Empirical Analysis of Human-Related Problems on Information Security in Cross-Cultural Environment -The Case of the East African Community-

The growing interest in investment towards Africa in the last few years has been remarkable, thanks mainly to the growth of stronger economies and democracies on the continent and to an increased need for raw materials. The East African Community (EAC) composed of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, presents a good investment platform for foreign investors due to their economies of scale. This paper discusses the potential problems concerning information security, which foreign companies may face in the EAC. UK, US, Belgium, China and Japan are selected as investor countries in this study. The potential problems of each country are examined using Greet Hofstede’s framework of cultural dimensions. By using a measure called Level of Potential (LoP) whose practicability has been proved through previous research, the magnitude of the potential problems concerning Information Security Management (ISM) is predicted. We conducted a survey in one of the countries in the EAC, Rwanda, to evaluate the severity of the problems. We found the problem of “using previous company’s confidential information” to have the highest severity. A list of countermeasures is proposed to protect business information.