Human-Centered Cybersecurity
A special issue of Future Internet (ISSN 1999-5903). This special issue belongs to the section "Cybersecurity".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 April 2026 | Viewed by 1031
Special Issue Editors
2. School of Computer Science, University of South Africa, Pretoria 0003, South Africa
3. Department of Information Systems, Rhodes University, Grahamstown 6140, South Africa
4. School of Design and Informatics, Abertay University, Dundee DD1 1HG, UK
Interests: cyber security; knowledge visualization
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
We are pleased to announce a Special Issue of Future Internet entitled “Human-Centred Cybersecurity”. It is widely acknowledged that humans play a key role in securing systems, leading to the need for human-centred cybersecurity and privacy approaches. This Special Issue therefore welcomes the submission of original empirical research on emerging issues in cybersecurity and privacy.
This Special Issue aims to include papers that address a variety challenges facing 21st century citizens and the designers of cybersecurity measures, and the need to prioritize human and societal well-being. As the need to engage with cybersecurity measures becomes unavoidable, it is crucial that measures and designs are developed from both a human and technical perspective. Human-centred cybersecurity seeks to include the human in all designs and endeavours to ensure a secure cybersecure society.
A human-centred approach acknowledges potential biases in decision making, a lack of awareness and understanding, issues of trust, as well as the more traditional cybersecurity values of confidentiality, availability and integrity. By encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration, we hope to move towards systems that acknowledge human capabilities and limitations, and contribute to a more secure online experience.
We welcome submissions that will lead to changes in current pratice, those that inspire new research directions, and those that address a broad range of topics including, but not limited to, the following:
- Cultural influences on cybersecurity
- Emotion in cybersecurity
- Privacy in tourism
- Modeling cybersecurity incident reporting
- Human-centred cybersecurity solutions
- Insider threat interventions
- Cybersecurity awareness and training
- Interdisciplinary research
- Capability-based and accessible cybersecurity
- Field studies of security or privacy technology
- Software engineering related human-centred security design
- Systematization of knowledge
- Policy-related research
- Critiques of existing approaches
Prof. Dr. Karen Renaud
Dr. Partha Das Chowdhury
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Future Internet is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- human-centred cybersecurity
- accessible and inclusive cybersecurity
- human decision making in cybersecurity
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
