Iskandar et al 2025

This study explores cybersecurity’s crucial role and integration within the audit process in enhancing information and data security in facing rising cyberattacks and data threats using the Extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). Despite the critical nature of this integration, research models exploring the relationship between cybersecurity and auditing remain insufficiently studied. To address this gap, the research adopts a quantitative method to approach external auditors in public accounting firms in the Greater Jakarta area. Apart from the UTAUT framework, this study has adopted negative inhibitors from the Technological Readiness (TR) model to assess auditor perception on using new technology. The data were collected through questionaries and analyzed using SmartPLS. The findings show that auditors’ behavioral intention to use cybersecurity is strongly influenced by performance expectancy, effort expectancy, facilitating conditions, and insecurity, where social influence and discomfort have no significant influence. By developing an extended UTAUT framework, this research aims to explore the readiness of external auditors to adopt cybersecurity within their audit process to improve audit performance and data security in facing cyber risks.

The rise of technology has increased the occurrence of cyber risk and threats, the adoption of cybersecurity has become a necessity for companies and firms to ensure data protection and mitigation of cyberattacks. This research aims to study the auditor’s readiness in cybersecurity implementation using the UTAUT and TR framework. The research is supported by the development of 6 hypothesis and confirms that 4 have a positive impact and 2 negative impacts. The result confirms performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), facilitating condition (FC), and insecurity (INS) affecting auditor’s behavioral intention (BI) to use cybersecurity, conversely social influence (SI) and discomfort (DC) does not affect the behavioral intention (BI). In addition, the result could encourage top management and auditors in the implementation of cybersecurity facing the prominent problem of cyberthreats and evolving role of auditors (Friday & Japhet, 2020).