Has the pandemic made us more digitally literate?: Innovative association rule mining study of the relationships between shifts in digital skills and cybersecurity awareness occurring whilst working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic

Digital literacy has been included in the set of the eight key competences, which are necessary to enjoy life to the full in the twenty-first century. According to the previous studies, women tend to possess lower digital competence than men; the older the person, the lower the level of digital literacy. To date, Polish citizens in general have worse skills than the European average. This may lead to people being socially excluded and vulnerable to cybersecurity threats, especially in the times of the COVID-19 pandemic, which requires them to work, study and shop using the Internet. The study concerned Polish women who work at universities, as scientists and teachers. Their perceived level of their digital literacy has been studied in the broad campaign, along with their awareness of the cybersecurity matters. Then, the collected results were processed with an association rules mining algorithm, uncovering the factors related to the shifts in them.