Balancing software and training requirements for information security

Abstract

Information security is one of the key areas of consideration to assure reliable and dependable information systems (IS). Achieving an appropriate level of IS security requires concurrent consideration of the technical aspects of IS and the human aspects related to the end users of IS. These aspects can be described in the form of information security requirements. We propose an approach that helps select and balance information security software requirements (iSSR) and information security training requirements (iSTR) according to the information security performance of end users. The approach was tested in an experiment involving 128 IS professionals. The results showed that using the proposed approach helps IS professionals with limited experience in information security make significantly better decisions regarding iSSR and iSTR.