Understanding the Security Advice Mechanisms of Low Socioeconomic Pakistanis

Low socioeconomic populations face severe security challenges while being unable to access traditional written advice resources. We present the first study to explore the security advice landscape of low socioeconomic people in Pakistan. With 20 semi-structured interviews, we uncover how they learn and share security advice and what factors enable or limit their advice sharing. Our findings highlight that they heavily rely on community advice and intermediation to establish and maintain security-related practices (such as passwords). We uncover how shifting social environments shape advice dissemination, e.g., across different workplaces. Participants leverage their social structures to protect each other against threats that exploit their financial vulnerability and lack of digital literacy. However, we uncover barriers to social advice mechanisms, limiting their effectiveness, which may lead to increased security and privacy risks. Our results lay the foundation for rethinking security paradigms and advice for this vulnerable population.