READINESS ASSESSMENT OF SAUDI NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS: TOWARD CYBERSECURITY AND DATA PROTECTION

Abstract

The increase in cyberattacks in recent years has negatively affected the overall performance of organizations worldwide, leaving them to face significant challenges in improving and strengthening their cybersecurity mechanisms. Non-profit organizations (NPOs) relied heavily on the use of information technology (IT) in their daily operations and strategic initiatives; thus, ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of sensitive information and the robustness of their systems and policies was crucial. Unfortunately, few studies analyzed the factors that affected the cybersecurity readiness of Saudi NPOs from a holistic point of view. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the readiness of Saudi NPOs in terms of cybersecurity and data protection by examining a comprehensive set of organizational, environmental, and technological factors. The findings of this study were also expected to reveal the positive effects of cybersecurity readiness on organizational performance. This study was likely to encourage governments and decision-makers to improve the cybersecurity readiness of NPOs by introducing cybersecurity initiatives involving security policy interventions, the use of secure resources, and alignment with security regulations. This study was expected to be generalizable to all types of organizations (e.g., profit, non-profit, governmental, non-governmental, etc.) in multiple countries.