RAPID: Exploring the Cyber Behaviors of Temporary Work-From-Home (TWFH) Employees
- Funded by National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Total publications:0 publications
Grant number: unknown
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Key facts
Disease
COVID-19Start & end year
20202021Known Financial Commitments (USD)
$170,249Funder
National Science Foundation (NSF)Principal Investigator
Michael PoseyResearch Location
United States of AmericaLead Research Institution
The University of Central Florida Board of TrusteesResearch Priority Alignment
N/A
Research Category
Secondary impacts of disease, response & control measures
Research Subcategory
Economic impacts
Special Interest Tags
Data Management and Data Sharing
Study Type
Non-Clinical
Clinical Trial Details
N/A
Broad Policy Alignment
Pending
Age Group
Adults (18 and older)
Vulnerable Population
Unspecified
Occupations of Interest
Other
Abstract
Responses to the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) have led to a substantial number of employees working from home in an ad-hoc emergency fashion. This project examines the ramifications of temporary work-from-home environments for organizational cybersecurity. The project team is assessing organizational methods used to help secure temporary remote locations, examining the new workplace characteristics that employees encounter, and determining whether and how these factors influence the security of sensitive organizational data, information, and digital systems. Project findings will allow the research team to develop actionable recommendations to organizational leaders who rely on temporary, remote work locations for their employees in times of substantial uncertainty. This project will help guide the design and implementation of organizational cybersecurity policies, procedures, and other efforts relied upon during significant future crises?times when cybersecurity threats tend to be elevated and employees dispersed throughout numerous locations.
The research team is using a mixed methods approach to evaluate possible responses by employees to the unexpected work conditions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. These employees might exhibit increased resilience to cybersecurity risks due to the cooperative motivations that often follow disasters. On the other hand, stressors associated with working at home might lead employees to pay less attention to cybersecurity demands and to engage in shortcuts and workarounds. Thus, the project investigates the extent that organizational responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and the crisis lead individuals to protect their environments and their organizations from cybersecurity threats or by contrast to engage in behavior that constitutes threats to sensitive organizational assets and practices. In-depth semi-structured interviews and experience sampling assessments are performed using several samples of employees working at home. Daily surveys will be completed by a sample of participants over a two-week period to determine fluctuations in employee attitudes, emotions, and behaviors.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
The research team is using a mixed methods approach to evaluate possible responses by employees to the unexpected work conditions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. These employees might exhibit increased resilience to cybersecurity risks due to the cooperative motivations that often follow disasters. On the other hand, stressors associated with working at home might lead employees to pay less attention to cybersecurity demands and to engage in shortcuts and workarounds. Thus, the project investigates the extent that organizational responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and the crisis lead individuals to protect their environments and their organizations from cybersecurity threats or by contrast to engage in behavior that constitutes threats to sensitive organizational assets and practices. In-depth semi-structured interviews and experience sampling assessments are performed using several samples of employees working at home. Daily surveys will be completed by a sample of participants over a two-week period to determine fluctuations in employee attitudes, emotions, and behaviors.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.