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Abstract: This work represents a comprehensive and systematic literature review (SLR) that follows the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and MetaAnalyses) guidelines for research assessing information and cyber security maturity. The period from 2012 to 2024 was considered and the final collection of 96 studies was taken into account. Our findings were summarised in two stages, a quantitative analysis and a qualitative synthesis. In the first part, various quantitative indicators were used to analyse the evolution of the information and cyber security maturity assessment domain over the last twelve years. The qualitative synthesis, which was limited to 36 research papers, categorises the studies into three key areas: the development of new maturity models, the implementation of established models and frameworks, and the advancement of methodologies to support maturity assessments. The findings reveal significant progress in sector-specific customisation, the growing importance of lightweight models for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and the integration of emerging technologies. This study provides important insights into the evolving landscape of information and cyber security maturity assessment and provides actionable recommendations for academia and industry to improve security resilience and support the adoption of tailored, effective maturity models
Keywords: cyber security, information security, maturity assessment, maturity model, maturity framework, systematic literature review, SLR
Published in DKUM: 26.08.2025; Views: 0; Downloads: 3
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Abstract: In an era marked by heightened concerns surrounding personal privacy and data security, software self-hosting has gained significance as a means for individuals and organizations to reclaim control over their digital assets. This systematic review aims to identify relevant research gaps in the quantitative analysis of self-hosting, primarily focusing on studies employing Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and regression techniques. Employing a refined version of the Systematic Mapping Process, we analyzed 49 quantitative research papers whose concepts were grouped into 12 substantive groups. The findings reveal a predominant concentration on constructs related to the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), with limited exploration of self-hosting specifically, overshadowed by an emphasis on cloud computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), and privacy aspects. Our review provides a comprehensive overview of the existing literature and highlights the need for more focused research on self-hosting itself. This systematic review serves as a foundational resource for researchers and practitioners aimed at advancing the discourse on self-hosting.
Keywords: self-hosting, social networking sites, privacy, quantitative, data sovereignty, technology acceptance model, systematic literature review
Published in DKUM: 23.04.2025; Views: 0; Downloads: 28
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Abstract: School-based health promotion interventions (HPIs) are commonly used in schools, but scientific evidence about the structures of effective interventions is lacking. Therefore, we conducted a mixed methods systematic literature review to recognize the HPI structures related to their effectiveness. Based on the inclusion criteria, 49 articles were selected for the literature review. The articles, published in 2011–2022, described 46 different school-based interventions conducted in 20 different countries. The average duration of the interventions was 12 months, and they were implemented mostly with an RCT study design (61.2%) and by targeting children (69.4%). Three main groups of interventions were identified and explained: (1) extensive and long-term interventions; (2) school policy-changing interventions; and (3) highly effective interventions. Effective school-based HPIs included multiple target groups, multiple providers with external experts, and an efficient duration and timing of follow-ups. The implications for educational research and school practice are presented. Evidence on the effectiveness of health-related interventions is still lacking and needs to be addressed in further studies.
Keywords: education, school health, health promotion, health education, intervention effectiveness, systematic literature review, mixed methods review
Published in DKUM: 21.03.2024; Views: 299; Downloads: 35
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Abstract: In this doctoral dissertation we focus on the most common method of authentication, the username-password combination. The reason for the frequent use of this authentication mechanism is its simplicity and low cost of implementation. Although passwords are so useful, they have many problems. Morris and Thompson, for the first time almost four decades ago, found that textual passwords were a weak security point of information systems. They have come to the conclusion that users are one of the biggest threats to information system’s security. Since then, we face these problems on a daily basis. Users do not perform the behaviours they need to be done in order to stay safe and secure, although they are aware of the security issues. Because this is a research area that security experts have been dealing with for a long time, in this dissertation we wanted to identify problems related to textual passwords and possible suggested solutions. For this purpose, we first performed a systematic literature review on textual passwords and their security. In doing so, we wanted to evaluate the current status of passwords in terms of their strength, ways of managing passwords, and whether users are still the “weakest link”. We found that one of the less researched solutions is proactive password checking. A proactive password checker could filter out the passwords that are easy-to-guess and only let through the passwords that are harder to guess. In order for a proactive password checking to be more effective, it is necessary for the checker to be able to check the probability that a certain password will be selected by the user. For this purpose, the better password checkers usually use certain tools to calculate password probability i.e., password strength. To find out which method is most suitable for calculating password strength, we have looked at similar solutions throughout history. We have found that Markov models are one of the most common methods used for password strength estimation, although we may encounter some problems when using them, such as sparsity and over-fitting. By reviewing similar solutions, we found that Markov models are mostly trained on only one dataset. This could limit the performance of the model in terms of correctly identifying bad or very strong passwords. As training datasets are important in the development of Markov models, it is clear that they will have some effect in the final assessment of the password’s strength. What we explore in our dissertation, is the importance of this effect on the final password strength estimation. Mainly, we focus on exploring the effect of different but similar datasets on password strength estimation. For the purposes of our study, we analysed publicly available sets of “common passwords” and processed them regarding the frequency distribution of the letters contained in these passwords. We built different Markov models based on these datasets and frequency distribution. This helped us determine if one Markov model was sufficient or if several models were needed to effectively estimate password strength for a wide range of passwords. The results showed statistical differences between the models. In more detail, we found that: - different Markov models (trained on different databases) showed statistically different results when tested on the same dataset, - more diverse datasets are needed to be able to calculate the strength of as many passwords as possible, since one “universal” model, trained on one “universal” dataset is less effective at classifying passwords in different categories (i.e., weak, medium, strong), - different Markov models of 1st and 2nd order, in most cases, give no statistically different outputs, - overall, Markov models can be used as a basis for constructing a more effective password checker that uses multiple different and specific Markov models, which could be more effective if we want to cover a wider range of passwords.
Keywords: passwords, password analysis, password security, password problems, password strength, systematic literature review, Markov models
Published in DKUM: 13.01.2020; Views: 1649; Downloads: 252
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