Relationships between socio-technological factors and information security threats and controls: perspectives from the global financial services industry

Abstract

Businesses operating in the global financial services industry (GFSI) know the importance of protecting information assets from ever-growing security threats and risks. This paper aims at shedding light on the relationships between selected contextual socio-technological factors, i.e., national transparency levels, ethical behaviour of firms, technological readiness, among others and information security threats and controls. Primarily, this study enriches the information provided in the 2012 Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL) security survey. Secondarily, this study contributed to the literature in the area. Namely, its findings partly supported the view suggesting that contextual factors such as national transparency levels, ethical behaviour of firms and technological readiness have positive relationships with information security threats and controls. This study also showed that such factors have effects on information security threats and controls. Practitioners and academicians can benefit from this study's insights.