Social Media Security Awareness in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

With the daily use of social media, the cybersecurity and privacy are challenging for most communities. This research is aimed to explore and evaluate the awareness of cybersecurity in Saudi Arabia. It is also designed to discover how the ordinary users performances in using internet security while using social media. This research employed mixed methods. The researcher sent the online questionnaire to random people who used the social media to participate in this study. At the end of the online survey, one more question was attached to ask participants to involve in the second round of data collection (interview). This research found that social media users' awareness about internet security is different from users based on their gender. In addition, the ways of contact were affecting the reaction of users to share their information with others. The results also indicated that when the level of awareness is high the way of dealing with others is different. This study also confirmed the users' belief in internet security and most of them knew the strengths of internet security enabled them to protect their devices and personal information from outside intruders. Moreover, the findings of this study showed that the users of social media need to give more attention to all types of security threats. The findings of this paper can be used theoretically and practically by identifying the level of security awareness based on social media usage and the purpose of use.

Keywords

• awareness
• Saudi Arabia
• security
• social media