Employees’ protection motivation for enhancing cyber security protective behaviour

In today’s digital age, data and information are stored, used and processed online and in digital platforms. This results in creating tremendous challenges for corporation as well as individuals to ensure data and information are well protected to avoid any data breaches and cyber-attacks. This study focused on the managers’ skills, protection motivation, countermeasure awareness in shaping cyber security protective behaviour among employees in the public sector corporations within the context of UAE. It proposes that Protection Motivation is driven by procedural information security countermeasures awareness (PCM) which also direct the cyber security protective behaviour (CPB). Further, the manager’s Information Security Intelligence Skills (MISI) plays a crucial role towards CPB and PCM. To achieve this, the research followed quantitative cross-sectional and probability sampling to collect data from 520 employees and managers, and Partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) for data analysis and hypothesis testing. The study finds that perceived threat susceptibility, self-efficacy, information security problem-solving, and social competence significantly affect cyber security protective behaviour. Additionally, managers' information security intelligence positively influences countermeasure awareness, which in turn affects cyber security protection motivation. Finally, attitude moderates the relationship between self-efficacy and cyber security protective behaviour. These findings offer valuable insights for organizations to enhance their cyber security practices and mitigate risks. The results are discussed, based on which, recommendations and implication are drawn at the end.