A MULTIPARAMETRIC MODEL FOR ASSESSING NATIONAL CYBERSECURITY MATURITY

ABSTRACT

The datafication of society and the rapidly growing number of Internet users are some of the factors that have led to the growing adoption of digital platforms across the globe. This adoption presents a number of opportunities, such as increased knowledge sharing, easier communication and greater collaboration. Unfortunately, it also increases the touchpoints for cybercriminals to operate and this can increase the cyberthreats to individuals, institutions or nations. The growing threat landscape makes it mandatory to regularly assess the level of preparedness for addressing cyberthreats and it is common practice to utilize models for this assessment. A number of existing models focus on cybersecurity at the institutional level and the few that address the maturity at a national level do not include some critical parameters and do not support self-assessment. As such, we present a Model for Assessing National Cybersecurity Maturity (MANCyM) that is based on an empirical study of the Nigerian context, an analysis of the most important domains and which can be used for national cybersecurity maturity assessment. MANCyM is a multiparametric approach based on 13 domains, arrived at following research on the key metrics for assessing national cybersecurity readiness and an empirical study of the Nigerian context. The model aligns very well with key elements of international indices like the Global Cybersecurity Index and it can be used to assess the level of national cybersecurity maturity.

Keywords: Cybersecurity, Cybersecurity maturity model, Digitalization, Cybercrime, Digital economy, Datafication