Cyber Threat Awareness, Protective Measures and Communication Preferences in Germany: Implications from Three Representative Surveys (2021-2024)

In light of the increasing vulnerability of citizens against cyberattacks, we conducted three representative surveys with German citizens in 2021 (N=1,093), 2023 (N=1,011), and 2024 (N=1,004) to examine their cyber threat awareness, use of protective security measures, and preferred information channels. While our findings attest large proportions of the German population a high level of cyber threat awareness, many citizens feel inadequately informed about coping with cyberattacks and show little confidence in German security authorities to protect citizens and infrastructures. While age correlated with citizens' awareness and behavior, we only saw minor temporal differences between datasets. Finally, we provide design and policy implications for enhancing citizens' awareness of cyber threats and implementing security measures.

• Human-centered computing → Empirical studies in HCI; • Security and privacy → Social aspects of security and privacy.