Information Systems Security Policies Research Articles

Examining the impact of deterrence factors and norms on resistance to Information Systems Security

Numerous studies have found that employees are the principal source of adverse Information Systems Security (ISS) incidents in organizational settings. Consequently, the ISS research focuses on examining factors that affect employees' behaviour towards complying with ISS policy. Most of this research, based on the theory of reasoned action, considers that employees' intention to comply with ISS policies is a good predictor of their behaviour. This paper argues that the employees' compliance with ISS policies within organizations is usually enforced, and that the non-compliance is mainly due to the resistance towards these policies. This research examines the role of organizational punishment and organizational norms in impacting employees' resistance towards the ISS policies. The data were collected from 133 employees of 10 organizations spanning four industries and the hypotheses were tested and validated using PLS-SEM analytical procedures. The results show that moral and descriptive norms are useful in reducing the resistance.

Information System Security Policy Studies as a Form of Company Privacy Protection

Information System Security Policy Studies as a Form of Company Privacy Protection

Risk Analysis of Information System Security Based on Distance of Information-State Transition

The configuration of information system security policy is directly related to the information asset risk, and the configuration required by the classified security protection is able to ensure the optimal and minimum policy in the corresponding security level. Through the random survey on the information assets of multiple departments, this paper proposes the relative deviation distance of security policy configuration as risk measure parameter based on the distance of information-state transition (DIT) theory. By quantitatively analyzing the information asset weight, deviation degree and DIT, we establish the evaluation model for information system. With example analysis, the results prove that this method conducts effective risk evaluation on the information system intuitively and reliably, avoids the threat caused by subjective measurement, and shows performance benefits compared with existing solutions. It is not only theoretically but also practically feasible to realize the scientific analysis of security risk for the information system.

КОНЦЕПЦИЯ ОРГАНИЗАЦИОННОГО ПОСТРОЕНИЯ ЗАЩИЩЕННОЙ ИНФОРМАЦИОННОЙ СИСТЕМЫ ТОРГОВОГО ПРЕДПРИЯТИЯ

The article discusses the concept of organizational formation of the protected information system of a commercial enterprise. The content and classification of information resources, subject to the characteristics of the trading activities, information about customers, employees, communicative, general, financial and legal data have been given; the level of importance has been revealed. The basic principles of creating the protected information system in terms of specificity of a commercial enterprise (continuity, integrity, systemacy, legitimacy) have been formulated. Taking into account the specified principles, the thematic content of requirements to the protected information system has been determined: centralization, planning, preciseness, purposefulness, activity, reliability, flexibility, originality, openness, economic efficiency. There are given recommendations to building a secure information system, which include easy maintenance and transparency for users of the mechanisms of the information system protection; a minimum set of privileges for users; ability to disable the security mechanisms of information system in the critical circumstances; independence of protection mechanisms from the information system; assumptions about the worst intentions and potential users’ errors; minimization of information about existing mechanisms of information system protection. It has been determined that the information system protection includes two components: organizational and administrative (including the internal documents regulating the issues of protection) and technical (including the subsystems of anti-virus protection, back up and archiving, email security, intrusion detection, protection of data transmission channels, identification and authentication of users); their functional purpose being analyzed. The purpose and content of security policy of information system were determined as a theoretical basis of organizational and administrative components of the protection system. It has been inferred about the universality of the presented method providing secure communication for the users of a business.

Roles of Organizational Climate, Social Bonds, and Perceptions of Security Threats on IS Security Policy Compliance Intentions

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Review of IS Security Policy Compliance

An understanding of insider threats in information systems (IS) is important to help address one of the dangers lurking within organizations. This article provides a review of the literature on insider compliance (and failure of compliance) with information systems' policies in order to understand the status of IS research regarding negligent and malicious insiders. We begin by defining the terms, developing a new taxonomy of insiders, and then providing a comprehensive review of articles on IS policy compliance for the past 26 years. Grounding the analysis in the literature, we inductively identify four themes to foster Information Security policy compliance among employees. The themes are: 1) IS management philosophy, 2) procedural countermeasures, 3) technical countermeasures, and 4) environmental countermeasures. We propose that future research can draw upon these themes and use them as the building blocks of an indigenous IS security theory.

Indirect effect of management support on users' compliance behaviour towards information security policies.

Health information systems are innovative products designed to improve the delivery of effective healthcare, but they are also vulnerable to breaches of information security, including unauthorised access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification or destruction, and duplication of passwords. Greater openness and multi-connectedness between heterogeneous stakeholders within health networks increase the security risk. The focus of this research was on the indirect effects of management support (MS) on user compliance behaviour (UCB) towards information security policies (ISPs) among health professionals in selected Malaysian public hospitals. The aim was to identify significant factors and provide a clearer understanding of the nature of compliance behaviour in the health sector environment. Using a survey design and stratified random sampling method, self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 454 healthcare professionals in three hospitals. Drawing on theories of planned behaviour, perceived behavioural control (self-efficacy (SE) and MS components) and the trust factor, an information system security policies compliance model was developed to test three related constructs (MS, SE and perceived trust (PT)) and their relationship to UCB towards ISPs. Results showed a 52.8% variation in UCB through significant factors. Partial least squares structural equation modelling demonstrated that all factors were significant and that MS had an indirect effect on UCB through both PT and SE among respondents to this study. The research model based on the theory of planned behaviour in combination with other human and organisational factors has made a useful contribution towards explaining compliance behaviour in relation to organisational ISPs, with trust being the most significant factor. In adopting a multidimensional approach to management-user interactions via multidisciplinary concepts and theories to evaluate the association between the integrated management-user values and the nature of compliance towards ISPs among selected health professionals, this study has made a unique contribution to the literature.

Understanding Internal Information Systems Security Policy Violations as Paradoxes

Aim/Purpose: Violations of Information Systems (IS) security policies continue to generate great anxiety amongst many organizations that use information systems, partly because these violations are carried out by internal employees. This article addresses IS security policy violations in organizational settings, and conceptualizes and problematizes IS security violations by employees of organizations from a paradox perspective. Background: The paradox is that internal employees are increasingly being perceived as more of a threat to the security of organizational systems than outsiders. The notion of paradox is exemplified in four organizational contexts of belonging paradox, learning paradox, organizing paradox and performing paradox. Methodology : A qualitative conceptual framework exemplifying how IS security violations occur as paradoxes in context to these four areas is presented at the end of this article. Contribution: The article contributes to IS security management practice and suggests how IS security managers should be positioned to understand violations in light of this paradox perspective. Findings: The employee generally in the process of carrying out ordinary activities using computing technology exemplifies unique tensions (or paradoxes in belonging, learning, organizing and performing) and these tensions would generally tend to lead to policy violations when an imbalance occurs. Recommendations for Practitioners: IS security managers must be sensitive to employees tensions. Future Research: A quantitative study, where statistical analysis could be applied to generalize findings, could be useful.

Information systems security policy implementation in practice: from best practices to situated practices

Organizations face institutional pressure to adopt information systems security (ISS) best practices to manage risks to their information assets. The literature shows that best practices should be contextualized, that is, translated from universal and general prescriptions into organizational documents and practices. Yet, little is known about how organizations actually make the translation from the best practices into situated practices. In this ethnographic study, we draw on practice theory and related concepts of canonical and non-canonical practices to analyze the process of translation. We explore how an IT service provider translated the ISS best practice of information classification into an ISS policy and into situated practices. We identify three translation mechanisms: (1) translating global to local, (2) disrupting and reconstructing local non-canonical practices, and (3) reconstructing and enacting local canonical practices. We find that while the translation was inhibited by incongruent practices, insufficient understanding of employees’ work, and the ISS managers’ lack of engagement in organizational practices, allowing situated practices to shape the ISS policy and actively engaging employees in the reconstruction of situated practices contributed positively to the translation. Contributions and implications for research and practice are discussed and conclusions are drawn.

Examining employee computer abuse intentions: insights from justice, deterrence and neutralization perspectives

AbstractAlthough employee computer abuse is a costly and significant problem for firms, the existing academic literature regarding this issue is limited. To address this gap, we apply a multi‐theoretical model to explain employees' intentions to abuse computers. To understand the motives for such behaviour, we investigate the role of two forms of organizational justice – distributive and procedural – both of which provide explanations of how perceptions of unfairness are created in the organizational context. By applying deterrence theory, we also examine the extent to which formal sanctions influence and moderate the intentions to abuse computers. Finally, we examine how the potential motives for abuse may be moderated by techniques of neutralization, which allow offenders to justify their actions and absolve themselves of any associated feelings of guilt and shame. Utilizing the scenario‐based factorial survey method for our experimental design, we empirically evaluated the association between these antecedents and the behavioural intention to violate Information systems (IS) security policies in an environment where the measurement of actual behaviour would be impossible. Our findings suggest that individual employees may form intentions to commit computer abuse if they perceive the presence of procedural injustice and that techniques of neutralization and certainty of sanctions moderate this influence. The implications of these findings for research and practice are presented. © 2016 John Wiley &amp; Sons Ltd

Adoption of an information systems security policy in small and medium sized enterprises

Information Systems Security (ISS) is a relevant fact for current organizations. This paper focuses on Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). This article aims to constitute an empirical study on the applicability of the Action Research (AR) method in information systems, more specifically by assessing the adoption of an ISS policy in six SMEs, and identifying the critical success factors in adopting an ISS policy. The research question we intend to answer is to what extent this research method is adequate to reach the proposed goal. The results of the study suggest that AR is a promising means for the evaluation of ISS policies adoption. It can both act as a research method that improves the understanding about the reasons why the policy has been abandoned, and as a change method, assisting practitioners to overcome barriers and suggesting measures to be implemented.

Critical Times for Organizations: What Should Be Done to Curb Workers’ Noncompliance With IS Security Policy Guidelines?

ABSTRACTThis study was designed to examine the impacts of employees’ cost–benefit analysis, deterrence considerations, and top management support and beliefs on information systems security policy compliance. Surveys of Canadian professionals’ perceptions were carried out. A research model was proposed and tested. The results confirmed that top management support and beliefs, sanction severity, and cost–benefit analysis significantly influenced employees’ information systems security policy compliance. The implications of the study findings are discussed, and conclusions are drawn.

Information Systems Security Policy Compliance

The article describes research conducted to assess and address some key security issues surrounding the use of information technology from employee behavioral standpoint. The aim of the study was to determine additional security measures to reduce security incidents and maximize effective use of information systems. The research is an extension of several recent empirical studies in information systems security policy behavioral compliance, which have generally found people to be a weak link in information security. A mix of theoretical frameworks resulted in a model based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), which was used to test the impact that management and employee relationship has on deterrence. Results indicate that management has a significant stake in influencing the behavior of their employees, and that the issue of employee disgruntlement nevertheless is not paramount of top management's Information systems security challenges.

Disassociations in Security Policy Lifecycles

Continued high profile security breaches indicate that Information Systems Security remains a significant problem within organizations. The authors argue that one of the major contributors to this ongoing problem is a disconnect between security policy formulation and implementation. This disconnect can lead to a failure of policy. This paper is aimed at understanding the disconnect by analyzing the meanings that are attributed to policy formulation and implementation by the stakeholders involved in the process. A case study was carried out and a “snapshot in time” of the lifecycle of IS Security Policy formulation at the organization under study demonstrated that a disconnect is evident between these two sides of security policy.

Validation of IS Security Policies Featuring Authorisation Constraints

Designing a security policy for an information system (IS) is a non-trivial task. Variants of the RBAC model can be used to express such policies as access-control rules associated to constraints. In this paper, we advocate that currently available tools do not take sufficiently into account the functional description of the application and its impact on authorisation constraints and dynamic aspects of security. The authors suggest translating both security and functional models into a formal language, such as B, whose analysis and animation tools will help validate a larger set of security scenarios. The authors describe how various kinds of constraints can be expressed and animated in this context. The authors also present a tool support which performs this translation and report on a case study where animation and testing techniques were used to validate the security policy of a medical emergency information system.

Exploring the Effect of Knowledge Transfer Practices on User Compliance to IS Security Practices

Institutions of higher education capture, store and disseminate information that is protected by state and federal regulations. As a result, IS security policies are developed and implemented to ensure end user compliance. This case study investigates end user knowledge of their university's IS security policy and proposes a new approach to improve end user compliance. The results of this study suggest that users may be contributors to the transfer of IS security policies when provided with an opportunity to participate in the development of an IS security awareness and training program.

An integrative behavioral model of information security policy compliance.

The authors found the behavioral factors that influence the organization members' compliance with the information security policy in organizations on the basis of neutralization theory, Theory of planned behavior, and protection motivation theory. Depending on the theory of planned behavior, members' attitudes towards compliance, as well as normative belief and self-efficacy, were believed to determine the intention to comply with the information security policy. Neutralization theory, a prominent theory in criminology, could be expected to provide the explanation for information system security policy violations. Based on the protection motivation theory, it was inferred that the expected efficacy could have an impact on intentions of compliance. By the above logical reasoning, the integrative behavioral model and eight hypotheses could be derived. Data were collected by conducting a survey; 194 out of 207 questionnaires were available. The test of the causal model was conducted by PLS. The reliability, validity, and model fit were found to be statistically significant. The results of the hypotheses tests showed that seven of the eight hypotheses were acceptable. The theoretical implications of this study are as follows: (1) the study is expected to play a role of the baseline for future research about organization members' compliance with the information security policy, (2) the study attempted an interdisciplinary approach by combining psychology and information system security research, and (3) the study suggested concrete operational definitions of influencing factors for information security policy compliance through a comprehensive theoretical review. Also, the study has some practical implications. First, it can provide the guideline to support the successful execution of the strategic establishment for the implement of information system security policies in organizations. Second, it proves that the need of education and training programs suppressing members' neutralization intention to violate information security policy should be emphasized.

Towards ontological approach to eliciting risk-based security requirements

Security requirements managers aim at eliciting, reusing and keeping their sets of requirements. They desire well defined, consistent and up to date requirements throughout the system lifecycle. This paper presents security ontology (SO) which can be used as a basis for eliciting risk-based security requirements. The ontology is based on the security relationship model described in the national institute of standards and technology special publication 800-12 but use-misuse case concepts and some extensions were used. We extended use case with some elements (action and object) to facilitate information system (IS) security policy instantiation after the system has been deployed. We incorporated risk and privilege concepts in order to represent risk knowledge in an unambiguous way and to enable ontology control security issues respectively. This ontology enriches the modelling and management of risk-based safeguard requirements within the requirements engineering discipline by organising the security knowledge to form heavy weight ontology which include concepts, concept taxonomies, relationships, properties, axioms and constraints. This ontology provides capabilities such as IS security management, traceability and reuse. OWL protege 3.3.1 editor was used for the ontology coding. The results of its adoption in capturing safeguard requirements of healthcare IS were also discussed.

Information systems security policy compliance: An empirical study of the effects of socialisation, influence, and cognition

This study investigated employees’ information systems security policy (ISSP) compliance behavioural intentions in organisations from the theoretical lenses of social bonding, social influence, and cognitive processing. Given that previous research on ISSP compliance has been based on deterrence theory, this study seeks to augment and diversify research on ISSP compliance through its theoretical perspective. Relevant hypotheses were developed to test the research conceptualisation. Data from a survey of business managers and IS professionals confirmed that social bonds that are formed at work largely influence attitudes towards compliance and subjective norms, with both constructs positively affecting employees’ ISSP compliance. Employees’ locus of control and capabilities and competence related to IS security issues also affect ISSP compliance behavioural intentions. Overall, the constructs in the research model enhance our understanding of the social-organisational and psychological factors that might encourage or accentuate employees’ ISSP compliance in the workplace.

Understanding the violation of IS security policy in organizations: An integrated model based on social control and deterrence theory

It is widely agreed that a large amount of information systems (IS) security incidents occur in the workplace because employees subvert existing IS Security Policy (ISSP). In order to understand the factors that constrain employees from deviance and violation of the organizational ISSP, past work has traditionally viewed this issue through the lens of formal deterrence mechanisms; we postulated that we could better explain employees' ISSP violation behaviours through considering both formal and informal control factors as well as through considering existing deterrence theory. We therefore developed a theoretical model based on both deterrence and social bond theories rooted in a social control perspective to better understand employee behaviour in this context. The model is validated using survey data of 185 employees. Our empirical results highlight that both formal and informal controls have a significant effect on employees' ISSP violation intentions. To be specific, employees' social bonding is found to have mixed impacts on the employee's intention to violate ISSP. Social pressures exerted by subjective norms and co-worker behaviours also significantly influence employees' ISSP violation intentions. In analyzing the formal sanctions, the perceived severity of sanctions was found to be significant while, perceived certainty of those sanctions was not. We discuss the key implications of our findings for managers and researchers and the implications for professional practice.