Abstract:

At a time when online teaching and remote work have become common even for lecturers, it is even more imperative than ever before to be aware of the potential dangers in the cyber environment. Lecturers at the Zagreb University of Applied Sciences (TVZ) are experts from different fields within five different study programs, but they all have something in common: they use various digital tools and, from time to time, participate in an online teaching environment in the process of preparation and maintenance of their classes. Therefore, all of them should be sufficiently aware of the potential dangers in the cyber environment to familiarize their students with their proper mitigation. Our last year made research on cybersecurity awareness (CSA index) among students at Zagreb University of Applied Sciences (TVZ) showed their good level of CSA index. This new research has been launched as a continuation of the interest in this current topic, but this time with a focus on lecturers and their level of cybersecurity awareness. This paper provides an overview not only of the level of cybersecurity awareness (CSA index) of lecturers at TVZ and their specifics as well as their plans to include the most important topics of cybersecurity in existing classes. Obtained results are little bit disappointing because it is expected that lecturers of applied sciences have a much greater interest in new and upcoming technologies as well as more pronounced know-how on cybersecurity topics than is indicated by the confirmed difference in CSA index between lecturers (74,66) and their students (69,19). As expected, earlier experience with any form of cybercrime among lecturers results also with a higher level of cybersecurity awareness but not necessarily a greater personal interest in further cybersecurity education. Lecturers who cover fields that are closely related to computer science, computing, and digital forensics are more willing to incorporate cybersecurity topics into their existing courses than their colleagues who are teaching in other fields. All these findings show that TVZ should start to develop and implement regular educational activities related to cybersecurity topics for all their lecturers as soon as possible. That could be influence on raising awareness of important cybersecurity topics not only among lecturers but also indirectly among their students.

Keywords:

CSA, cybersecurity, cybersecurity awareness, faculty lecturers.