What Do Systems Users Have to Fear? Using Fear Appeals to Engender Threats and Fear that Motivate Protective Security Behaviors

Author List: Boss, Scott R.; Galletta, Dennis F.; Lowry, Paul Benjamin; Moody, Gregory D.; Polak, Peter;

MIS Quarterly, 2015, Volume 39, Issue 4, Page 837-864.

Because violations of information security (ISec) and privacy have become ubiquitous in both personal and work environments, academic attention to ISec and privacy has taken on paramount importance. Consequently, a key focus of ISec research has been discovering ways to motivate individuals to engage in more secure behaviors. Over time, the protection motivation theory (PMT) has become a leading theoretical foundation used in ISec research to help motivate individuals to change their security-related behaviors to protect themselves and their organizations. Our careful review of the foundation for PMT identified four opportunities for improving ISec PMT research. First, extant ISec studies do not use the full nomology of PMT constructs. Second, only one study uses fear-appeal manipulations, even though these are a core element of PMT. Third, virtually no ISec study models or measures fear. Fourth, whereas these studies have made excellent progress in predicting security intentions, none of them have addressed actual security behaviors.

Keywords: Information security; protection motivation theory; system backups; model comparison; fear appeals; threat; coping; intentions; behavior

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List of Topics

#56	0.314	information security interview threats attacks theory fear vulnerability visibility president vulnerabilities pmt behaviors enforcement appeals protection insiders attackers precautions vice
#222	0.166	research researchers framework future information systems important present agenda identify areas provide understanding contributions using literature studies paper potential review
#73	0.090	security threat information users detection coping configuration avoidance response firm malicious attack intrusion appraisal countermeasures benefit costs threats ability rate
#140	0.078	model use theory technology intention information attitude acceptance behavioral behavior intentions research understanding systems continuance models planned percent attitudes predict
#239	0.070	privacy information concerns individuals personal disclosure protection concern consumers practices control data private calculus regulation risk individual legislation government sensitive
#279	0.060	field work changes new years time change major period year end use past early century half traditional areas established strong