Cybercrime: what does psychology have to do with phishing?

At the start of 2023, the UK postal service Royal Mail was hit with
an ultimatum: pay $80m (£67m) or continue to have international
shipments blocked. The demand came from Russian-linked hackers the
LockBit group, who had infiltrated Royal Mail’s software. Royal
Mail refused to pay and eventually reinstated its overseas
deliveries, but the cyber-attack came at a huge cost to the company
and others that depend on its service. Ransomware attacks like this
one are on the rise. So too are phishing attempts, emails and texts
that try to fool recipients into clicking on links that contain
malware or ask for personal information. Ian Sample speaks to the
Yale law professor and author Scott Shapiro about cybercrime, how
attacks hack into our psychology and what individuals and
governments could do to stop it. Help support our independent
journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod