Information security knowledge sharing in organizations: Investigating the effect of behavioral information security governance and national culture.Computers & Security, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cose. 2014.03.004 Access to the published version may require subscription. N.B. When citing this work, cite the original published paper. Permanent link to this version:http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva- 142630 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 AbstractThis paper presents an empirical investigation on what behavioral information security governance factors drives the establishment of information security knowledge sharing in organizations. Data was collected from organizations located in different geographic regions of the world, and the amount of data collected from two countries -namely, USA and Sweden -allowed us to investigate if the effect of behavioral information security governance factors on the establishment of security knowledge sharing differs based on national culture.The study followed a mixed methods research design, wherein qualitative data was collected to both establish the study"s research model and develop a survey instrument that was distributed to 578 information security executives. The results suggest that processes to coordinate implemented security knowledge sharing mechanisms have a major direct influence on the establishment of security knowledge sharing in organizations; the effect of organizational structure (e.g., centralized security function to develop and deploy uniform firm-wide policies, and use of steering committees to facilitate information security planning) is slightly weaker, while business-based information security management has no significant direct effect on security knowledge sharing. A mediation analysis revealed that the reason for the non-significant direct relation between business-based information security management and security knowledge sharing is the fully mediating effect of coordinating information security processes. Thus, the results disentangles the interrelated influences of behavioral information security governance factors on security knowledge sharing by showing that information security governance sets the platform to establish security knowledge sharing, and coordinating processes realize the effect of both the structure of the information security function and the alignment of information security management with business needs.A multigroup analysis identified that national culture had a significant moderating effect on the association between four of the six proposed relations. In Sweden -which is seen as a less individualist, feminine country -managers tend to focus their efforts on implementing controls that are aligned with business activities and employees" need; monitoring the effectiveness of the implemented con...
Abstract:Security Awareness and Training (SAT) programs are commonly put in place to reduce risk related to insecure behaviour among employees. There are however studies questioning how effective SAT programs are in terms of improving end-user behaviours. In this context, we have explored the potential of applying the concept of gamification -i.e. using game mechanics -to increase motivation and learning outcomes. An interactive SAT prototype application was developed, based on interviews with security experts and a workshop with regular employees at two companies. The prototype was tested by employees in a second workshop. Our results indicate that gamification has potential for use in SAT programs, in terms of potential strengths in areas where current SAT efforts are believed to fail. There are however significant pitfalls one must avoid when designing such applications, and more research is needed on long-term effects of a gamified SAT application.
Threats from social engineering can cause organisations severe damage if they are not considered and managed. In order to understand how to manage those threats, it is important to examine reasons why organisational employees fall victim to social engineering. In this paper, the objective is to understand security behaviours in practice by investigating factors that may cause an individual to comply with a request posed by a perpetrator. In order to attain this objective, we collect data through a scenario-based survey and conduct phishing experiments in three organisations. The results from the experiment reveal that the degree of target information in an attack increases the likelihood that an organisational employee fall victim to an actual attack. Further, an individual's trust and risk behaviour significantly affects the actual behaviour during the phishing experiment. Computer experience at work, helpfulness and gender (females tend to be less susceptible to a generic attack than men), has a significant correlation with behaviour reported by respondents in the scenario-based survey. No correlation between the performance in the scenario-based survey and experiment was found. We argue that the result does not imply that one or the other method should be ruled out as they have both advantages and disadvantages which should be considered in the context of collecting data in the critical domain of information security. Discussions of the findings, implications and recommendations for future research are further provided.
Purpose – The purpose of the study was twofold: to investigate the correlation between a sample of personal psychological and demographic factors and resistance to phishing; and to investigate if national culture moderates the strength of these correlations. Design/methodology/approach – To measure potential determinants, a survey was distributed to 2,099 employees of nine organizations in Sweden, USA and India. Then, the authors conducted unannounced phishing exercises, in which a phishing attack targeted the same sample. Findings – Intention to resist social engineering, general information security awareness, formal IS training and computer experience were identified to have a positive significant correlation to phishing resilience. Furthermore, the results showed that the correlation between phishing determinants and employees’ observed that phishing behavior differs between Swedish, US and Indian employees in 6 out of 15 cases. Research limitations/implications – The identified determinants had, even though not strong, a significant positive correlation. This suggests that more work needs to be done to more fully understand determinants of phishing. The study assumes that culture effects apply to all individuals in a nation. However, differences based on cultures might exist based on firm characteristics within a country. The Swedish sample is dominating, while only 40 responses from Indian employees were collected. This unequal size of samples suggests that conclusions based on the results from the cultural analysis should be drawn cautiously. A natural continuation of the research is therefore to further explore the generalizability of the findings by collecting data from other nations with similar cultures as Sweden, USA and India. Originality/value – Using direct observations of employees’ security behaviors has rarely been used in previous research. Furthermore, analyzing potential differences in theoretical models based on national culture is an understudied topic in the behavioral information security field. This paper addresses both these issues.
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