Article review

Controlling Cyber Crime through Information Security Compliance Behavior: Role of Cybersecurity Awareness, Organizational Culture and Trust in Management

Gary Hensley

Old Dominion University

CYSE201S Cybersecurity and the Social Sciences

Professor Matthew Umphlet

August 02, 2026

The article researched employees in a company and how cybersecurity awareness was influenced by culture and trust in management. This relates to some social science principles like sociology, psychology, and leadership. Because the human factor is often a weak point, sociology plays a role in social behavior between management and other workers. Psychology is also involved because it looks at why people think the way they do and what they feel. The article looked at employee engagement in organizational culture. Another social science principle is leadership; the article looked at the importance of organizational leadership in helping with good cybersecurity awareness.

The article looked at six hypotheses. It focused on organizational culture, cybersecurity awareness, employee engagement, and trust in upper management. How these each played a role with the other to affect security compliance behavior. Organizational culture has a significant influence on information security compliance behavior (Ghaleb & Pardae, 2025). Cybersecurity awareness has a significant influence on information security compliance behavior (Ghaleb & Pardae, 2025). Employee engagement significantly moderates the relationship of cybersecurity awareness and information security compliance behavior (Ghaleb & Pardae, 2025). Employee engagement significantly moderates the relationship of organizational culture and information security compliance behavior (Ghaleb & Pardae, 2025). Trust in upper management significantly mediates the relationship between cybersecurity awareness and information security compliance behavior (Ghaleb & Pardae, 2025). Trust in upper management significantly mediates the relationship between organizational culture and information security compliance behavior (Ghaleb & Pardae, 2025).

The research used a questionnaire of 261 employees in a production company. The questionnaires were handed out physically and digitally. The employees involved all had access to the company's digital systems. The measurement scales were from previously validated research studies. All employees were from different departments in the company. The questionnaire collected data on trust in management, organizational culture, cybersecurity awareness, information security compliance, and employee engagement (Ghaleb & Pardae, 2025). The researchers used structural equation modeling to interpret the data from the questionnaire results.

In class, we looked at many concepts of cybersecurity, and this article looked at a few topics. A big topic in the article was the human factor in cybersecurity in a company. If a company is not actively promoting cyber awareness, it can be missing a gap in its security. It is not just hardware and software security that keeps systems safe. Making cybersecurity a normal culture leads to normal behavior.  The article used a company and different departments. The idea of cyber hygiene culture helps when cyber awareness and training are sent to all, including employees with less access who may only use company email.

The contribution to society is that it shows that trust and human behavior can help your cybersecurity program. Building an organizational culture with trust in upper management can lead to more employee engagement. It shows the need to educate and build awareness programs. It shows that it is not just for IT to protect the system, but policies are needed, and it needs to be seen throughout the whole company from the top management down.

References

Ghaleb, A., & Pardae, W. (2025). Controlling cyber crime through information security compliance behavior: Role of cybersecurity awareness, organizational culture and trust in management. International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 19(1), 1-26.