent coders. Success rates were superior to 80% for most tasks. An average score of 89.5 on the System Usability Scale demonstrated an excellent perception of the program's usability. The program was perceived as trustworthy, and participants were globally satisfied with its aesthetics and easiness of use. Feedback and personalization were valued functional requirements, while no consensus was found for mood self-assessment or professional/peer interaction features. Lessons were considered culturally fit, thematically pertinent, and comprehensive. Suggestions for improvement were wide-ranging from program's layout to accessibility, usability, functional requirements, content format and lessons' themes. This study derives user requirements for an evidence-based program for dementia carers. Both the study findings and usability assessment methodology can be imported to the development of similar programs worldwide.