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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association of lack of awareness and human factors and the association of lack of awareness and significant attacks that threat computer security in higher education.

Five human factors and nine attacks are considered to investigate their relationship. A field research is conducted on Greek employees in higher education to identify the human factors that affect information security. The sample is consisted of 103 employees that use computers at work. Pearson correlation analysis between lack of awareness and nine (9) computer security risks is performed.

Examining the association of lack of awareness with these attacks that threat the security of computers, all nine factors of important attacks exert significant and positive effect, apart from phishing. Considering the relationship of lack of awareness to human factors, all five human factors used are significantly and positively correlated with lack of awareness. Moreover, all nine important attacks, apart from one, exert a significant and positive effect.

The paper extends understanding of the relationship of the human factors, the lack of awareness and information security. The study has focused on employees of the Technological Educational Institute (TEI) of Athens, namely, teachers, administrators and working post-graduate students.

The paper has used weighted factors based on data collection in higher education to calculate a global index for lack of awareness, as the result of the weighted aggregation of nine (9) risks, and extends the analysis performed in the literature to evaluate the effectiveness of security awareness in computer risk management.

Information security is a critical issue in all organizations. The success of information security in libraries depends, to a large extent, on the effective behavior of administrators, librarians, users and all human staff. Accordingly, this study aims to design a model for identifying human factors affecting information security in libraries.

This study is applied in terms of research objectives and is a survey in terms of data collection. Moreover, it goes under the rubric of structural equation modeling in terms of the relationship between variables. The statistical population consisted of 100 managers and librarians of academic and public libraries of Hamadan in Iran. A questionnaire was used for data collection. The face and content validity of the questionnaire were examined using the expert’s opinions in the field of Iranian libraries. Also, the reliability of the questionnaire was calculated through Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. Data were analyzed using SPSS 16 and Smart PLS 2.

The results showed that among the components of information security, the highest score was designated to self-esteem (4.11 ± 0.57) and level of skill (4.07 ± 0.59), whereas the lowest score belonged to the level of education (3.51 ± 0.74). Ranking human factors affecting information security showed that experience with Rank 1 had the most impact, whereas the level of skill with Rank 6 had the least impact on information security.

In this study, for the first time, a model was designed and tested for human factors affecting information security in libraries. Information security professionals, librarians and library and information science researchers can exploit this model in the future.

Looks at where companies go wrong in measuring supply chain performance. Gives a number of examples of those who are doing it right.

The concept of information security culture, which recently gained increased attention, aims to comprehensively grasp socio-cultural mechanisms that have an impact on organizational security. Different measurement instruments have been developed to measure and assess information security culture using survey-based tools. However, the content, breadth and face validity of these scales vary greatly. This study aims to identify and provide an overview of the scales that are used to measure information security culture and to evaluate the rigor of reported scale development and validation procedures.

Papers that introduce a new or adapt an existing scale of information security culture were systematically reviewed to evaluate scales of information security culture. A standard search strategy was applied to identify 19 relevant scales, which were evaluated based on the framework of 16 criteria pertaining to the rigor of reported operationalization and the reported validity and reliability of the identified scales.

The results show that the rigor with which scales of information security culture are validated varies greatly and that none of the scales meet all the evaluation criteria. Moreover, most of the studies provide somewhat limited evidence of the validation of scales, indicating room for further improvement. Particularly, critical issues seem to be the lack of evidence regarding discriminant and criterion validity and incomplete documentation of the operationalization process.

Researchers focusing on the human factor in information security need to reach a certain level of agreement on the essential elements of the concept of information security culture. Future studies need to build on existing scales, address their limitations and gain further evidence regarding the validity of scales of information security culture. Further research should also investigate the quality of definitions and make expert assessments of the content fit between concepts and items.

Organizations that aim to assess the level of information security culture among employees can use the results of this systematic review to support the selection of an adequate measurement scale. However, caution is needed for scales that provide limited evidence of validation.

This is the first study that offers a critical evaluation of existing scales of information security culture. The results have decision-making value for researchers who intend to conduct survey-based examinations of information security culture.

Security ceremonies still fail despite decades of efforts by researchers and practitioners. Attacks are often a cunning amalgam of exploits for technical systems and of forms of human behaviour. For example, this is the case with the recent news headline of a large-scale attack against Electrum Bitcoin wallets, which manages to spread a malicious update of the wallet app. The author therefore sets out to look at things through a different lens.

The author makes the (metaphorical) hypothesis that humans arrived on Earth along with security ceremonies from a very far planet, the Cybersecurity planet. The author’s hypothesis continues, in that studying (by huge telescopes) the surface of Cybersecurity in combination with the logical projection on that surface of what happens on Earth is beneficial for us earthlings.

The author has spotted four cities so far on the remote planet. Democratic City features security ceremonies that allow humans to follow personal paths of practice and, for example, make errors or be driven by emotions. By contrast, security ceremonies in Dictatorial City compel to comply, hence humans here behave like programmed automata. Security ceremonies in Beautiful City are so beautiful that humans just love to follow them precisely. Invisible City has security ceremonies that are not perceivable, hence humans feel like they never encounter any. Incidentally, the words “democratic” and “dictatorial” are used without any political connotation.

A key argument the author shall develop is that all cities but Democratic City address the human factor, albeit in different ways. In the light of these findings, the author will also discuss security ceremonies of our planet, such as WhatsApp Web login and flight boarding, and explore room for improving them based upon the current understanding of Cybersecurity.

The purpose of this study is to focus on organisation’s cybersecurity strategy and propose a high-level programme for cybersecurity education and awareness to be used when targeting small- and medium-sized enterprises/businesses (SMEs/SMBs) at a city-level. An essential component of an organisation’s cybersecurity strategy is building awareness and education of online threats and how to protect corporate data and services. This programme is based on existing research and provides a unique insight into an ongoing city-based project with similar aims.

To structure this work, a scoping review was conducted of the literature in cybersecurity education and awareness, particularly for SMEs/SMBs. This theoretical analysis was complemented using a case study and reflecting on an ongoing, innovative programme that seeks to work with these businesses to significantly enhance their security posture. From these analyses, best practices and important lessons/recommendations to produce a high-level programme for cybersecurity education and awareness were recommended.

While the literature can be informative at guiding education and awareness programmes, it may not always reach real-world programmes. However, existing programmes, such as the one explored in this study, have great potential, but there can be room for improvement. Knowledge from each of these areas can, and should, be combined to the benefit of the academic and practitioner communities.

The study contributes to current research through the outline of a high-level programme for cybersecurity education and awareness targeting SMEs/SMBs. Through this research, literature in this space was examined and insights into the advances and challenges faced by an on-going programme were presented. These analyses allow us to craft a proposal for a core programme that can assist in improving the security education, awareness and training that targets SMEs/SMBs.

It is widely acknowledged that non-compliance of employees with information security polices is one of the major challenges facing organisations. This paper aims to propose a model that is intended to provide a comprehensive framework for raising the level of compliance amongst end-users, with the aim of monitoring, measuring and responding to users’ behaviour with an information security policy.

The proposed model is based on two main concepts: a taxonomy of the response strategy to non-compliant behaviour and a compliance points system. The response taxonomy comprises two categories: awareness raising and enforcement of the security policy. The compliance points system is used to reward compliant behaviour and penalise non-compliant behaviour.

A prototype system has been developed to simulate the proposed model and work as a real system that responds to the behaviour of users (reflecting both violations and compliance behaviour). In addition, the model has been evaluated by interviewing experts from academic and industry. They considered the proposed model to offers a novel approach for managing end users’ behaviour with the information security policies.

Psychological factors were out of the research scope at this stage. The proposed model may have some psychological impacts upon users; therefore, this issue needs to be considered by studying the potential impacts and the best solutions.

Users being compliant with the information security policies of their organisation is the key to strengthen information security. Therefore, when employees have a good level of compliance with security policies, this positively affects the overall security of an organisation.

This paper aims to provide an understanding of the proportions of incidents that relate to human error. The information security field experiences a continuous stream of information security incidents and breaches, which are publicised by the media, public bodies and regulators. Despite the need for information security practices being recognised and in existence for some time, the underlying general information security affecting tasks and causes of these incidents and breaches are not consistently understood, particularly with regard to human error.

This paper analyses recent published incidents and breaches to establish the proportions of human error and where possible subsequently uses the HEART (human error assessment and reduction technique) human reliability analysis technique, which is established within the safety field.

This analysis provides an understanding of the proportions of incidents and breaches that relate to human error, as well as the common types of tasks that result in these incidents and breaches through adoption of methods applied within the safety field.

This research provides original contribution to knowledge through the analysis of recent public sector information security incidents and breaches to understand the proportions that relate to human error.

The purpose of this paper is to measure and discuss the effects of an e‐learning tool aiming at improving the information security knowledge, awareness, and behaviour of employees.

The intervention study has a pre‐ and post‐assessment of knowledge and attitudes among employees. In total, 1,897 employees responded to a survey before and after the intervention. The population is divided into an intervention group and a control group, where the only thing that separates the groups is participation in the intervention (i.e. the e‐learning tool).

The study documents significant short‐time improvements in security knowledge, awareness, and behavior of members of the intervention group.

The study looks at short‐time effects of the intervention. The paper has done a follow‐up study of the long‐term effects, which is also submitted to Information Management & Computer Security.

The study can document that software that support Information Security Awareness programs have a short‐time effect on employees' knowledge, behaviour, and awareness; more interventions studies, following the same principles as presented in this paper, of other user‐directed measures are needed, to test and document the effects of different measures.

The paper is innovative in the area of information security research as it shows how the effects of an information security intervention can be measured.