Cybercrime Challenges in Iraqi Academia: Creating Digital Awareness for Preventing Cybercrimes

The Iraqi academia and educational institutions are taking initiatives to consolidate their cyber security mechanism and build a healthy digital environment, and adapt to new methods of risk management. The current study was designed to evaluate the five independent variables: information security (IS), creative behavior (CB), cyber education (CE), cyber training (CT), Internet applications (IA) and one dependent variable, of digital awareness (DA). Out of the five independent variables, three belonged to institutional (IS, CE, & IA) and two were categorized as individual factors (CE & CT). All these five variables were examined to determine their impact on DA. The sample in this study comprised 140 academicians from three schools in East Iraq, selected through a simple random sampling method and snowballing technique. An online questionnaire of 25 items was built based on all variables and their indicators. The data was analyzed through descriptive data analysis methods, including parametric statistical tests, hypothesis testing and regression analysis, using the SPSS Ver 25. The EFA factor loadings, average variance extracted (AVE), Cronbach's alpha (alpha) as well as composite reliability (CR) were also used to assess the validity and reliability of the questionnaire items. The results of this study indicate that digital awareness has a direct positive effect on all other variables. Additionally, it is evident in this study that all activities converge into a comprehensive process to improve the digital awareness. The findings of this study imply that academic institutions in Iraq need to understand the significance of digital awareness and introduce new cybersecurity and information security programs in their curriculum and review and redesign the existing ones. Future studies may also explore the blended-learning methods to teach target groups and improve their knowledge about cybercrimes and their prevention.