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Investigating students’ awareness of online privacy and cybersecurity: an empirical study with effective cybersecurity training framework

Rahat Uddin Azad, Sabiha Tasmim, Md. Atikuzzaman

Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication

ISSN: 2514-9342

Article publication date: 29 January 2025

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Abstract

Purpose

The main purpose of this study is to assess the level of cybersecurity and social media privacy awareness among college students in Bangladesh and propose a scalable cybersecurity training framework to promote safe online practices.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used a structured, printed questionnaire survey to collect data from the students of five renowned colleges from the southern part of Bangladesh. Stratified sampling technique was followed and a total of 353 data were collected. Collected data were analyzed using SPSS and Python programming languages.

Findings

The findings uncovered that most of the students possessed limited knowledge regarding fundamental cybersecurity concepts, though they were using different social media platforms and posting personal information frequently. The study found a significant positive relationship between students’ sharing of personal information on social media and becoming a victim of cybersecurity attacks. Contrarily, becoming a victim of a cybersecurity attack was negatively correlated with their ability to respond in case of cyberattacks. However, most of the students were interested in acquiring knowledge of cybersecurity. Based on these findings, the study proposed a game-based cybersecurity training framework for students named “CyberSAFE”.

Originality/value

Though several studies have proposed different cybersecurity frameworks in different contexts, this study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, is the first attempt to explore college students’ cybersecurity knowledge and propose a game-based framework in a developing country setting.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Conflict of interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Citation

Azad, R.U., Tasmim, S. and Atikuzzaman, M. (2025), "Investigating students’ awareness of online privacy and cybersecurity: an empirical study with effective cybersecurity training framework", Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/GKMC-05-2024-0319

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2025, Emerald Publishing Limited

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