A taxonomy of factors that contribute to organizational Cybersecurity Awareness (CSA)

• PurposeDeveloping cybersecurity awareness (CSA) is becoming a more and more important goal for modern organizations. CSA is a complex sociotechnical system where social, technical and organizational aspects affect each other in an intertwined way. With the goal of providing a holistic representation of CSA, this paper aims to develop a taxonomy of factors that contribute to organizational CSA.Design/methodology/approachThe research used a design science approach including a literature review and practitioner interviews. A taxonomy was drafted based on 71 previous research publications. It was then updated and refined in two iterations of interviews with domain experts.FindingsThe result of this research is a taxonomy which outline six domains for importance for organization CSA. Each domain includes several activities which can be undertaken to increase CSA within an organization. As such, it provides a holistic overview of the CSA field.Practical implicationsOrganizations can adopt the taxonomy to create a roadmap for internal CSA practices. For example, an organization could assess how well it performs in the six main themes and use the subthemes as inspiration when deciding on CSA activities.Originality/valueThe output of this research provides an overview of CSA based on information extracted from existing literature and then reviewed by practitioners. It also outlines how different aspects of CSA are interdependent on each other.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap -- Systemvetenskap, informationssystem och informatik med samhällsvetenskaplig inriktning (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Media and Communications -- Information Systems, Social aspects (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Awareness

Cybersecurity

Information security

Culture

Information Systems

Informationssystem (IS)

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)