| 1. |
- Rocha Flores, Waldo
(författare)
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Shaping information security behaviors related to social engineering attacks
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Today, few companies would manage to continuously stay competitive without the proper utilization of information technology (IT). This has increased companies’ dependency of IT and created new threats that need to be addressed to mitigate risks to daily business operations. A large extent of these IT-related threats includes hackers attempting to gain unauthorized access to internal computer networks by exploiting vulnerabilities in the behaviors of employees. A common way to exploit human vulnerabilities is to deceive and manipulate employees through the use of social engineering. Although researchers have attempted to understand social engineering, there is a lack of empirical research capturing multilevel factors explaining what drives employees’ existing behaviors and how these behaviors can be improved. This is addressed in this thesis.The contribution of this thesis includes (i) an instrument to measure security behaviors and its multilevel determinants, (ii) identification of multilevel variables that significantly influence employees’ intent for behavior change, (iii) identification of what behavioral governance factors that lay the foundation for behavior change, (iv) identification that national culture has a significant effect on how organizations cope with behavioral information security threats, and (v) a strategy to ensure adequate information security behaviors throughout an organization.This thesis is a composite thesis of eight papers. Paper 1 describes the instrument measuring multilevel determinants. Paper 2 and 3 describes how security knowledge is established in organizations, and the effect on employee information security awareness. In Paper 4 the root cause of employees’ intention to change their behaviors and resist social engineering is described. Paper 5 and 8 describes how the instrument to measure social engineering security behaviors was developed and validated through scenario-based surveys and phishing experiments. Paper 6 and 7 describes experiments performed to understand reason to why employees fall for social engineering. Finally, paper 2, 5 and 6 examines the moderating effect of national culture.
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| 2. |
- Rocha Flores, Waldo, et al.
(författare)
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Information security knowledge sharing in organizations : Investigating the effect of behavioral information security governance and national culture
- 2014
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Ingår i: Computers & security (Print). - : Elsevier. - 0167-4048 .- 1872-6208. ; 43, s. 90-110
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This 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 controls, and assuring that the controls are not too obtrusive to the end user. On the contrary, US organizations establish security knowledge sharing in their organization through formal arrangements and structures. These results imply that Swedish managers perceive it to be important to involve, or at least know how their employees cope with the decisions that have been made, thus favoring local participation in information security management, while US managers may feel the need to have more central control when running their information security function.The findings suggest that national culture should be taken into consideration in future studies – in particular when investigating organizations operating in a global environment – and understand how it affects behaviors and decision-making.
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| 3. |
- Rocha Flores, Waldo, et al.
(författare)
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Expert Opinions on Information Security Governance Factors : An Exploratory Study
- 2011
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Ingår i: ECIS 2011 Proceedings.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Information Security Governance (ISG) is an important discipline that addresses information security at a strategic level providing strategic direction, optimized use of information resources and proper security incident management. ISG and the impact of poor security incident management have attracted much attention in the literature but unfortunately there is little empirical evidence regarding the explicit link between ISG and its effectiveness in terms of reducing negative impacts on business objectives from security incidents. Consequently, little exploration of ISG factors and their impact on the above mentioned measure of effectiveness exists. Further, to direct endeavors the crucial question is if there exist any differences in how effective these factors are in attaining this target. Currently, there is a lack in research considering this question. The research presented in this article explores the ISG domain further by empirically examine 30 ISG factors and their ability of reducing negative impacts on business objectives from security incidents. Data has been collected by surveying ISG experts. Ten factors were identified to have significant different means in relation to other factors according to a one-way ANOVA analysis that was conducted. The results give an indication on what ISG factors that have an effect, providing both support for further academic research and also decision support for implementing ISG.
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| 4. |
- Rocha Flores, Waldo, et al.
(författare)
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Shaping intention to resist social engineering through transformational leadership, information security culture and awareness
- 2016
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Ingår i: Computers & security (Print). - : Elsevier BV. - 0167-4048 .- 1872-6208. ; 59, s. 26-44
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper empirically investigates how organizational and individual factors complement each other in shaping employees' intention to resist social engineering. The study followed a mixed methods research design, wherein qualitative data were collected to both establish the study's research model and develop a survey instrument that was distributed to 4296 organizational employees from a diverse set of organizations located in Sweden. The results showed that attitude toward resisting social engineering has the strongest direct association with intention to resist social engineering, while both self-efficacy and normative beliefs showed weak relationships with intention to resist social engineering. Furthermore, the results showed that transformational leadership was strongly associated with both perceived information security culture and information security awareness. Two mediation tests showed that attitude and normative beliefs partially mediate the effect of information security culture on employees' intention to resist social engineering. This suggests that both attitude and normative beliefs play important roles in governing the relationship between information security culture and intention to resist social engineering. A third mediation test revealed that information security culture fully explains the effect of transformational leadership on employees' attitude toward resisting social engineering. Discussion of the results and practical implications of the performed research are provided.
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| 5. |
- Rocha Flores, Waldo, et al.
(författare)
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The development of an instrument for assessing information security in organizations : Examining the content validity using quantitative methods
- 2013
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Ingår i: CONF-IRM 2013 Proceedings.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Content validity, the extent to which a measurement reflects the specific intended domain of content, is a basic type of validity for a valid measurement. It has usually been examined using qualitative methods and has not been given as much attention as the other psychometric properties such as internal consistency reliability, indicator reliability and construct validity in the IS field. In this paper, a quantitative approach including the proportion of substantive agreement (PSA), and substantive validity (CSV) was used to examine content validity for 80 items covering eighth domains related to organizational and individual perspectives of information security. The content validity for the organizational perspective was examined using data from a total of 56 content domain experts. Data from 51 experts were further used to examine content validity for the individual perspective of information security. 31 items did not have an adequate content validity, leaving the instrument with 49 items that have been evaluated for their content validity and can be used in future empirically tests of hypotheses in the information security field. To the knowledge of the authors this quantitative method to assess content validity of items in the process of developing instruments hasn’t yet been applied in the field information security.
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| 6. |
- Rocha Flores, Waldo, et al.
(författare)
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Exploring the link between behavioural information security governance and employee information security awareness
- 2015
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Ingår i: <em>Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on Human Aspects of Information Security & Assurance</em>.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper explores the relation between a set of behavioural information security governancefactors and employees’ information security awareness. To enable statistical analysis betweenproposed relations, data was collected from two different samples in 24 organisations: 24information security executives and 240 employees. The results reveal that having a formalunit with explicit responsibility for information security, utilizing coordinating committees,and sharing security knowledge through an intranet site significantly correlates withdimensions of employees’ information security awareness. However, regular identification ofvulnerabilities in information systems and related processes is significantly negativelycorrelated with employees’ information security awareness, in particular managing passwords.The effect of behavioural information security governance on employee information securityawareness is an understudied topic. Therefore, this study is explorative in nature and theresults are preliminary. Nevertheless, the paper provides implications for both research andpractice.
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| 7. |
- Rocha Flores, Waldo, et al.
(författare)
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Information Security Governance Analysis using Probabilistic Relational Models
- 2011
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the 8th International Workshop on Security in Information Systems, WOSIS 2011, in Conjunction with ICEIS 2011. - 9789898425614 ; , s. 142-150
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper proposes the use of Probabilistic Relational Models (PRM) for analyzing dependencies between Information Security Governance (ISG) components and its impact on process capability of mitigating information security vulnerabilities. Using the PRM enables inference between different ISG components expressed in probabilities, and also inference on the process capability. A concrete PRM which exemplifies how to assess the capability of the access control process is further presented, and thus showing how the PRM can be adapted to fit the analysis of a specific process in an organizational environment.
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| 8. |
- Rocha Flores, Waldo, et al.
(författare)
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Conceptualization of Constructs for Shaping Information Security Behavior : Towards a Measurement Instrument
- 2012
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The development of new means to attack information systems by attacking humans accessing the systems has increased the attention given to risks related to human or social aspects of information security. However, the effect of organizational key constructs proposed in organizational and individual behavior literature on information security has not been rigorously examined. Therefore it is important to develop measurement instruments and validate them properly to empirically capture the phenomena with reliable results. In this paper we attempt to conceptualize seven constructs and their sub-dimensions toward developing a measurement instrument. This attempt is carried out through specifying the nature of each construct’s conceptual domain and surveying content domain experts on the relevance, comprehensiveness and clarity of the identified dimensions of the construct. Based on the survey results we provide a set of validated constructs and dimensions that can be used to formally specify future measurement models for investigating how organizations can influence information security behavior.
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| 9. |
- Rocha Flores, Waldo
(författare)
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Establishment of Security Knowledge Sharing in Organisations: An Empirical Study
- 2013
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the European Information Security Multi-Conference. - 9781841023458
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The purpose of the present study is to empirically investigate what drives the establishment of security knowledge sharing in organisations. Based on a theoretical understanding a research model was developed and tested by collecting and analysing data from 62 security executives from a diverse set of organisations located in different geographic regions in the world. The empirical tests of a structural model revealed that all proposed hypotheses are accepted, except the hypotheses proposing a positive link between business-based information security and the establishment of security knowledge sharing. Organisational structure has a major direct influence on the establishment of security knowledge sharing in organisations, while the effect of coordinating information security process is moderate. A mediation analysis revealed that the reason for the nonsignificant direct relation between business-based information security and security knowledge sharing is the fully mediating effect of coordinating information security process. Thus, coordinating information security process has an important role on security knowledge sharing by either partially or fully mediating the effects of both organisational structure and business-based information security on security knowledge sharing. Implications and recommendation for future research are further discussed.
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| 10. |
- Rocha Flores, Waldo, et al.
(författare)
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A Model for Investigating Organizational Impact on Information Security Behavior
- 2012
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The increased amount of attacks targeting humans accessing and using computers has made it significantly important to understand human and organizational behavior in attacks and how resilient behavior can be achieved. This paper presents a research model that attempts to understand how organizational and human factors complement each other in shaping information security behavior. The model was developed through an inductive approach, in which content domain experts were interviewed to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomena. Common patterns that were identified in the interviews were then combined with data collected through surveying the literature. Specifically, the research model includes constructs related to the organization and promotion of information security, constructs related to perceptions of information security awareness and the social conditions within an organizational setting, and individual constructs related to an individual’s perceptions of attitude, normative beliefs, and self-efficacy. Implications for continuing research and how the model will be tested empirically are discussed.
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