Cyber security awareness and culture in rural Norway

Abstract

Understanding the level of security awareness, the perception, and the culture of users in aspects related to security, is crucial for the development of suitable measures towards their protection and the protection of the utilized infrastructure. This becomes imperative in countries with increased penetration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), such as Norway. In this paper, we present the results of a study conducted by NTNU and Eidsiva bredbånd AS, in respect to the security awareness and cyber security culture of Norwegian users of ICT. The study aims to investigate the level of security awareness of Norwegian Internet subscription owners and identify how and if their security awareness can be improved. For that reason, we aim to identify the demographic groups and the characteristics of the security awareness of the Internet users. These attributes have been used to identify the need for knowledge and the cyber security training preferences among different groups of internet users. We have discovered that the level of security awareness is highly subjective and that training programs provided by Internet Service Providers are recommendable.