Development of cybercrime awareness scale (CAS): Validity and reliability study

Cybercrimes increase day by day based on cyber-attacks and threats. Due to such an increase, required security precautions against all kinds of cyber-attacks and threats should be taken by both individuals and organizations. This thesis aims to develop a valid and reliable measurement tool to be used in determining the cybercrime awareness level of individuals. Accordingly, a measurement tool named "cybercrime awareness scale" has been developed to determine the cybercrime awareness level of individuals and psychometric properties have been tested. The sample of this study consists of 994 undergraduate students studying at Tokat Gaziosmanpaşa University. The first study included a total of 500 respondents (294 female, 206 male). In the first study, factor structure of the scale has been tested with exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The EFA results revealed a three-factor structure, and the Cronbach alpha internal consistency coefficient of the total scale has been found as .97. The sample of the second study, consisted of 494 respondents (281 female and 213 male). In the second study, a confirmatory factor analysis was performed to investigate whether the three-factor structure (crimes in cyberspace, crimes against cyberspace and personal data, and privacy and security) has a good fit with the data or not. The results indicated that the developed measurement tool is a valid and reliable scale that can be used to measure individuals' cybercrime awareness level. Keywords: Cybercrime, Cybercrime Awareness Scale, Scale Development