Enhancing Mobile Security Through Haptic Feedback: A Multi-Participant Investigation into Mitigating Social Engineering Attacks on Android Devices

Social engineering attacks, particularly SMS phishing (SMiShing), continue to exploit human vulnerabilities and pose substantial risks to mobile users. This study investigated the effectiveness of a haptic feedback system integrated within an Android application designed to detect and mitigate social engineering threats on mobile devices. Building on original experimentation, this study evaluates the system's usability and impact by incorporating qualitative and quantitative data from twelve participants of varied demographics, selected for their relevance to social engineering susceptibility. Through interviews and controlled usage, the app demonstrated a detection accuracy of 91.89%, a 3.00% false positive rate, and an average response time of five seconds. Participants reported increased awareness, improved reaction times, and greater confidence in handling suspicious messages. This paper contributes to the human-centred cybersecurity domain by validating the integration of tactile feedback as a viable intervention against deception-based attacks. The study supports the hypothesis that haptic interaction fosters user attentiveness and proactive threat response, offering practical insights for future mobile security innovations.