Research Observatory
CyberAbeer Research Observatory
The Research Observatory studies cybersecurity readiness and AI-governance challenges affecting small organizations in the United States. It is entirely separate from, and never required for, using TrustCheck AI or the Scam Analyzer.
Provisional research theme
"AI-Assisted Cybersecurity Governance for U.S. Small Businesses: A NIST CSF 2.0-Based Decision Support Framework"
Guiding research questions
| RQ1 | What cybersecurity governance gaps are most commonly identified among participating small organizations? |
| RQ2 | Which NIST CSF 2.0 functions demonstrate the largest readiness gaps? |
| RQ3 | Can an AI-assisted decision-support interface improve users' understanding of cybersecurity priorities? |
| RQ4 | What AI-governance concerns emerge among small organizations adopting generative AI? |
Participation in research is entirely voluntary and requires an explicit, separate opt-in. Using TrustCheck AI or the Scam Analyzer does not automatically enroll you in research, and no research participation is required to use either tool.
Where this stands today
TrustCheck AI has just launched, and the voluntary research opt-in and aggregate-data pipeline are not yet collecting data. This page documents the intended design honestly, ahead of implementation:
- Any future opt-in will collect only minimal, non-identifying information: organization size category, industry category, broad geographic region, domain-level assessment scores, major gap categories, and AI-adoption category.
- No names, email addresses, exact locations, or free-text answers would be included in the research dataset.
- We will not describe any dataset as "anonymous" unless the technical implementation genuinely prevents re-identification, and we will not claim IRB (institutional review board) approval unless that approval has actually been obtained.
- Aggregate findings, once a sufficient and ethically reviewed dataset exists, will be published on the Impact & Transparency page.
Interested in participating when it opens?
If you would like to be notified when voluntary, ethically reviewed research participation opens, you can reach out directly through the contact information on CyberAbeer.com.