Information Security Policies and their Relationship with the Effectiveness of the Management Information Systems of Major Palestinian Universities in the Gaza Strip

This paper aims to recognise Information Security Policies (ISP) and their relationship with the effectiveness of the Management Information Systems (MIS) of the major Palestinian universities in the Gaza Strip. The researchers used the descriptive analytical approach. They used a questionnaire as a research tool. They used a stratified random sample to explore viewpoints of the research sample which comprised 169 employees of The Islamic University – Gaza, Al Azhar University - Gaza, and Al-Quds Open University - Gaza Strip branches. The population comprised IT center employees and administrative departments’ employees who use MIS in their daily work. 152 questionnaires were collected, with a response rate of 89.94%. The study found that the research sample had shown a high degree of agreement on the ISP dimensions (Risk Assessment of Information Security, Senior Management Support, Reviewing and Updating of ISP, Enforcement of ISP, Training and Awareness of ISP). Those dimensions together gained a rate of 74%. The study also found that the research sample had shown a high degree of agreement on the field of the “Effectiveness of MIS”, with a rate of 81%. In addition, it demonstrated a statistically significance relationship level (α ≤ 0.05) between ISP and the effectiveness of the MIS of the major Palestinian universities in the Gaza Strip. It recommends that the universities should support the Information Security Policies from the process of risk assessment and creation of ISP to the process of continuous reviewing and updating of ISP. Furthermore, the universities should measure the effectiveness of their MIS periodically, to enhance this effectiveness and improve it regularly.