This research aimed to develop and assess a framework for exploring how factors at the organizational, social, and individual levels influence cybersecurity behavior (CB), with a particular focus on the intermediary role played by awareness of cybersecurity. Participants in this investigation included 381 employees from various public sector entities, with data being gathered via a questionnaire. The analysis was conducted through SEM, specifically employing the PLS. Outputs from this study indicate that cybersecurity awareness (CA), security self-efficacy (SSE), the perceived threat severity, and the perceived vulnerability all positively and significantly impact CBs. Additionally, the research found that initiatives focused on security training and awareness, information security culture, social media influence, family and friends influence, and information systems knowledge all significantly contribute to enhancing CA. Similarly, these elements, alongside direct experience in information security, were shown to affec SSE, with the exception of the influence exerted by family and friends, which did not show a significant impact on it. Influences from social media, family and friends, and direct experiences with information security were also found to significantly affect the perceived severity of threats and perceived of vulnerability. Thus, this study concludes that the factors analyzed are strong indicators of behavior related to cybersecurity.
Nasiri et al. (2026) studied this question.