Awareness and acceptance analysis of information security policy

Abstract

Today the Armed Forces around the world face a fast and radical change towards digitalisation. This is including Malaysian Armed Forces. Therefore it is essential for the Malaysian Armed Forces to safeguard their information from been accessed by unauthorised personnel. One of the most significant information security controls is information security policy. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the level of awareness and acceptance of the Malaysian Armed Forces Information Security Policy. The study has proposed a research model for the effectiveness of the policy. The components of the research model consist of management support, users’ acceptance, enforcement and revision. Interview and survey has been used to collect the data based on the model. The interview was conducted to investigate the status of the policy while the survey was conducted to evaluate the level of awareness and acceptance of the Malaysian Armed Forces Security Policy among the Armed Forces personnel. The respondents for this study involved the personnel of Information Technology Department of the Armed Forces namely Information Technology Department of Army, Information Technology Department of Navy and Information Technology Department of Air Force. The findings showed that the majority of the Armed Forces personnel are agreed that they are aware of the existence of the policy and exhibit agreement to the policy. A majority of the respondents agreed that the policy is effective and can assist the military to achieve their main role to protect the sovereignty of nation. This study would be useful for the management of the Armed Forces as well as the practitioner to develop and manage the information security policy.