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  <front>
    <journal-meta>
      <journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">BJCR</journal-id>
      <journal-title-group>
        <journal-title xml:lang="en">British Journal of Contemporary Research</journal-title>
        <abbrev-journal-title xml:lang="en">BJCR</abbrev-journal-title>
      </journal-title-group>
      <issn>2979-8582</issn>
      <publisher>
        <publisher-name>Bexford Publishing Ltd</publisher-name>
        <publisher-loc><uri>https://bexfordpublishing.co.uk</uri></publisher-loc>
      </publisher>
    </journal-meta>
    <article-meta>
      <article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">BEX_AUG_26_045</article-id>
      <article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.67693/BJCR-VUUIQ3YC</article-id>
      <article-categories>
        <subj-group xml:lang="en" subj-group-type="heading">
          <subject>Original Research Article</subject>
        </subj-group>
      </article-categories>
      <title-group>
        <article-title xml:lang="en">Human-Centric Factors Influencing Home Users’ Susceptibility to Social Engineering Attacks: Synthesising Evidence Through Literature Review and Expert Validation</article-title>
      </title-group>
      <contrib-group content-type="author">
      <contrib corresp="yes">
        <name-alternatives>
          <name name-style="western" specific-use="primary">
            <given-names>Ganiyu Abiodun Salihu</given-names>
          </name>
        </name-alternatives>
        <email>salihu_ganiyu@yahoo.com</email>
        <bio xml:lang="en"><p>Department of Computer Science, Umaru Ali Shinkafi Polytechnic, Sokoto, Nigeria</p></bio>
      </contrib>
      <contrib>
        <name-alternatives>
          <name name-style="western" specific-use="primary">
            <given-names>Danlami Gabi</given-names>
          </name>
        </name-alternatives>
        <email>gabi@utm.my</email>
        <bio xml:lang="en"><p>Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Computing, Univeriti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru-Malaysia</p></bio>
      </contrib>
      <contrib>
        <name-alternatives>
          <name name-style="western" specific-use="primary">
            <given-names>Hassan Umar Suru</given-names>
          </name>
        </name-alternatives>
        <email>hassansuru@gmail.com</email>
        <bio xml:lang="en"><p>Department of Computer Science, Abdullahi Fodio University of Science and Technology, Aliero-Nigeria</p></bio>
      </contrib>
      <contrib>
        <name-alternatives>
          <name name-style="western" specific-use="primary">
            <given-names>Muhammad Garba</given-names>
          </name>
        </name-alternatives>
        <email>garbamga@gmail.com</email>
        <bio xml:lang="en"><p>Department of Computer Science, Abdullahi Fodio University of Science and Technology, Aliero-Nigeria</p></bio>
      </contrib>
      </contrib-group>
      <pub-date date-type="pub" publication-format="epub">
        <day>10</day>
        <month>09</month>
        <year>2026</year>
      </pub-date>
      <volume>1</volume>
      <issue>4</issue>
      
      
      <pub-history>
        <event event-type="received">
          <event-desc>Received: <date date-type="received">
            <day>09</day>
            <month>08</month>
            <year>2026</year>
          </date></event-desc>
        </event>
        
        <event event-type="accepted">
          <event-desc>Accepted: <date date-type="accepted">
            <day>17</day>
            <month>08</month>
            <year>2026</year>
          </date></event-desc>
        </event>
      </pub-history>
      <permissions>
        <copyright-statement>Copyright (c) 2026 Ganiyu Abiodun Salihu</copyright-statement>
        <copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
        <license xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0">
          <license-p>This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.</license-p>
        </license>
      </permissions>
      <abstract><p>Social engineering attacks remain part of the strongest cybersecurity risks facing digital device users because they involve taking advantage of human behavioural weaknesses, as opposed to technical vulnerabilities. While corporate organisations have been benefiting from structured training and well-formulated defence policies, home users are standalone users who navigate digital systems with limited or no guidance, low awareness level and poor security practices. To safeguard digital assets amid the proliferation of dynamically evolving social engineering attack techniques, it is crucial to comprehend home users’ susceptible characteristics to cyber-attacks. This study, therefore, explored the human-centric factors that make home users vulnerable to social engineering attacks, using a sequential exploratory research approach. A synthetic literature review of peer-reviewed literature from 2017 to 2025 was conducted, followed by validation by six (6) cybersecurity and human-behaviour experts who formed a focus group. The mixed-method was followed by thematic analysis, which revealed that susceptibility factors are multidimensional and involve interactions among the general domains of broad behavioural factors: “socio-psychological, habitual, perceptual, and socio-emotional”. These findings provide a solid foundation that could be employed in developing an enhanced holistic framework to mitigate social engineering attacks among home users.
Keywords: Social Engineering Attacks; Home Users; Human-centric Cybersecurity; Behavioural factors; User susceptibility.</p></abstract>
    </article-meta>
  </front>
  <body/>
</article>