Development of Information Security Awareness Scale (ISAS) for Secondary Education Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop an “information security awareness scale” for secondary
education students to determine their level of information security awareness. The study was conducted with
607 secondary education students in various secondary education institutions. In the first phase of the study,
exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted with 407 participating students. As a result of the EFA, it was
determined that the scale consists of 36 items and 3 subscales (‘attacks and threats: At’, ‘privacy: Pr’ and ‘the
protection of personal data: Ppd’). In the second phase of the study, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was
conducted with 200 participating students. Three-factor structure was confirmed. Cronbach's Alpha reliability
coefficient is .955 for the entire scale; and At:.954, Pr:.890 and Ppd:.808, respectively, for each subscale.
Consequently, a valid and reliable scale that can be used to determine the level of information security
awareness of secondary education students has been developed. In addition, as a result of the analyzes carried
out with the scale, a significant difference has been determined between information security awareness and
gender of the students