The Importance of the Job Role in Social Media Cybersecurity Training

Abstract

Social media has become embedded in our everyday lives, personal activities and the workplace. Thus, educating users on emerging cybersecurity challenges for social media has become imperative. As such, we have investigated the feasibility of an awareness-raising and adaptive cybersecurity training system. Our investigation is aided by a questionnaire, which was administered online using Google Forms. We collected answers from 641 employees from a variety of sectors: education, healthcare, leadership and management, arts, entertainment, police and the military. We found that a one-size-fits-all training approach is highly ineffective, as people's understanding and knowledge can vary greatly. Thus, we have proceeded to identify the factors that influence the success of any given approach. Information such as gender, age, education level, job roles, and training preferences seem essential considerations for developing a robust training strategy. Our investigation concludes that “job role” is the most significant factor associated with people's preferences and perceptions in cybersecurity training. Also, people appear to be in favour of adaptive training. Moreover, a mixed delivery approach is likely to be welcomed.