We need to aim at the top: Factors associated with cybersecurity awareness of cyber and information security decision-makers

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Vrhovec, Simon, Markelj, Blaž
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2024
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author Vrhovec, Simon
Markelj, Blaž
author_facet Vrhovec, Simon
Markelj, Blaž
contents Cyberattacks pose a significant business risk to organizations. Although there is ample literature focusing on why people pose a major risk to organizational cybersecurity and how to deal with it, there is surprisingly little we know about cyber and information security decision-makers who are essentially the people in charge of setting up and maintaining organizational cybersecurity. In this paper, we study cybersecurity awareness of cyber and information security decision-makers, and investigate factors associated with it. We conducted an online survey among Slovenian cyber and information security decision-makers (N=283) to (1) determine whether their cybersecurity awareness is associated with adoption of antimalware solutions in their organizations, and (2) explore which organizational factors and personal characteristics are associated with their cybersecurity awareness. Our findings indicate that awareness of well-known threats and solutions seems to be quite low for individuals in decision-making roles. They also provide insights into which threats and solutions are cyber and information security decision-makers the least aware of. We uncovered that awareness of certain threats and solutions is positively associated with either adoption of advanced antimalware solutions with EDR/XDR capabilities or adoption of SOC. Additionally, we identified significant organizational factors (organizational role type) and personal characteristics (gender, age, experience with information security and experience with IT) related to cybersecurity awareness of cyber and information security decision-makers. Organization size and formal education were not significant. These results offer insights that can be leveraged in targeted cybersecurity training tailored to the needs of groups of cyber and information security decision-makers based on these key factors.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2404_04725
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle We need to aim at the top: Factors associated with cybersecurity awareness of cyber and information security decision-makers
Vrhovec, Simon
Markelj, Blaž
Cryptography and Security
Cyberattacks pose a significant business risk to organizations. Although there is ample literature focusing on why people pose a major risk to organizational cybersecurity and how to deal with it, there is surprisingly little we know about cyber and information security decision-makers who are essentially the people in charge of setting up and maintaining organizational cybersecurity. In this paper, we study cybersecurity awareness of cyber and information security decision-makers, and investigate factors associated with it. We conducted an online survey among Slovenian cyber and information security decision-makers (N=283) to (1) determine whether their cybersecurity awareness is associated with adoption of antimalware solutions in their organizations, and (2) explore which organizational factors and personal characteristics are associated with their cybersecurity awareness. Our findings indicate that awareness of well-known threats and solutions seems to be quite low for individuals in decision-making roles. They also provide insights into which threats and solutions are cyber and information security decision-makers the least aware of. We uncovered that awareness of certain threats and solutions is positively associated with either adoption of advanced antimalware solutions with EDR/XDR capabilities or adoption of SOC. Additionally, we identified significant organizational factors (organizational role type) and personal characteristics (gender, age, experience with information security and experience with IT) related to cybersecurity awareness of cyber and information security decision-makers. Organization size and formal education were not significant. These results offer insights that can be leveraged in targeted cybersecurity training tailored to the needs of groups of cyber and information security decision-makers based on these key factors.
title We need to aim at the top: Factors associated with cybersecurity awareness of cyber and information security decision-makers
topic Cryptography and Security
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.04725