Shadow Users: Cyber-Physical Threats from a Human-Computer Interaction Perspective

This paper presents a Human-Computer Interaction Perspective on cyber–physical threat actors through an exploration of red-team activities undertaken by the principle author. The concept of a ‘shadow user’ is posited as an alternate to long-held models of "hacker", "threat actor" or "saboteur", which positions HCI as a useful tool in the proactive prevention of cyber–physical attacks and a source of resilience by design in relevant systems.