The Influence of Human Factors in Ensuring Cybersecurity in Organizations: Effectiveness of PDPA and GDPR Implementation

Modern organizations face rising levels of cyber risks, making cybersecurity a top priority for safeguarding sensitive data and maintaining operational continuity. Recent studies find human factors as the most critical contributors to cyber risks. These human-related risks include user misuse, user mistakes, and user malice. A large proportion of cyber risks arise when hackers use social engineering or phishing techniques to manipulate employees into disclosing confidential information. While some employees knowingly engage in these actions, some incidents occur accidentally due to a lack of awareness about cybersecurity protocols. As a result, governments around the world are enacting data protection legislation aimed at enhancing employees' cyber risk. This study explores the perception of US employees on the effectiveness of data protection legislation in countering cyber threats. It surveyed 30 randomly selected employees from various industries. The results showed that employees perceive data protection legislation as effective in mitigating employeerelated cyber risks.