Enhancing the SETA program with Mindfulness and Self-Efficacy

Abstract

The cyber threat landscape is constantly evolving. System vulnerabilities are identified and patched, digital defenses are strengthened, and policies are enforced. Still, the organization's most valuable resources, humans, are running their outdated operating systems without patching in sight. It is well proven that humans are the essential link in information security. With their humane feelings, emotions, thoughts, fears, hopes, and personal priorities, the users are more complicated to motivate, persuade, attract, and align with compliance than information systems. Mindfulness is a promising concept to assist users in pursuing more secure behavior and attitude, which proliferates in more secure organizations as a joint effort. Another promising strategy, developing self-efficacy, also appears to reinforce users' more secure behavior, thus complementing the benefits of mindfulness and contributing to the effectiveness of the security education, training, and awareness (SETA) program. However, incorporating the mentioned concepts with SETA programs needs to be researched further and with a broader scope. In this paper, future research is justified and motivated to discover and explore these promising approaches.