Employee awareness model to enhance awareness of social engineering threats in the Saudi public sector

Abstract

The increase in social-engineering threats within the Saudi public sector has changed awareness and training methods. However, due to employees' lack of awareness, social engineering could lead to a breach whereby attackers identify vulnerabilities and subsequently launch their attacks. A social-engineering attack is a high risk to the Saudi public sector and may significantly affect its security measures. Thus, the benefits of adopting awareness-enhancement tools in the public sector are undeniable. This study proposes a conceptual awareness model designed to enhance employee awareness in the Saudi public sector to address this issue. This study reviews seven main factors of social engineering risk: phishing, baiting, pretexting, quid pro quo, tailgating, related security policies, and the ability to identify attacks and respond to threats. Additionally, this research examines one public sector actor in Saudi Arabia as a case study. The findings led to a model creation comprising of five components: a situation-awareness model for phishing, an information-security awareness tool, a power-knowledge-practice triangle, Saudi public sector follow-up metrics, and implementation phases. As a result, an a priori model was successfully developed, tested, and applied in the subsequent stage by the case study participants, the employees.