The Effects of User's Security Awareness on Password Security Behavior

It's the first time that many users are operating their work from home. There is not only the tension of the uncertainty around the COVID-19 pandemic but also a time for adjusting people to their remote working habits considering ever-increasing cyber-attacks. When employees work in an office, there is an IT team working with them closely for their information security problems. However, it is difficult to provide sufficient information security protection that can compensate for human errors in remote working. Information security familiarity, information security awareness, and information security behavior are critical concepts to consider again during the pandemic as the new normal. In this chapter, a literature review will be conducted for information security awareness and information security familiarity concepts. Analysis of the context of these concepts is the aim of this chapter. This study can give insight to understand, evaluate, and determine the information security behavior of employees during new remote working conditions.

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Information security awareness and behavior: a theory-based literature review

Management Research Review ◽

10.1108/mrr-04-2013-0085 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 37 (12) ◽

pp. 1049-1092 ◽

Cited By ~ 47

Author(s):

Benedikt Lebek ◽

Jörg Uffen ◽

Markus Neumann ◽

Bernd Hohler ◽

Michael H. Breitner

Keyword(s):

Literature Review ◽

Technology Acceptance ◽

Future Research ◽

Security Awareness ◽

Research Gaps ◽

Content Type ◽

Meta Model ◽

Security Behavior ◽

Is Security ◽

And Behavior

Purpose – This paper aims to provide an overview of theories used in the field of employees’ information systems (IS) security behavior over the past decade. Research gaps and implications for future research are worked out by analyzing and synthesizing existing literature. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents the results of a literature review comprising 113 publications. The literature review was designed to identify applied theories and to understand the cognitive determinants in the research field. A meta-model that explains employees’ IS security behavior is introduced by assembling the core constructs of the used theories. Findings – The paper identified 54 used theories, but four behavioral theories were primarily used: Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), General Deterrence Theory (GDT), Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). By synthesizing results of empirically tested research models, a survey of factors proven to have a significant influence on employees’ security behavior is presented. Research limitations/implications – Some relevant publications might be missing within this literature review due to the selection of search terms and/or databases. However, by conduction a forward and a backward search, this paper has limited this error source to a minimum. Practical implications – This study presents an overview of determinants that have been proven to influence employees’ behavioral intention. Based thereon, concrete training and awareness measures can be developed. This is valuable for practitioners in the process of designing Security Education, Training and Awareness (SETA) programs. Originality/value – This paper presents a comprehensive up-to-date overview of existing academic literature in the field of employees’ security awareness and behavior research. Based on a developed meta-model, research gaps are identified and implications for future research are worked out.

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