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

Qin An; Wilson Cheong Hin Hong; XiaoShu Xu; Yunfeng Zhang; Kimberly Kolletar-Zhu

doi:10.1007/s10207-022-00637-z

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

Int J Inf Secur. 2023;22(2):305-317. doi: 10.1007/s10207-022-00637-z. Epub 2022 Nov 24.

Authors

Qin An¹, Wilson Cheong Hin Hong², XiaoShu Xu^{3

4}, Yunfeng Zhang⁵, Kimberly Kolletar-Zhu³

Affiliations

¹ International Business School, Chengdu Institute Sichuan International Studies University, Chengdu, China.
² Centre for Teaching and Learning Enhancement, Macao Institute for Tourism Studies, Macau, Macao.
³ School of Foreign Studies, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, China.
⁴ Stamford International University, Bangkok, Thailand.
⁵ Centre for Portuguese Studies, Macau Polytechnic University, Macau, Macao.

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.

Keywords: CSA; Cybersecurity awareness; HAIS-Q; ISA; Internet security awareness; KAB model; Online learning; Social educational level.

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