Dear Cybersecurity Expert,

Thank you for your interest in this research study. I am a Ph.D. candidate in Information Systems at the College of Computing and Engineering, Nova Southeastern University. My dissertation is chaired by Dr. Yair Levy. This work is part of the Levy CyLab Projects (https://infosec.nova.edu/cylab/index.html). If you have any questions about this study or would like to know the results of this survey, please email me, Patricia Baker, at partbake@mynsu.nova.edu or Dr. Levy at levyy@nova.edu.

You are receiving this survey because you have been identified as a person involved with cybersecurity or information security. The goal of this research study is to design, develop, and validate a universal Cybersecurity Competency Framework (CCF) that includes a measure to determine the demonstrated cybersecurity knowledge and skills through The National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) Cybersecurity Workforce Framework (NCWF) as well as tasks of organizational users to identify their competency level. Organizational users are any employees who utilize computers in their day-to-day jobs.

You will be taking an anonymous survey for a two-phase Delphi method. The survey process will continue until a consensus is achieved. The survey will take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete. Your participation will contribute to the current literature on the subject of Cybersecurity Competency. This research study involves minimal risk to you. To the best of our knowledge, the things you will be doing have no more risk of harm than you would have in everyday life. You can decide not to participate in this research, and it will not be held against you. There is no cost for participation in this study. Participation is voluntary, and no payment will be provided.

Your responses are anonymous. Information we learn about you in this research study will be handled in a confidential manner, within the limits of the law, and in aggregated manner. Only the Principal investigator will have access to the raw data. The participant identifiable information will be excluded from this study. This data will be available to the researcher, the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and other representatives of this institution. All confidential data will be kept securely. Data will be securely stored on a device protected by password and disk encryption. 

If you have read the above information and voluntarily wish to participate in this research study, please click on this link here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScR-y-hoPpeZVr8l-axhIL67CCkc3RHICO7WD3GsPSAZCCi8Q/viewform?usp=sf_link

We appreciate your help.

Thank you for your consideration,

Patricia Baker, Ph.D. Candidate in Information Systems

College of Computing and Engineering

Nova Southeastern University