A comparative study in Israel and Slovenia regarding the awareness, knowledge, and behavior regarding cyber security

With the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations and institutions moved to e-learning and to e-working from home. With the increase in internet usage, the rate of cyber-attacks have also increased, and this was followed by the request for more cyber security behaviors from employees and students. In the current study, the authors explore the connection between cyber security awareness, cyber knowledge, and cyber security behavior. The authors measured the behaviors among students in two similar countries: Israel and Slovenia. Results show that students felt they had adequate awareness on cyber threat but apply only a few protective measures to protect their devices, usually relatively common and simple ones. The study findings also show that awareness to cyber threats mediate the connection between knowledge and protection behaviors, but only in the case that the knowledge is specific with regard to IT protection courses. Results, implications, and recommendations for effective cyber security training programs for organizations and academic institutions are presented and discussed.