Date of Conferral

9-24-2025

Degree

Doctor of Information Technology (D.I.T.)

School

Information Systems and Technology

Advisor

Constance Blanson

Abstract

Cyberloafing, or the use of business resources for nonwork-related internet activity, can negatively affect technology infrastructure and organizational productivity. In K–12 public school districts, IT administrators and school leaders are directly affected, as network degradation and ransomware attacks can disrupt instruction, compromise sensitive data, and reduce access to critical resources. This quantitative correlational, ex post facto study, grounded in activity theory and the theory of human-technology interaction, was to determine whether there was a statistically significant relationship between employee cyberloafing, network degradation, and ransomware security attacks in the education sector. Data were collected through public records requests for bandwidth usage, web traffic, and firewall alerts from next generation firewalls. The sample consisted of K-12 public school districts in one southeastern U.S. state, representing 67 districts and more than 4,2000 schools. Pearson correlation analysis indicated strong positive relationships between cyberloafing and network degradation (r = .69, p < .001) and ransomware activity (r = .72, p < .001), both representing large effect sizes under Cohen’s guidelines. Findings suggest that monitoring and managing cyberloafing can mitigate cybersecurity risks and performance issues in educational IT environments. A key recommendation is for district IT leaders to implement proactive policy enforcement and employee awareness training. The implications for positive social change include the potential for school IT leaders to implement policies that enhance network security, benefiting students and staff by ensuring safer and more reliable educational technology environments.

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