Volume 11, Number 16, October 2021

System End-User Actions as aThreat to Information System Security

  Authors

Paulus Kautwima, Titus Haiduwa, Kundai Sai, Valerianus Hashiyana and Nalina Suresh, University of Namibia, Namibia

  Abstract

Information system security is of paramount importance to every institution that deals with digital information. Nowadays, efforts to address cybersecurity issues are mostly software or hardware-oriented. However, the most common types of cybersecurity breaches happen as a result of unintentional human errors also known as end user actions. Thus, this study aimed to identify the end-user errors and the resulting vulnerabilities that could affect the system security requirements, the CIA triad of information assets. The study further presents state-of-the-art countermeasures and intellectual ideas on how entities can protect themselves from advent events. Adopted is a mixed-method research approach to inform the study. A closed-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were used as data collection tools. The findings of this study revealed that system end user errors remain the biggest threat to information systems security. Indeed errors make information systems vulnerable to certain cybersecurity attacks and when exploited puts legitimate users at risk.

  Keywords

Information security, Information Systems, End-user errors.