Date of Award

12-2020

Type

Thesis

Major

Master of Cybersecurity Management

Department

TSYS School of Computer Science

First Advisor

Lydia Ray

Second Advisor

Radhouane Chouchane

Third Advisor

Lixin Wang

Abstract

While attending university, college students need to be aware of issues related to data privacy. Regardless of the age, gender, race, or education level of college students, every student can relate to the advancement of the internet within the last decades. The internet has completely transformed the way the world receives and stores messages. Positively, the internet allows messages to be sent across the globe within the fraction of a second and provides students with access to potentially unlimited information on a variety of subjects. On the downside, there are issues on the internet that can cause more harm than good. Most college students automatically think the internet is secure; however, the internet is full of loopholes that allow hackers to expose them on the internet and utilize them to exploit individuals for monetary gains. Within the last decade, there has been an enormous number of data breaches that have pinpointed the lack of awareness regarding data privacy. Do college students, who utilize the Internet for entertainment and education, know about the issue of data privacy on the Internet? In this thesis, I have proposed a modern method that carefully analyzes the data privacy level amongst college students. To ensure ultimate data privacy, we must initially create the awareness then analyze the awareness of data privacy. To adequately address the fundamental issues of data privacy, students will be respectfully asked to satisfactorily complete a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire will measure students' competence level regarding data privacy. The observational data will be utilized to uniquely determine if students are aware of the issues of data privacy or not. After further analysis, the data will be used to determine if there are unique characteristics that separates those who are aware from those who are not aware. The characteristics will be age, education, race, and exposure to computer related classes.

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