Analysis of “Evaluation of Cybersecurity Culture and Awareness Scale (ECSCAS)” based on Polychotomous models of Item Response Theory (IRT)

Recently, many private companies and government organizations worldwide have been facing the problem of cyber-attacks and the risk of wireless communication technologies. Today’s world is highly dependent on electronic technology, and protecting this data against cyber-attacks is challenging. The goal of cyber-attacks is to harm companies financially, and in some cases, these attacks can have military or political goals. Therefore, the present research was conducted quantitatively to analyze the evaluation of cybersecurity culture and awareness scale in 2022 among the employees of the country bank. The statistical sample was 841 employees of bank branches. The research instrument was the Evaluation of Cybersecurity Culture and Awareness scale (2022), and the GRM model (common model in IRT for polychotomous data analysis) was used to analyze the data. The findings showed that all 34 items in this scale have a discriminative index, awareness index, and appropriate ability level in the target sample. Also, the highest level of awareness was between +1 and +2, and the maximum total awareness was equal to 70, which showed the desirability of the entire scale level. Examining the status of bank employees in relation to the culture and awareness of cybersecurity also showed that the status of bank employees is suitable in all 6 effective factors in promoting the culture and awareness of cybersecurity. Therefore, by using this tool, it is possible to measure the level of cybersecurity culture and awareness. In line with that, the necessary training and strategies can be carried out to improve and upgrade the existing situation in public and private organizations.