The Confidence-Competence Gap in Senior Cybersecurity: An Exploratory Survey and Conceptual Framework

The accelerating pace of digital transformation has expanded dependency on online services, exposing a widening misalignment between technology adoption and cybersecurity competence. This study investigates generational disparities in digital security literacy, perceived risk, and protective behaviors, with a particular focus on senior citizens as high-risk end users within computer network and information security ecosystems. 112 participants from various age and professional cohorts were surveyed using a four-point Likert scale with minimal central tendency response bias followed by both descriptive and mean-comparison analyses. Results demonstrate that cybersecurity literacy is medium but uneven (mean = 2.02), with respondents from the oldest age group (age sixty and above) reporting the lowest composite security score and weakest preventive practices, including a Two-Factor Authentication penetration of only 35%. There is a clear confidence-competence gap (+0.47) among senior citizens, meaning they tend to overestimate their ability to deal with digital services but underestimate the challenge of acquiring technical knowledge. Building on these findings, the paper introduces the Digital Guardian for Seniors framework a conceptual, human-centric intervention model integrating adaptive, visually oriented pedagogy, an intergenerational cyber-buddy system, and suggested metrics for longitudinal evaluation. The study contributes to computer network and information security research by providing demographic-based empirical evidence and outlining a theoretical foundation for future empirical testing and targeted interventions for an aging digital population.