Exploring The Correlation between Cyber Security Awareness, Protection Measures and the State of Victimhood: The Case Study of Ambo University’s Academic Staffs

Abstract

The advancement of information communication technology has triggered a revolution in using the Internet for legitimate educational purposes on university campuses. Therefore, the Internet has changed the way of human communication and contributed to the development of mankind. On the other hand it is regrettable that its revolution has helped malicious users to exploit it for the malign purpose to commit a cyberspace crime that has in turn negatively affected fellow users who were preyed on by cyber predators. This work aimed to examine the awareness of cybersecurity, the measures taken to protect against cyberattacks and the state of victimization among professors at Ambo University. Thus, the present study comes up with the following findings. First, the result shows that the respondents’ cybersecurity awareness was significantly influenced by cyber-crime victimization, fields of study, and protection measures. Second, the current study also depicts that the respondents’ protection measures were connected to and influenced by cybercrime victimization, education level, and cyber-security awareness. Finally, the study’s findings show that being a cyber-crime victim has been linked to predictors’ variables: protection measures and the level of cybersecurity awareness.