Information Security Behavior: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Irish and US Employees

ABSTRACT

This study explores how aspects of perceived national culture affect the information security attitudes and behavior of employees. Data was collected using 19 semi-structured interviews in Ireland and the United States of America (US). The main findings are that US employees in the observed organizations are more inclined to adopt formalized information security policies and procedures than Irish employees, and are also more likely to have higher levels of compliance and lower levels of non-compliance.

KEYWORDS:

• Information security culture
• national culture
• information security behavior
• cross-cultural research
• qualitative research

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lena Y. Connolly

Lena Y. Connolly is a Research Fellow in the School of Law at the University of Leeds where she conducts research in the areas of cybersecurity, cryptocurrency, and cybercrime. Before joining the University of Leeds, she worked as a Lecturer at the National University of Ireland Galway with the Business Information Systems group. She is an early career researcher and so far, her work has been featured in a leading international journal (Information & Computer Security), and presented at several international conferences such as International Conference on Information Systems Development and IFIP TC-11 SEC International Information Security and Privacy Conference.

Michael Lang

Michael Lang is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Business and Economics, National University of Ireland, Galway. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Limerick, his M.Sc. from NUI Galway, and his B.Commerce from University College Dublin. His research and teaching interests are information systems security and ethics, systems analysis and design, and database technologies and analytics. His work has featured in Information Systems Management, Communications of the AIS, Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, Information & Software Technology, Information and Computer Security, IEEE Software, IEEE Multimedia, Requirements Engineering, and Journal of Information Systems Education.

David S. Wall

David S. Wall is a Professor of Criminology at the Centre for Criminal Justice Studies in the School of Law where he researches and teaches cybercrime, identity crime, organized crime, policing and intellectual property crime. He has published a wide range of 50+ articles and 12+ books on these subjects and he also has a sustained track record of interdisciplinary funded research in these areas from the EU FP6 & FP7, ESRC, EPSRC, AHRC & other funders, such as the Home Office and DSTL.