Control mechanisms in information security: A principal agent perspective

End user security behaviours are an important part of enterprise-wide information security. Although organisations have been actively using security technologies and practices, it is known that information security cannot be achieved through technological tools alone. In order to find appropriate control mechanisms to encourage employee security behaviours in organisations, we look at this problem through a principal agent perspective. Since employee security behaviours cannot be continuously monitored and employees may have conflicting views regarding security policies (moral hazard problem), we believe that the principal agent paradigm can provide insight in developing effective controls.