Comparison of Password Hygiene for Computer Science and Non-Computer Science Undergraduates
Dalton Cravens, Cheryl L. Resch · 2023
In today’s digital world, it is imperative that the next generation of workers is prepared to be successful working online. Students graduating from a technology curriculum may be prepared for secure digital work due to the nature of their coursework, but students in non-technical fields will also require strong cybersecurity awareness as all professions continue to move more online. Adding cybersecurity education to non-technical fields may assist in this endeavor, but it is unclear the degree to which cybersecurity knowledge correlates with realized cybersecurity behavior. This paper describes an analysis of the results of a survey of 119 students in various fields of study at a large public university. Students’ cybersecurity knowledge and password hygiene were assessed, with password hygiene serving as an example of cybersecurity behavior. It was found that Computer Science (CS) students performed only marginally better than their non-CS counterparts on a general cybersecurity knowledge survey. However, the CS students’ password hygiene was significantly better. This suggests that some element other than just knowledge of cybersecurity topics is important in encouraging actual strong cybersecurity behavior among students.