Study on Information Security Awareness using the Behavioral-Cognitive Internet Security Questionnaire

Abstract

As technical security solutions are far from being enough to protect different kinds of information and communication systems, due to the human element, it was necessary to involve psychologists and define this problem as an interdisciplinary one. A validated questionnaire can be a good instrument for measuring users’ information security awareness, knowledge on privacy issues and risk involved in online behavior, so conclusions gathered through empirical studies based on those kinds of questionnaires should be helpful in designing educative training programs. The aim of this paper was both to present the validated Behavioral-Cognitive Internet Security Questionnaire and prove its suitability for international usage as well as to present general conclusions regarding information and communication system users gathered through its development process. In this study, were included participants from 41 different countries, while English, Croatian, Slovenian and Hungarian language versions of questionnaire were used. Results have shown that developed questionnaire can be used internationally and the sum of the conclusions is that users believe themselves to act more safely than they actually do; awareness has been rising over the years, but risk in online behavior has not been mitigated. Consequently, many users will still reveal their password, mostly under the influence of friendship or authority. Therefore, seeing as existing solutions are not good enough to resolve this global problem further studies should focus on developing some kind of an interactive platform that will be based on the results of empirical studies. It should not be based on restrictions, but rather on educational training, preferably personalized, and expanded with real-time warning solutions in order to keep up with constant changes in this field.