Future directions for behavioral information security research

Information Security (InfoSec) research is far reaching and includes many approaches to deal with protecting and mitigating threats to the information assets and technical resources available within computer based systems. Although a predominant weakness in properly securing information assets is the individual user within an organization, much of the focus of extant security research is on technical issues. The purpose of this paper is to highlight future directions for Behavioral InfoSec research, which is a newer, growing area of research. The ensuing paper presents information about challenges currently faced and future directions that Behavioral InfoSec researchers should explore. These areas include separating insider deviant behavior from insider misbehavior, approaches to understanding hackers, improving information security compliance, cross-cultural Behavioral InfoSec research, and data collection and measurement issues in Behavioral InfoSec research. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.