Measuring the level of cyber-security awareness for cybercrime in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The revolution in the Information Technology (IT) field has led to a significant increase in the number of people connected to and utilizing the Internet. However, it has also introduced severe security risks: valuable information such as passwords, financial accounts, and other confidential data are considered attractive targets for attackers. Cyber-attacks against this infrastructure can not only lead to data leakage but can also have significant financial implications and even lead to loss of life. Consequently, to defend against such attacks, and considering that humans have a key role in these technologies, it is important to increase cyber-security awareness. This paper focuses on measuring the current level of cyber-security awareness in Saudi Arabia, in terms of cyber-security practices, level of awareness, and incident reporting, by means of an online questionnaire with 1230 participants. The questionnaire results showed that 31.7% used public Wi-Fi to access the Internet, 51% used their personal information to create their passwords, 32.5% did not have any idea about phishing attacks, 21.7% had been victim of cybercrimes while only 29.2% of them reported the crime, which reflects their levels of awareness. The paper concludes by offering recommendations based on analysis of the results to promote the level of awareness.

Keywords

• Cybersecurity
• Cybercrime
• Threat
• Saudi Arabia
• Awareness
• Malware