*Article* **Cybersecurity Awareness Assessment among Trainees of the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation**

**Shouq Alrobaian 1, Saif Alshahrani <sup>2</sup> and Abdulaziz Almaleh 3,\***


**\*** Correspondence: ajoyrulah@kku.edu.sa; Tel.: +966-533-212-174

**Abstract:** People are the weakest link in the cybersecurity chain when viewed in the context of technological advancement. People become vulnerable to trickery through contemporary technical developments such as social media platforms. Information accessibility and flow have increased rapidly and effectively; however, due to this increase, new electronic risks, or so-called cybercrime, such as phishing, scams, and hacking, lead to privacy breaches and hardware sabotage. Therefore, ensuring data privacy is vital, particularly in an educational institute where students constitute the large majority of users. Students or trainees violate cybersecurity policies due to their lack of awareness about the cybersecurity environment and the consequences of cybercrime. This paper aims to assess the level of awareness of cybersecurity, users' activities, and user responses to cybersecurity issues. This paper collected data based on a distributed questionnaire among trainees in the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC) to demonstrate the necessity of increasing user awareness and training. In this study, quantitative research techniques were utilized to analyze the responses from trainees using tests such as the Chi-Squared test. Proof of the reliability of the survey was provided using Cronbach's alpha test. This research identifies the deficiencies in cybersecurity awareness among TVTC trainees. After analyzing the gathered data, recommendations for tackling these shortcomings were offered, with the aim of enhancing trainees' decision-making skills regarding privacy and security using the Nudge model.

**Keywords:** cybersecurity; awareness; survey; information security; cybercrime
