Computer security and ethics awareness in university environments: a challenge for management of information systems

• Authors: Max M. North;Roy George;Sarah M. North
• Venue: Proceedings of the 44th annual Southeast regional conference
• Year: 2006

There are great challenges for the people involved in the management of information systems to take special measures to secure their information systems. This is more apparent in a university setting, specifically when providing computing resources to the diverse student population. The current paper reports on a study of computer security and ethics awareness among students taking an introductory computer technology course at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). Four hundred sixty five (465) student volunteers attending introductory computer technology courses participated in the survey. A concise questionnaire consisting of 21 questions was used. The questionnaire had two major parts. The first part measured the participant's awareness of computer security. The second part measured their awareness of ethical computer use. In general, the majority of the participants had a satisfactory awareness of computer security and ethics. However, as the results of the survey reveal, a 20% to 52% lack of awareness of computer security is highly risky and a 14% to 24% violation of the code of ethics is not desirable. This suggests security and ethic awareness training is needed for university users. To help students at HBCUs increase their awareness of security and ethical issues, the authors provided several recommendations.