Open Access Research Article
CYBERCRIME AWARENESS AMONG STUDENTS IN RAMANATHAPURAM: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF KNOWLEDGE, DIGITAL SAFETY AND REPORTING AWARENESS
Abstract
The internet economy and digital service industry have opened up
social and learning opportunities as well as digital vulnerabilities to
cyber-enabled crime. Students are active users of digital services and host and
participate in social media and digital commerce, but frequent use of
technology does not necessarily mean that they can recognize cybercrime and
know how to respond. This study reports on self-assessed levels of cybercrime
awareness; knowledge about, and recognition of, information pertaining to
official reporting channels among a sample of students and young people using
structured google forms with ten key questions uploaded as a dataset containing
52 responses, covering gender, age/education group, location, awareness of the
term cybercrime, recognition of examples, awareness of risk from
OTPs/PINs/passwords, awareness of risky links, awareness of the National Cyber
Crime Reporting Portal and helpline 1930, knowledge of where, when and how to
report cybercrime, and self-rated level of awareness in the last three. The
study is based on a quantitative, cross-sectional and descriptive research
design. Responses are described as frequencies and percentages, whereas
interesting associations between grouped awareness ratings and respondent
gender, location and age/education category are explored through chi-square
test of independence. 42 (80.8%) respondents knew about cybercrime; 45 (86.5%)
knew about the risks associated with sharing authentication details; 43 (82.7%)
knew about the risks associated with clicking links from unknown sources; 14
(26.9%) knew about both the portal and helpline 1930; 26 (50.0%) knew about
neither; only 17 (32.7%) knew about the portal, helpline 1930 and where, when and
how to report cybercrime; and a majority (50%) self-rated as having moderate
awareness, while 17 (32.7%) self-rated as having low or very low awareness.
Self-assessed awareness ratings were not associated with respondent location,
gender or age/education group in the chi-square test of independence; however,
the lack of understanding of where, when and how to report, combined with the
high number of moderate self-rated respondents, requires interpretation.
Moreover, small expected cell sizes and the cross-sectional nature of the data
collected requires caution. The data suggest that some people are aware of
cybercrime and have some knowledge on how to prevent it without knowing how to
report it; a larger, more well-defined sample with objective measures of
knowledge is recommended.
Published Paper
Author Details
Authors: THOWFIK AHAMEDRegistration ID: 1013508 | Published Paper ID: IJLRA13508Approved ISSN: 2582-6433 | Country: Delhi, India
Article Information
CYBERCRIME AWARENESS AMONG STUDENTS IN RAMANATHAPURAM: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF KNOWLEDGE, DIGITAL SAFETY AND REPORTING AWARENESS
Authors: THOWFIK AHAMED
- Journal IJLRA
- ISSN 2582-6433
- Volume 3
- Issue 7
About Journal
International Journal for Legal Research and Analysis
- AbbreviationIJLRA
- ISSN2582-6433
- AccessOpen Access
- LicenseCC 4.0
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