Assessing the cybersecurity awareness level of undergradute students at Makerere University

Abstract

The constant development of technology and increase in internet connectivity have made access to information become easier. However, people becoming endlessly connected especially students have created new opportunities for cybercrimes such as phishing attacks, zeroday attacks, cyberbullying etc. and those cyber-attacks have made cybersecurity awareness an urgent matter. This study focuses on assessing the cybersecurity awareness level of undergraduate students at Makerere University because in most cases students engage in digital misconduct due to lack of awareness on cybersecurity. The study used a sample of 400 students from nine colleges and the school of law as the tenth at Makerere University. Data was collected using questionnaire and data was collected using convenience sampling technique. Quantitative analysis was done using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). And IBM SPSS Statistics was used during data analysis. Different statistical test were conducted, where Cronbach’s Alpha technique was used to do the reliability test, Pearson correlation coefficient technique was used to do the validity test and to test the correlation and homogeneity between variables, the Bartlett’s test and the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) test were conducted. Awareness was assessed using three variables as dimensions: knowledge (what does a person know), attitude (how do they feel about the topic) and behavior (what do they do). The results found showed that the level of awareness is 67.4% which falls under the average or satisfactory criteria which means that action is potentially required. Those dimensions were assessed on six focus areas: (a) password security, (b) cyberbullying, (c) phishing, (d) malware, (e) identity theft, (f) downloading, sharing, and use of pirated content. In the end the research presents recommendations based on the data collected to tackle the problem