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Introduction
Cybersecurity is currently a worldwide issue and concern. Within the USA, various views of cybersecurity appear to exist based upon a poll by Pew Research Center (Olmstead and Smith, 2017). Understanding views about cybersecurity is important if one wants to investigate the multiple viewpoints about cybersecurity within a classroom, a college major, a company, a set of faculty or any other targeted group. Revealing and describing these views allows for determining the best means of mediation of the ‘human factors’ that prevent individuals from exhibiting cybersecurity best practices. According to Kemper (2019), 90% of cyber security incidents are related to human error. Additionally, Kemper cited that individuals are often unaware of the urgency to conform to cybersecurity best practices. Thus, understanding cybersecurity viewpoints can reveal the need for training, changes in behavior and/or the potential for security breaches related to human factors. Furthermore, with knowledge of these viewpoints, specialized training/education can be developed to target the group’s conceptual misunderstanding related to cybersecurity and best practices. Cybersecurity best practices are necessary to prevent security breaches such as those seen locally and nationally including the City of Akron. This study is an expansion of an earlier study by the authors (Ramlo and Nicholas, 2019). The purpose of this study is to reveal and describe the divergent viewpoints about cybersecurity within a purposefully selected group of people with a range of expertise in relation to computer security. In this way, we examine the human factor in relation to cybersecurity. Thus, this study potentially offers a pretest for students and employees regarding their views of cybersecurity such that instruction can be customized to address these viewpoints and enable the acceptance of cybersecurity best practices.
To study and describe divergent views of personal cybersecurity, we used Q methodology [Q]. In this way, this study concerns assessing individuals’ perceptions related to personal cybersecurity behaviors rather than other areas of cybersecurity. For instance, we are not examining views in relation to an organization’s cybersecurity practices. Instead, we are interested in revealing divergent perspectives about cybersecurity will provide important information regarding curriculum and potential industry training opportunities. Additionally, the current study demonstrates how to use Q methodology [referred to as Q] to reveal and describe the divergent viewpoints concerning cybersecurity within a...