Electronic Government, An International Journal, Vol. 12, No. 3, 2016 243 Copyright © 2016 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. E-government website security concerns and citizens’ adoption Izzat Alsmadi CIS Department, Yarmouk University, 21163, Jordan Fax: 00962-27211128 Email: ialsmadi@yu.edu.jo Emad Abu-Shanab* MIS Department, Yarmouk University, 21163, Jordan Fax: 00962- 27211128 Email: abushanab@yu.edu.jo *Corresponding author Abstract: E-government websites are national websites that handle transactions between governments, citizens and businesses. They involve financial and informational transactions that are crucial and influence the level of trust between citizens and governments. This study utilised Rapid7 security and penetration testing tools to explore the vulnerabilities and exploits of major e-government websites in Jordan. Results indicated that most explored websites suffered from the existence of vulnerabilities open for possible attaches. In addition, all types of exploits and vulnerabilities exist within a short list of websites. Keywords: security issues; e-government websites; vulnerabilities; exploits; Jordan. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Alsmadi, I. and Abu-Shanab, E. (2016) ‘E-government website security concerns and citizens’ adoption’, Electronic Government, An International Journal, Vol. 12, No. 3, pp.243–255. Biographical notes: Izzat Alsmadi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at University of New Haven. He obtained his PhD in Software Engineering from NDSU (USA), his second Master in Software Engineering from NDSU (USA) and his first Master in CIS from the University of Phoenix (USA). He had a BSc in Telecommunication Engineering from Mutah University in Jordan. He has published several books, journal and conference papers largely in software engineering, data mining, IR and NLP. Emad Abu-Shanab earned his PhD in Business Administration, in the MIS area from Southern Illinois University – Carbondale, USA, his MBA from Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada and his Bachelor in Civil Engineering from Yarmouk University (YU) in Jordan. He is an Associate Professor in MIS. His research interests in areas like e-government, technology acceptance,