Customers' perception of cybersecurity risks in E-commerce websites

This study investigates impact on customers' perceptions due to a cyber-attack by mapping STRIDE threat modelling to confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA) cybersecurity requirements of an e-commerce platform. Further, it studies the influence of loyalty programs and its customer segmentation. The study is based on response from 120 e-commerce customers. Results indicate, confidentiality compromise has the highest negative impact on customers' perception. About 82% respondents expressed perceived privacy risk and concerns as most impacted due to a cyber-attack. Despite these concerns, non-loyal customers are more concerned about purchasing securely by at least 10%. Whereas, loyal customers are affected more emotionally by at most 13%. These findings contribute to the body of literature on customer perception of security, privacy, and trust due to a cyber-attack on digital platforms (such as e-commerce websites) impacting the organisational reputation within the wider digital economy. The result of this work is valuable for information security and socio-technical experts, as well as regulatory authorities, in the progressing digital economy.