A look at narcissist traits, cybersecurity awareness, and breach costs: a study addressing students and professionals from the accounting field

Objective: To analyze the influence of cybersecurity awareness and narcissistic personality traits on breach cost awareness. Method: Descriptive research with a quantitative approach. Data were collected through a survey of two samples: 262 accounting students and 166 accounting professionals. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were applied. Results: Both students and professionals struggled with classifying breach costs and reporting them in financial statements. Cybersecurity awareness enabled professionals to understand the impacts of these costs better and feel more confident in their classification. Among students with stronger narcissistic traits, overconfidence led to reports of greater cybersecurity awareness; however, they failed to acknowledge their difficulties in classifying and reporting these costs. Professionals exhibited higher narcissistic scores and demonstrated greater knowledge in reporting breach costs in financial statements. Contributions: The findings contribute to the literature, as empirical evidence on this topic remains limited, and offer practical implications for the professional field. They encourage reflection among companies and accounting education institutions on the need to develop specialized courses and content on cybersecurity, equipping accountants and aspiring accountants to recognize the financial impacts of cyberattacks.