Atila Bostan

IMPACT OF EDUCATION ON SECURITY PRACTICES IN ICT

Original scientific paper In assuring the security in information technology, user awareness and acquired-user habits are inevitable components, yet they may be qualified as the feeblest ones. As the information technology tries to put its best in providing maximum security, user awareness plays a key-role. Additionally, although the literature provides studies on approaches for teaching information security, there are not many evidences on the impact of education level. Therefore, this study investigates the impact of the education level on user security awareness in using the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) products. For this purpose, a survey was conducted among 433 citizens from different layers of the society. Interestingly, the results indicated that education level has significant impact on all security issues included in the analysis regarding computer usage, web usage and e-mail usage.

Analyzing the requirements for E-government transition of Iraqi ICS services: An Iraqi correction services case study

Iraqi Correction Services (ICS) is a department within the Ministry of Justice. Most services are provided through traditional paper and pen system. This system causes delays in service provision time and work over-load on ICS staff which translates into a high cost of service provision. E-government applications represent an opportunity to automate governmental services while improving both effectiveness and efficiency. This work presents the approach taken to determine the priority to automate ICS service from the perspective of service beneficiaries. The research is yet to be completed, however, up to this point we developed four different questionnaire-sets in order to collect the requirements from the shareholders, verified them and implemented the actual survey in the field. The experience gained throughout these steps and the future analysis plan is reported in this paper.

Implicit learning with certificate warning messages on SSL web pages: what are they teaching?

SSL-based web services are the most common technology in secure transactions on the Internet today. The security level of these services is inevitably related with that of digital certificates and user awareness. With the high number of nonconforming digital certificate usage, which eventually invokes warning messages on the Internet, users are implicitly forced to develop unsecure usage habits. In this study, we have studied the implicit learning effect of certificate warning messages on the SSL web pages. We have conducted two different experimental studies on university students and on instructors in IT departments. The results point to acquired indifference towards these warnings in users. Copyright

ICT user and usage characteristics and e-mail security awareness

In spite of the fact that e-mail is the oldest service on the Internet, it is still one of the network services which are in widespread usage. The extensive usage of e-mail services has turned it into a target for digital intruders. The information and communication technology tries its best in providing maximum security in e-mail services. However, the research regarding relationships between user demographic factors, reason of ICT usage and e-mail security is not matured yet and needs further exploration. Therefore, this study investigates demographic factors, information and communication technology usage characteristics of users on providing secure e-mail usage. For this purpose, a survey was conducted among 466 citizens from different layers of the society. The results indicated existence of significant relations between factors related to socio-demographics, reason and frequency of ICT usage and e-mail security.