Effects on employees' information security abilities by e‐learning

Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to measure and discuss the effects of an e‐learning tool aiming at improving the information security knowledge, awareness, and behaviour of employees. Design/methodology/approach – The intervention study has a pre‐ and post‐assessment of knowledge and attitudes among employees. In total, 1,897 employees responded to a survey before and after the intervention. The population is divided into an intervention group and a control group, where the only thing that separates the groups is participation in the intervention (i.e. the e‐learning tool). Findings – The study documents significant short‐time improvements in security knowledge, awareness, and behavior of members of the intervention group. Research limitations/implications – The study looks at short‐time effects of the intervention. The paper has done a follow‐up study of the long‐term effects, which is also submitted to Information Management more interventions studies, following the same principles as presented in this paper, of other user‐directed measures are needed, to test and document the effects of different measures. Originality/value – The paper is innovative in the area of information security research as it shows how the effects of an information security intervention can be measured.