Date of Conferral

2022

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Management

Advisor

Danielle Wright-Babb

Abstract

The protection of individual privacy and personal data in cyberspace continues to be a problem. The research problem was that cybersecurity managers must constantly navigate between the adoption of new security laws, new applications, and the internet of things (IoT) to protect the privacy of individual users. The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of cybersecurity managers who have adopted new security laws, new applications, and the IoT to protect users’ privacy. The conceptual framework that grounded this study was protection motivation theory and cybersecurity awareness. Data were collected through telephone and web-based interviews with 16 purposefully selected cybersecurity managers. Thematic coding and categorization through NVivo software yielded themes about the protection of users’ privacy and their adoption. The five major themes that emerged from my analysis of data were data security laws and the protection of users’ privacy; new application by IoT affects users’ privacy protection; the security of IoT devices is essential for IoT adoption; zero-day vulnerability and users’ privacy protection; and continuous training is critical to cybersecurity awareness, privacy, and data protection. The findings of this study may have implications for positive social change by leading educational institutions to increase the knowledge of internet users, business managers to protect data and privacy, and governments to legislate appropriate laws to aid in the protection of personal data and individual users’ privacy in cyberspace.

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