How education level influences internet security knowledge, behaviour, and attitude: a comparison among undergraduates, postgraduates and working graduates.

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  • Additional Information
    • Source:
      Publisher: Springer-Verlag Country of Publication: Germany NLM ID: 101755129 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1615-5270 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 16155262 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Int J Inf Secur Subsets: PubMed not MEDLINE
    • Publication Information:
      Original Publication: Berlin : Springer-Verlag, 2001-
    • Abstract:
      During the pandemic, the prevailing online learning has brought tremendous benefits to the education field. However, it has also become a target for cybercriminals. Cybersecurity awareness (CSA) or Internet security awareness in the education sector turns out to be critical to mitigating cybersecurity risks. However, previous research indicated that using education level alone to judge CSA level received inconsistent results. This study postulated Social Educational Level (SEL) as a moderator with an extended Knowledge-Attitude-Behaviour model, used students' year level as a proxy for the impact of education level, and used work exposure for the influence of social education level, to compare CSA among undergraduates, postgraduates and working graduates. The participants in the study were divided into six groups, namely year 1 university students, year 2-3university students, final-year students, postgraduate students, young working graduates, and experienced working graduates. The Human Aspects of Information Security Questionnaire was used to conduct a large-scale survey. The multivariate regression model analysis showed significant differences among the knowledge, attitude and behaviour dimensions across groups with different conditions of year-level and work exposure. However, it was found that SEL played a more significant role than an individual's education level. The study suggested that a greater endeavour be committed to educating the public at large together with individuals, institutes, corporate and governments to improve the national CSA level.
      Competing Interests: Conflict of interestThe authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose. The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article. All authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript. The authors have no financial or proprietary interests in any material discussed in this article. The authors declare no competing interests.
      (© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE 2022, Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.)
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    • Contributed Indexing:
      Keywords: CSA; Cybersecurity awareness; HAIS-Q; ISA; Internet security awareness; KAB model; Online learning; Social educational level
    • Publication Date:
      Date Created: 20221205 Latest Revision: 20230320
    • Publication Date:
      20231215
    • Accession Number:
      PMC9702960
    • Accession Number:
      10.1007/s10207-022-00637-z
    • Accession Number:
      36466362