A Model for Investigating Organizational Impact on Information Security Behavior

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

Conceptualization of Constructs for Shaping Information Security Behavior: Towards a Measurement Instrument

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

The development of an instrument for assessing information security in organizations: Examining the content validity using quantitative methods

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

Countermeasures for Social Engineering-based Malware Installation Attacks

Social engineering exploits vulnerabilities at different layers (i.e. technical, social layer) in an organizational defense structure. It is therefore important to understand how to defend against these attacks using a holistic defense approach including multiple countermeasures. The literature suggests a plethora of countermeasures, little research has however been done to assess their effectiveness in managing social engineering threats. In this paper we attempt to obtain a deeper understanding of how to defend against a type of social engineering attack that attempts to install malware on computers through e-mail or portable media. We explore commonly proposed countermeasures needed to prevent this type of attack, and if any dependencies between them exist. Through a combined method approach of surveying the literature and conducting semi-structured interviews with domain experts we identified a set of countermeasures that provide empirical input for future studies but could potentially also give organizations guidance on how to manage social engineering-based malware installation attacks

Shaping information security behaviors related to social engineering attacks

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.QC 20160503</p

Information security knowledge sharing in organizations : Investigating the effect of behavioral information security governance and national culture

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. QC 20140520</p

Information security knowledge sharing in organizations : Investigating the effect of behavioral information security governance and national culture

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. QC 20140520</p

Indicators predicting similarities in maturity between processes : An empirical Analysis with 35 European organizations

Compliance audits and IT process evaluations are time-demanding to conduct and methods to simplify and support such evaluations are valuable. This article proposes a set of indicators that can be used to predict similarities in IT process maturity and thereby be used to optimize resource allocations when conducting process maturity evaluations and compliance audits. The indicators have been identified from the COBIT framework and tested against process maturity data from 35 European organizations. Four out of six proposed indicators were supported in the statistical analysis. These indicators can be used as an instrument in COBIT-based maturity evaluations and compliance audits to make the assessment process more resource-efficient.QC 20120321</p

IT GOVERNANCE DECISION SUPPORT USING THE IT ORGANIZATION MODELING AND ASSESMENT TOOL

This paper describes the information technology (IT) organization modeling and assessment tool (ITOMAT) and how it can be used for IT governance decision making. The ITOMAT consists of an enterprise architecture metamodel that describes IT organizations. Further, ITOMAT contains a Bayesian network for making predictions on how changes to IT organization models will affect the IT governance performance as perceived by business stakeholders. Thorough case studies at 20 different companies have been conducted in order to calibrate the network. Finally, the paper describes a case study where ITOMAT was used to analyze the future impact of two IT organization change scenarios in a medium-sized engineering company.IT governance, IT organization, enterprise architecture, modeling, metamodel