The administrative workforce supporting institutions of tertiary learning occupies a uniquely sensitive position within the digital ecosystem of the modern academy. Tasked with custodianship over student records, examination archives, financial transactions, personnel files, and confidential correspondence, this cadre routinely interfaces with credential-protected platforms whose breach precipitates substantial reputational, legal, and financial harm. This review interrogates the behavioural, technological, and regulatory determinants shaping how members of this workforce construct credentials, adopt secondary verification mechanisms, and align their everyday digital conduct with the prescriptions of organisational and statutory governance regimes. Drawing on a multidisciplinary corpus encompassing behavioural information security, human–computer interaction, organisational psychology, and the regulatory scholarship surrounding personal data, the analysis synthesises empirical and conceptual contributions that illuminate why mismatches persist between policy intent and observed practice. It traces the evolution of credential-based access, the slow diffusion of secondary verification mechanisms, and the cognitive, affective, and structural barriers that mediate adoption among administrative personnel. The review situates these dynamics within regulatory mandates, including statutory privacy instruments, sector-specific guidance, and emergent governance frameworks that increasingly hold institutions accountable for the protective conduct of their non-academic staff. By weaving together theoretical, methodological, and applied perspectives, the article offers a consolidated understanding of where present knowledge stands, where gaps remain, and which intervention modalities offer the most defensible avenues for improving institutional security posture. Recommendations are framed for policymakers, institutional managers, and researchers seeking to design behaviourally informed, contextually attuned, and operationally sustainable safeguards within tertiary education environments worldwide. The synthesis foregrounds workforce-specific vulnerabilities and offers a roadmap for empirically grounded reform.