Akademika 82(1) 2012: 125-137 Nota Penyelidikan / Research Notes Information Communications and Technology (ICT) Abuse in the Malaysian Public Sector: The Influence of Ethical, Organisational Bond and General Deterrence Factors Salah Guna Teknologi dan Komunikasi Informasi (ICT) dalam Sektor Awam Malaysia: Pengaruh Faktor Etika, Ikatan Organisasi dan Pencegahan Umum Sapiah Sakri, Juhana Salim & Tengku mohammed Tengku Sembok ABSTRACT Despite continuous effort to reduce ICT abuse, ICT security problems still persist such that ICT security experts and practitioners are kept struggling to fnd ways to combat the problems which are closely related to deviant human behaviour. Previous studies have investigated the causal relationships between security efforts and ICT abuse but studies on ICT abuse in the Malaysian public sector are still rare. This research aims at identifying signifcant factors that infuence ICT abuse as an input to develop and validate an ICT abuse model within the Malaysian public sector setting. The proposed model contributes to the theoretical body of knowledge on ICT abuse by adopting multi- disciplinary solutions whereby ethical factors from the discipline of psychology, organisational bond factors from the discipline of socio-criminology and general deterrence factors from the discipline of ICT security are examined and synthesised. Keywords: Ethical factors, ICT abuse, ICT security problems, multi-disciplinary solutions, socio-criminology ABSTRAK Walaupun pelbagai usaha untuk mengurangkan perilaku salah guna ICT telah diambil, namun masalah keselamatan ICT ini masih terus berlaku. Oleh itu, kebanyakan pakar dan pengamal keselamatan ICT sedaya upaya mencari jalan untuk mengurangkan masalah yang berkait rapat dengan perilaku tidak lazim manusia. Kajian lampau telah menyelidiki perhubungan sebab di antara usaha-usaha keselamatan dengan perilaku tidak lazim ICT; bagaimanapun, kajian- kajian dalam ruang lingkup sektor awam Malaysia adalah terhad. Oleh itu, kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengenal pasti faktor-faktor signifkan yang mempengaruhi perilaku tidak lazim sebagai input kepada pembentukan dan pengesahan suatu model perilaku tidak lazim ICT dalam ruang lingkup tersebut. Model cadangan ini menyumbang kepada badan ilmu secara teoritikal dengan pemakaian penyelesaian dari pelbagai disiplin seperti faktor etika dari psikologi, faktor keakraban organisasi dari disiplin sosio-kriminologi dan faktor pencegahan umum dari disiplin keselamatan ICT. Kata kunci: Faktor etika, masalah keselamatan ICT, penyelesaian pelbagai disiplin, salah laku ICT, sosio- kriminologi INTRODUCTION The seriousness of insider ICT abuse is always a major concern to most researchers in this field from as early as the computing days until today (Meyer 1995; Straub and Welke 1998; Stephen 1998; Thompson 1998; Computer Security Institute 2001). As pointed by Breidenbach (2000) quoting Schultz: “Numerically, more attacks come from the outsider now, but …one insider with the right skills can ruin your organisation”. Furthermore, the dynamic dispersed of ICT currently have expose employees to encounter more opportunity of unethical situations as compared to those computing days (Cogner et al. 1995; Gattiker and Kelly 1999). Even though appropriate security countermeasures have been in place, the current computing scenario has put ICT abuse to be a continuous problem in most organisation including agencies of the Malaysian Public Sector (MyMIS 2001). The above justification clearly indicates the inadequacy of the current solution to mitigate ICT abuse. Since ICT abuse behaviour is an intentional act, hence, liked other deviant behavioural studies, the study adopts the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) Model by Ajzen (1985, 1991) as the conceptual framework. TPB model Akademika82(1) Bab 13.indd 125 5/29/2012 5:01:55 PM