Abstract
In recent times, organisations in developing countries rely heavily on information systems to successfully execute their daily activities. These systems are essentially the life-blood of these organisations. Anecdotal reports trace information systems threats to insiders and in the recent past, outsourced employees. There is, therefore, an increased need for information systems to be protected against unauthorized access and retrieval particularly from legitimate ‘insider’ outsourced employees. While most studies have focused on organisations’ employees as threats, only a few have focused on the role the outsourced employees’ play as a potential threat. The study seeks to investigate the insider threat behaviour of outsourced employee in developing countries as security threats to information systems by virtue of their privileged access. The study is quantitative and adopts social bond and involvement theories for this purpose. The research sample was chosen from organisations in Nigeria and South Africa which are the largest two national economies in Africa. Close-ended questionnaires were used the data was analysed using factor analysis. The study found that outsourced employees exploit information systems vulnerabilities because they are not actively involved in the organisation and lack moral values and beliefs. A comparison test suggests that female outsourced employees pose greater threats to the information systems of organisations than males. The findings of this study will assist organisations in developing countries to mitigate the information security threats posed by outsourced employees.
M.Com. (Information Technology Management)