Cyber security awareness for small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) in South Africa

Abstract

SMMEs are increasingly depending on IT to manage their business operations effectively. In South Africa, there is an increase of cyberattacks on organisations regardless of size and industry, although SMMEs are most impacted. Yet, SMMEs do not always pay attention to cyber security issues. The primary objective of this paper is to review, discover and update researchers about prior cyber security awareness (CSA) studies conducted in the context of South African SMMEs, which warrant future work. A second objective is to discover and analyse frameworks to identify building blocks for a CSA framework. Therefore, in order to respond to research questions, the literature was reviewed systematically. The evaluation shows the absence of previous studies on the topic. However, it was concluded that none of the identified frameworks can be utilised in an SMME context. In addition, ten common components of CSA were identified, that can be considered in future research.