Exploring Factors that Influence Students' Behaviors in Information Security

Due to the ever-increasing use of the Internet, information security has become a critical issue in society. This is especially the case for young adults who have different attitudes towards information security practices. In this research, we examine factors that motivate college students' inf...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of information systems education 2012-12, Vol.23 (4), p.407
Main Authors: Yoon, Cheolho, Hwang, Jae-Won, Kim, Rosemary
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitudes
Behavior
College Students
Computer Security
Computer viruses
Computers
Consumer behavior
Correlation
Costs
Curriculum Design
Cybersecurity
Data security
Education
Educational aspects
Factor Analysis
Fear
Foreign Countries
Habits
Health risk assessment
Health risks
Hypotheses
Hypothesis Testing
Information Security
Internet
Least Squares Statistics
Motivation
Norms
Perceptions
Privacy
Psychological aspects
Questionnaires
Reliability
Responses
Security management
Self Efficacy
Social Attitudes
Social Behavior
South Korea
Structural Equation Models
Student Attitudes
Student Behavior
Studies
Theories
Theory
Threats
Validity
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Summary:Due to the ever-increasing use of the Internet, information security has become a critical issue in society. This is especially the case for young adults who have different attitudes towards information security practices. In this research, we examine factors that motivate college students' information security behaviors. Based on the concept of fear arousal in the presence of a threatened event, a well-founded theory known as Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) is adopted in the research model. Social norms and habit factors are integrated to the model as a means to assess students' behaviors of information security. A survey of 202 responses is used to test the designed model using structural equation modeling to analyze relationships among variables. Results indicated that students are very motivated to practice information security if they perceive high levels of severity, response efficacy, response costs and self-efficacy. Their intentions, however, are not affected by perceived vulnerability or by social influence. Our findings suggest that PMT is a valuable model for predicting students' attitudes towards information security and that their motivation is influenced by education in security awareness and understanding severity of such issues. (Contains 4 tables and 2 figures.)
ISSN:1055-3096
2574-3872