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Security in large-scale agile is a crucial aspect that should be carefully addressed to ensure the protection of sensitive data, systems and user privacy. This study aims to identify and characterize the security practices that can be applied in managing large-scale agile projects.

A qualitative study is carried out through 18 interviews with 6 software development companies based in Portugal. Professionals who play the roles of Product Owner, Scrum Master and Scrum Member were interviewed. A thematic analysis was applied to identify deductive and inductive security practices.

The findings identified a total of 15 security practices, of which 8 are deductive themes and 7 are inductive. Most common security practices in large-scale agile include penetration testing, sensitive data management, automated testing, threat modeling and the implementation of a DevSecOps approach.

The results of this study extend the knowledge about large-scale security practices and offer relevant practical contributions for organizations that are migrating to large-scale agile environments. By incorporating security practices at every stage of the agile development lifecycle and fostering a security-conscious culture, organizations can effectively address security challenges in large-scale agile environments.

This study aims to assess the effects of natural disasters on food security in a sample of 40 sub-Saharan African countries. First, the authors assess the effects of natural disasters on the four dimensions of food security and second, the authors disaggregate natural disaster using the two dimensions that are most representative, namely, hydrological and biological disasters.

The regressions are based on the generalised method of moments on a data set covering the period 2005–2020. Natural disasters are measured by the total number of people affected and food security by its characteristics: access, availability, use and sustainability.

The results show that natural disasters increase the prevalence of undernourishment but reduce dependence on cereal imports. An increase in natural disasters by 1% increases the prevalence of undernourishment by the same proportion. As for import dependency, a 1% increase in natural disasters reduces dependency by 2.2%. The disaggregated effects show that hydrological disasters are more significant than biological disasters in impacting food security. Floods reduce the average energy supply adequacy but also dependence on cereal imports. Policy implications are discussed.

The study complements the extant literature by assessing the effects of natural disasters on food security in a region where food insecurity is one of the worst in the world.

The aim of the quantity study is to investigate the cost of living and food security nexus in Ghana. Time series secondary quarterly data from 2012Q1 to 2018Q4 were examined.

The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) to cointegration bound test was employed for the econometrics analysis. Time series secondary quarterly data from 2012Q1 to 2018Q4 were examined. Food security data based on the Global Food Security Index score were employed.

The result revealed that the variables are cointegrated in the long run. The study also revealed that the cost of living worsens food security in Ghana both in the short run and the long run. This could imply that people may not have enough money to afford adequate and nutritious food, which can lead to food insecurity. As the cost of living increases, people may have to spend more of their income on basic necessities such as housing, healthcare and transportation, leaving less money for food. This can result in people choosing cheaper and less nutritious options, or even skipping meals, which can have negative impacts on their health and well-being.

For policy implications, it is recommended that effort should be made by the Ministry of Finance Ghana, financial analysts and other economic agents to stabilize prices of goods and services in the country.

The study is among the few to have investigated the nexus between the cost of living and food security in non-Western economy using the secondary data.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-04-2023-0309

This study aims to explore the interrelationships among quality and safety metrics within the Global Food Security Index (GFSI). Its primary objective is to identify key indicators and their respective influences on food security outcomes, thereby enriching comprehension of the intricate dynamics within global food security.

The analysis encompasses data from 113 countries for the year 2022, utilizing Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) models to identify significant drivers of both the GFSI and quality and safety dimensions. This methodological approach enables the examination of probabilistic connections among different indicators, providing a structured framework for investigating the complex dynamics of food security.

The study highlights the critical role of regulatory frameworks, access to clean drinking water, and food safety mechanisms in fostering food security. Key findings reveal that “nutrition monitoring and surveillance” has the highest probability (75%) of achieving a high-performance state, whereas “national dietary guidelines” have the highest probability (41%) of achieving a low-performance state. High GFSI performance is associated with excelling in indicators such as “access to drinking water” and “food safety mechanisms”, while low performance is linked to underperformance in “national dietary guidelines” and “nutrition labeling”. “Protein quality” and “dietary diversity” are identified as the most critical indicators affecting both the GFSI and quality and safety dimensions.

This research operationalizes a probabilistic technique to analyze the interdependencies among quality and safety indicators within the GFSI. By uncovering the probabilistic connections between these indicators, the study enhances understanding of the underlying dynamics that influence food security outcomes. The findings highlight the critical roles of regulatory frameworks, access to clean drinking water, and food safety mechanisms, offering actionable insights that empower policymakers to make evidence-based decisions and allocate resources effectively. Ultimately, this research significantly contributes to the advancement of food security interventions and the achievement of sustainable development goals related to food quality and safety.

Contact tracing apps have emerged to collect data and mitigate the spread of infectious diseases. However, privacy and security concerns have caused individuals to hesitate to adopt these solutions. Our objective is to evaluate the role of the political environment, information privacy, security and users’ intentions to use contact tracing apps.

We scraped the digital app store and collected 399 relevant reviews and other data from 21 contact tracing apps in the USA. A semi-supervised machine learning model was developed to extract information on privacy and security aspects from the reviews.

Our findings show a positive connection between security controls and user adoption, as reflected in star ratings. Users residing in states with blue political environments tend to assign higher ratings to apps, especially when robust security controls are in place. These findings confirm the influence of the political environment on the adoption of contact tracing apps. In times of a pandemic, our findings suggest that users prioritize security over privacy concerns, emphasizing the critical role of strong security features in promoting app acceptance.

This paper emphasizes the political environment of the state offering the app intersects with concerns about security and privacy as well as the effectiveness of security and privacy measures, influencing the app’s ratings. Also, it shows the importance of understanding and addressing the role of the political environment when designing and promoting such public health tools, regardless of the specific disease or outbreak.

Cyber security incidents pose a major threat to organisations. Reporting cyber security incidents and providing organisations with information about their true nature, type and volume, is crucial to inform risk-based decisions. Despite the importance of reporting cyber security incidents, little research has addressed employees’ motivations to do so. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that influence employees to report cyber security incidents using the theory of planned behaviour as a theoretical framework.

Survey data were collected from a sample of 549 working Australian adults. Demographics were gathered, in addition to data using the Cyber Security Incident Reporting Inventory (CSIRI; pronounced, “Siri”).

Attitude towards reporting, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control each significantly predicted intention-to-report cyber security incidents. Perceived behavioural control also significantly predicted actual reporting behaviour.

The results of this study validate the application of the theory of planned behaviour to the cyber security incident reporting context, also indicating that the relationship between intention to report a cyber security incident and actual reporting behaviour may be facilitated by perceived behavioural control.

These findings can be applied to inform the development of strategies that increase employees’ cyber security incident reporting behaviour.

This study outlines the development of a new tool to measure attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control in relation to the reporting of cyber security incidents. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of its kind to identify the relationship between these factors and intentions to report cyber security incidents.

Shariah-compliant security tokens can play an important role in developing innovative solutions to resolve voluntary and involuntary financial exclusion in Muslim societies. This paper aims to present features of Shariah-compliant security tokens and supporting ecosystems that can provide additional sources of financing for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and create alternative investment opportunities for retail investors.

This conceptual paper presents the building blocks of security tokens, their ecosystem and key functions and activities and then examines these features from Islamic perspectives. This is done by reviewing the contemporary literature on cryptoassets and their ecosystems and analysing these in light of Islamic legal and ethical values and principles.

The paper provides a framework of how Shariah-compliant asset- and equity-based security tokens can be used by SMEs to raise funds quickly and efficiently on crypto exchanges. Given the novelty and complexity of the technology involved and the lack of understanding and skills to develop blockchain-based systems among SMEs, this paper suggests developing security tokens and exchanges in a controlled manner under the supervision of a nation’s stock markets.

Although several studies examine cryptocurrencies from Islamic perspectives, literature on other cryptoassets and their role in financial inclusion is scant. This paper identifies Shariah-compliant asset- and equity-based security tokens and supporting ecosystems that can contribute to the development of digital capital markets where SMEs can raise funds efficiently and retail investors can invest in alternative asset classes.

This paper answers the question of whether climate-related financial policies (CRFP) enable the energy transition in the European region.

By using various econometric techniques (namely a panel-corrected standard errors [PCSE] model and a feasible generalized least square estimates [FGLS] model, this study examines a link between CRFP and energy security (ES).

Using seven indicators, this paper examines four parts of energy security: acceptability, availability, sustainability and developability. The author has performed econometric analyses on 17 European countries during the period 2010–2020 to reveal critical findings. The results show a relationship between CRFP and energy intensity, energy consumption, nonfossil energy consumption, renewable energy consumption and CO₂ emissions. This finding suggests that CRFP involvement benefits the energy system’s acceptability, developability and sustainability. Moreover, the author observes long-term cointegration between CRFP and ES, and the findings validate their short-term and long-term effects. The author also finds that ES is influenced by past and future CRFP participation.

This study focuses on countries in a European Union (EU) region, which contribute significantly to secure ES and represent a varied spectrum of rich and emerging economies.

In this paper, the author contributes to the research in three ways. First, to the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first empirical study to explore CRFP as a contributor to the security of the energy system. This research contributes to the existing body of information by investigating the influence of CRFP on environmental quality as assessed by various dimensions. Second, this paper uses a PCSE model based on cross-sectional dependence and stationarity tests. Furthermore, the findings can be further verified using FGLSs considering heteroscedasticity. Long-term and short-term impacts of autoregressive distributed lag methods were also investigated using pooled mean groups (PMG).

Though agriculture has the potential for job creation for the growing population; nevertheless, most Nigerian youth merely see the agricultural sector as a viable opportunity for livelihood. In the quest for food security, as encapsulated in sustainable development goals (SDGs), youth participation in agriculture is essential to unlock the agricultural sector’s potential and ensure adequate food production.

This study examined the factors influencing youth involvement in agriculture and its impact on food security in Nigeria, using Ekiti and Kwara States. The study engaged a multi-stage random sampling approach. The first stage involved a purposeful selection of the states among youth in agriculture-related activities. The second stage involved randomly selecting five Local Government Areas (LGAs) from each state. The third stage involved a random selection of five communities in the selected LGAs, making it a total of 25 communities for each state. Finally, 20 households were selected per community. In total, 500 respondents were selected from each of the two states, making it a total of 1,000 respondents for the survey. The Foster-Greer-Thorbeck (FGT) analysis uses the logit regression and the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) techniques.

The results showed that a large proportion (about 95%) of the youth farmers in the study area fell below the food security line (N6448.45) and are food insecure. Findings from the PSM showed that youth in agriculture has no significant impact on food security. The findings from the logit regression showed that gender, age, level of education, land ownership, income, safety net or social protection and value chain are significant determinants of youth participation in agriculture.

This study contributes to the literature by examining the determinants of youth in agriculture and its impact on food security in Nigeria, using Ekiti and Kwara States, by engaging the FGT, logit regression and PSM.

This study contributes to the literature by examining the determinants of youth in agriculture and its impact on food security in Nigeria, using Ekiti and Kwara States, by engaging the FGT, logit regression and PSM.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-04-2021-0197

Attaining the Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG2) of zero hunger continues to be a challenge in most parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. However, financial inclusion is seen as a potential pathway for reducing food insecurity among poor households. Mobile money is a financial inclusion instrument that is easily accessible to poor households and has the potential to increase the level of financial inclusion. This paper contributes to the literature by examining the determinants of mobile money adoption, its effects on household food security and the choice of coping strategies in Burundi, a post-conflict and fragile country.

Using survey data that involved 860 households in Burundi, we adopted the Household Hunger Scale (HHS) developed under the Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance Project to measure household food security. We further employ the endogenous switching regression treatment effects model for ordered outcomes and the multivariate probit model to achieve our aims.

The results of our study reveal that the adoption of mobile money is influenced by factors such as gender, marital status, age, formal education, membership in a social network, area of residence and access to a tarred road network. Additionally, the food security status of a household was determined by marital status, formal education, social network membership, access to tarred roads, off-farm income, access to credit and land tenure security. We confirm that mobile money adoption has a significantly positive effect on the food security status of households with heterogeneity in gender and area of residence. We also find that mobile money adoption reduces the likelihood of households adopting consumption-related coping strategies.

The promotion of mobile money should, therefore, be included in Burundi’s national food security policies.

This study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence on the effect of mobile money adoption on household food security and the choice of coping strategies in a post-conflict context.