Self-efficacy in cybersecurity tasks and its relationship with cybersecurity competition and work-related outcomes

Jian Ming Colin Wee, Masooda Bashir, Nasir Memon

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

Abstract

Research on cybersecurity competitions is still in its nascent state, and many questions remain unanswered, including how effective these competitions actually are at influencing career decisions and attracting a diverse participant base. The present research aims to address these questions through surveying a sample of ex-cybersecurity competition participants from New York University’s Cyber-Security Awareness Week (CSAW). 195 survey respondents reported on their self-esteem, general self-efficacy, and perceived efficacy in cybersecurity-related tasks, along with important competition- and career-related variables such as reasons for participating, competition performance, appeal and effectiveness of competitions, job satisfaction, and perceived organizational fit. Correlational analyses showed that confidence in cybersecurity-related tasks was positively related to interest in cybersecurity, performance within the competition, job satisfaction within a cybersecurity job, and perceived organizational fit within cybersecurity organizations. Specific self-efficacy was better at predicting competition performance than general self-efficacy or self-esteem, but was unrelated to participants’ positive image of competitions and whether or not the cybersecurity competitions influenced their career decisions. Instead, general self-efficacy was a better predictor of positive competition experience even more-so than performance within the competition. Overall, the results show that participants with self-confidence in their cybersecurity-relevant skills are more likely to do well in the competition and be satisfied when entering a cybersecurity career, but any participant with high general self-efficacy will likely still have a positive experience when participating in competitions.

Original languageEnglish (US)
StatePublished - 2016
Event2016 USENIX Workshop on Advances in Security Education, ASE 2016, co-located with the 25th USENIX Security Symposium - Austin, United States
Duration: Aug 9 2016 → …

Conference

Conference2016 USENIX Workshop on Advances in Security Education, ASE 2016, co-located with the 25th USENIX Security Symposium
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityAustin
Period8/9/16 → …

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Networks and Communications
  • Information Systems
  • Safety, Risk, Reliability and Quality

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