ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Higher Education
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1689273
This article is part of the Research TopicReimagining Higher Education: Responding Proactively to 21st Century Global ShiftsView all 19 articles
Cybersecurity in Accounting Education: Accounting Academics' Perspectives
Provisionally accepted
- University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
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Introduction: Cyberattacks continue to intensify and are currently the top global technological risk. This global increase in cyberattacks and the growing dependence on digital platforms have also heightened the significance of cybersecurity within the accounting profession. As future custodians of sensitive financial data, accounting students must possess both the technical understanding and the practical skills to prevent such threats. Given the importance of the digital economy within the accounting profession, accounting curricula often do not include cybersecurity education, resulting in accounting students being inadequately prepared. This research aimed to fill this gap by formulating cybersecurity education guidelines through competencies for an accounting curriculum and is designed to be incorporated into various modules throughout the curriculum. Methods: Content analysis was conducted as part of the literature review to determine which competency frameworks of accounting professional bodies were relevant and which cybersecurity competency statements were to be included in the questionnaires as part of the quantitative study. While the study is predominantly quantitative in nature, the incorporation of participant comments adds a minor qualitative dimension, making the overall design descriptive with supportive qualitative elements. The questionnaire was distributed to accounting academics, and 41 responses were received. Results: The findings from this study indicate that accounting academics lack knowledge around cybersecurity and do not know how to incorporate the topic into the curriculum. Academics have also viewed cybersecurity as an important component of the accounting curriculum, given its emphasis within the digital economy. Discussion: This study contributes to the development of the accounting curriculum and highlights the importance in developing cybersecurity skills in future accounting professionals which can be incorporated by making use of real-life case studies, using experts from the cybersecurity industry
Keywords: cybersecurity, Cybersecurity education, Accounting education, Cybersecurity competencies, Accounting students, Accounting curriculum, Accounting Academics
Received: 20 Aug 2025; Accepted: 15 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ms Rama, Marx and Smith. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Pranisha, Ms Rama, pranishar@uj.ac.za
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