Organizational information security and seniors: Aspects for risk mitigation

Abstract

The research aimed to identify risk factors for information security (IS) arising from habits and characteristics of elderly employees in organizations, since the IS pillars confidentiality, integrity and availability need to be balanced. The quantitative characteristics work was carried out at EMDAGRO-SE, organization that has more than 60% of its employees aged over 55 years old. The data was collected through a questionnaire, consultations to the organization’s internal records related to  information security incidents and through the participant observation strategy. Thus, the data was treated by descriptive statistics, and was verified that the older users of the organization presented insecure behaviors more often than younger people, such as less frequent search for knowledge about IS, ignorance about phishing, reduced use of backup, difficulties in password management and less practice in the use of devices connected to the internet.