Towards a Cybersecurity Culture Framework: a Literature Review of Awareness and Behavioral Transformation in Telecommunications Organizations

EasyChair Preprint 15791

Abstract

This paper explores the theoretical and strategic foundations for cultivating a cybersecurity culture within telecommunications institutions. Drawing on established behavioral theories — Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), Protection Motivation Theory (PMT), Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)—it examines the opportunities for enhancing cybersecurity awareness and transforming employee behaviors into a resilient human firewall. The paper synthesizes existing literature to highlight the role of leadership, employee engagement, training, collaboration, and recognition in fostering a cybersecurity culture. The review further identifies gaps and limitations in the current approaches, proposing a conceptual foundation for developing an effective cybersecurity culture framework tailored to telecommunications institutions. Appropriate cybersecurity culture is essential in developing the entity and helps protect organizational assets such as data, networks, and systems when technical defenses are quite significant. The underlying framework that incorporates aspects like the Social Cognitive Theory, Protection Motivation Theory, Theory of Planned Behaviours, and Technology Acceptance Model. It outlines top management commitment, employee engagement, continuous training, and interdepartmental collaboration as those aspects that would help in creating a cybersecurity culture. The proposed framework for implementation has certain critical challenges to overcome, which are obstacles to change, resource constraints, and regulatory barriers.

Keyphrases: Cyber Threats, Cybersecurity Framework, Cybersecurity Training, Telecommunications, cybersecurity awareness, cybersecurity culture, cybersecurity policy, organization culture

@booklet{EasyChair:15791,
  author    = {Esther Endjala and Hanifa Abdullah and Mathias Mujinga},
  title     = {Towards a Cybersecurity Culture Framework: a Literature Review of Awareness and Behavioral Transformation in Telecommunications Organizations},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 15791},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2025}}