Abstract
This study investigated the influence of cybersecurity awareness on the data privacy practices of undergraduate Library and Information Science (LIS) students in selected universities in Oyo State, Nigeria. The study adopted a quantitative descriptive survey research design. The population comprised 639 undergraduate LIS students from three selected universities in Oyo State, namely Emmanuel Alayande University of Education, Lead City University, Ibadan, and Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso. Using the Taro Yamane sampling technique, a sample size of 246 respondents was selected. Data were collected through a self-designed questionnaire, while descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. The findings revealed that the respondents possessed a high level of cybersecurity awareness, with a grand mean of 3.26 for knowledge of cybersecurity concepts and 3.02 for awareness of safe online practices. However, students demonstrated only moderate levels of routine and reflective data privacy practices, with grand means of 2.33 and 2.47 respectively. The study further found that lack of formal cybersecurity training, inadequate privacy education, difficulty in managing privacy settings, and poor privacy habits constituted major challenges to effective data privacy practices. The correlation analysis revealed a significant negative relationship between cybersecurity awareness and data privacy practices among the respondents. The study recommends the integration of cybersecurity and data privacy education into the LIS curriculum and the organization of regular seminars, workshops, and awareness programmes to promote practical privacy behaviours and improve students' digital security practices.
Keywords: Cybersecurity awareness; data privacy practices; undergraduate Students; cybersecurity training; digital privacy behaviour
Publication Date: 2026-07-31