About

Javad Abed is an assistant professor of practice at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School and affiliated faculty at the Whiting School of Engineering. He specializes in cybersecurity, digital transformation, and cloud computing, with a strong commitment to teaching, mentorship, and bridging theory with real-world applications. Professor Abed holds a PhD in Information Systems from Virginia Commonwealth University and professional cybersecurity certifications including CISSP and CCSP. His teaching integrates technical expertise with business strategy, equipping students with the critical skills needed to navigate the evolving digital landscape. Beyond the classroom, he actively engages in executive education, media collaborations, and interdisciplinary research, reinforcing his commitment to advancing cybersecurity and digital transformation education.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Sociology
• Computer Security
• Economics
• Business
• World Wide Web
• Knowledge management
• Internet privacy
• Process management
• Environmental resource management

Selected publications

• Strengthening Cybersecurity Readiness in the Age of AI: A Strategic Guide for Executives

  IT Professional · 2025-05-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Artificial intelligence technologies are revolutionizing the corporate landscape but also introducing sophisticated cybersecurity risks. To manage these risks effectively, executives must strategically realign their cybersecurity initiatives. This article highlights critical strategic areas—organizational culture, strategic alignment, resource allocation, external partnerships, and employee training—that significantly enhance cybersecurity preparedness. Empirical evidence from industry surveys informs practical recommendations to guide executives toward robust cybersecurity management in artificial intelligence-intensive environments.

  PublisherDOI

• Quantitative Analysis of Factors Impacting Organizational Readiness for Cyber Security Threats: Relationships and Inter-Relationships Assessment

  2024

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Security
  • Computer Science
  • Business
  PublisherDOI

• Digital Technology in Changing Social Relations — The Social Internet of Things: Developing a New Method for Leveraging the Friendships between IoT Devices

  WORLD SCIENTIFIC eBooks · 2023 · 2 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Sociology
  • Internet privacy

  Advancements in technology allow humans to add many interesting features to everyday devices. As humans, we can tackle many problems in complex societies and manage the complexity of networked social systems. Sociability is a vital human capability that improves our social lives and manages social interactions. Adding this feature to smart devices can facilitate the management of complex and networked Internet of Things (IoT) settings. We can improve the relationship between social and smart devices in different ways. Nowadays, researchers are investigating the future generations of IoT, namely, social IoT. This study aims to develop a new method for updating and leveraging the friendships between IoT devices by using social IoT and social networking principles. We utilize a design science approach to propose a novel friendship management method for social IoT that is able to effectively evaluate and manage the relationships between devices. The new friendship development and updating models use the basic concepts of Knapp’s relational stage theory. In this chapter, a new simulation tool for evaluating the new friendship mechanism is proposed. The evaluation results show that the proposed method performs effectively and can enhance network navigability, service composition, and service discovery.

  PublisherDOI

• A NOVEL FRAMEWORK FOR SOCIAL INTERNET OF THINGS: LEVERAGING THE FRIENDSHIPS AND THE SERVICES EXCHANGED BETWEEN SMART DEVICES

  VCU Scholars Compass (Virginia Commonwealth University) · 2019-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  As humans, we tackle many problems in complex societies and manage the complexities of networked social systems. Cognition and sociability are two vital human capabilities that improve social life and complex social interactions. Adding these features to smart devices makes them capable of managing complex and networked Internet of Things (IoT) settings. Cognitive and social devices can improve their relationships and connections with other devices and people to better serve human needs. Nowadays, researchers are investigating two future generations of IoT: social IoT (SIoT) and cognitive IoT (CIoT). This study develops a new framework for IoT, called CSIoT, by using complexity science concepts and by integrating social and cognitive IoT concepts. This framework uses a new mechanism to leverage the friendships between devices to address service management, privacy, and security. The framework addresses network navigability, resilience, and heterogeneity between devices in IoT settings. This study uses a new simulation tool for evaluating the new CSIoT framework and evaluates the privacy-preserving ability of CSIoT using the new simulation tool. To address different CSIoT security and privacy issues, this study also proposes a blockchain-based CSIoT. The evaluation results show that CSIoT can effectively preserve the privacy and the blockchain-based CSIoT performs effectively in addressing different privacy and security issues.

  PublisherDOI

• Defining Objectives For Securing The Internet Of Things: A Value-Focused Thinking Approach

  Journal of the Association for Information Systems · 2016-01-01 · 9 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Over the past few years Internet of Things (IoT) has touched most people. Companies have been competing with each other in inventing new IoT based products and services. It has become a real business opportunity for various companies and a luxury for end users. Yet, the research on securing the Internet of Things (IoT) is in its infancy. In this study, we use the “value-focused thinking” approach to systematically identify IoT security values and objectives from 58 IT professionals. This study provides a foundation for strategically planning and thinking about IoT security. We present four fundamental objectives and thirteen means objectives. The results of this qualitative study will help researchers and practitioners identify and prioritize key IoT security issues.

  PublisherOA PDF

• Understanding Deterrence Theory in Security Compliance Behavior: A Quantitative Meta-Analysis Approach

  2016-01-01 · 14 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• Investigating Continuous Security Compliance Behavior: Insights from Information Systems Continuance Model

  OpenMETU (Middle East Technical University) · 2016-01-01 · 4 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• HOW EMPLOYEES INTEND TO CONTINUE COMPLYING WITH INFORMATION SYSTEMS' SECURITY POLICIES: INSIGHTS FROM INFORMATION SYSTEMS' CONTINUANCE MODEL

  OpenMETU (Middle East Technical University) · 2014-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Nowadays Information Systems (IS) are crucial for the survival of the modern organizations since they usually hold critical and valuable organizational data. Because of the potential threats like misuse, theft and destruction of the important data, It is obvious that organizations have to use several methods to keep their IS assets safe. In other words, the modern organizations should have a well-established IS security policy to address security issues. As employees are the weakest link in the security chain, having well-established security policies is not enough for solving security problems completely. They should also utilize proper methods for ensuring the employees’ compliance with security policies. So investigating the employees’ compliance behavior is important issue for IS security management success. Several researchers have studied the compliance behavior by using different conceptual models including technology acceptance model (TAM), theory of planned behavior (TPB), deterrence, neutralization and etc. However, there is no study for investigating continuance of the security compliance. It is very important for organizations that employees comply with IS security policies and continue complying. This study aims to fill this gap on IS security research and to probe the important factors that lead employees to have continuous security compliance behavior by using IS continuance model. The analysis of data collected from 270 employees in banking organizations shows that employees’ perceived satisfaction and perceived usefulness directly influence continuance intention to comply with IS security policies.

  PublisherOA PDF

Frequent coauthors

• Gurpreet Dhillon

  University of North Texas

  2 shared

• Lemuria Carter

  1 shared

• Heinz Roland Weistroffer

  Virginia Commonwealth University

  1 shared

• Rakesh Singh

  1 shared

• Sevgi Özkan

  Middle East Technical University

  1 shared

Awards & honors

• Digital Education & Learning Technology Acceleration Grant,…
• Teaching Innovation Award, Carey Business School, Johns Hopk…
• Carey Faculty Service & Mentorship Award, 2025