A influência do ambiente organizacional na motivação para prática de crimes cibernéticos

Abstract

The motivation of people to the practice of cybercrimes has been investigated in order to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of cybersecurity at the organizational level. The fairness of management decisions on rewards and recognition, equality and fairness of organizational policies and practices, the quality of interpersonal treatment, preserving the respect and dignity of people, as well as transparency, clarity and accuracy of the information are elements inherent to the workplace. The experience of situations related to these elements produces emotions in people, which occasionally are negative emotions such as frustration, stress, anger or discontent. These factors influence the motivation of criminal individuals by developing negative feelings. The perception of organizational injustice and the consequent feeling of dissatisfaction experienced by workers can stimulate retaliation against their organization and its members. This study aimed to analyze how the organizational perceptions of unfairness motivate insiders to commit cybercrimes in the organizations where they work. Semi-structured interviews with cybersecurity experts who worked for Brazilian organizations were conducted. These professionals have at least five years of experience in the field. The narratives of the respondents have produced data that was transcribed, analyzed and categorized for subsequent interpretation. In this research, revenge and greed were identified as the main motivating factors for cybercrime, with an important and complementary participation of elements related to opportunity, habits, association, and especially impunity. The expectation that there will be no punishment for a crime encourages the commission of cybercrimes. The results suggest that the perception of injustice in the Brazilian organizational context produces primarily negative feelings such as low self-esteem, frustration, and lack of guilt in individuals and that these emotions motivate people to commit cybercrimes in the organizations where they work.