Cybersecurity Awareness Among Post-Secondary Students

This study examines the level of cybersecurity awareness among different groups of post-secondary students, focusing primarily on two research goals. The first goal was to determine if the overall level of cybersecurity awareness among the students is sufficiently high. The second goal was to determine if the levels of cybersecurity awareness differ among the students of different levels (graduate vs. undergraduate), different genders, and particularly different areas. We hypothesized that the students pursuing IT-related majors demonstrate better awareness than non-IT majors. The findings indicated overall high level of cybersecurity awareness among all students, with a few exception focus areas, and a small but statistically significant difference between the level of cybersecurity awareness of IT and non-IT majors. No statistically significant differences were found between the students grouped by their gender or by their program level, graduate and undergraduate. The study reveals specific focus areas in cybersecurity that need to be addressed in post-secondary curricula.