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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Forensic and Legal Psychology
Volume 15 - 2024 |
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1372681
This article is part of the Research Topic Experimental Evaluations of the Human Factor in Cybersecurity View all 3 articles
Self-Protection in Cyberspace Engaging in Cyber Hygiene: The Role of Thoughtful Decision-Making and Informational Interventions
Provisionally accepted- 1 University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida, United States
- 2 Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
- 3 The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, Texas, United States
- 4 Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
The effectiveness of human-centric cybersecurity relies on end-users' adherence to security and privacy behaviors. Understanding and predicting variations in the adoption of these behavioral safeguards is of both theoretical and practical importance. We argue that existing frameworks, largely borrowed from the health science literature, would benefit from integrating criminological constructs relevant to predicting online victimization patterns. This study introduces Paternoster and Pogarsky's (2009) rational choice theory of cognition, thoughtfully reflective decision making (TRDM), to the information security literature. TRDM posits that variation in cognitive decision-making capabilities predicts behavioral outcomes. In this context, thoughtfully reflective decision makers are hypothesized to adopt more robust security and privacy practices, thereby reducing their susceptibility to online victimization. Leveraging a field experiment, our study supports the theoretical model: TRDM is associated with increased engagement in privacy behaviors. Moreover, thoughtfully reflective decision makers are more likely to engage in computer security behaviors when warned of the implications of noncompliance. These findings challenge the prevailing one-size-fits-all approach to cybersecurity, contributing to the development of sophisticated risk assessment tools for mitigating vulnerabilities and reducing users' susceptibility to digital threats.
Keywords: Cognition, cybersecurity, Cyber hygiene, Self-protection, Rational choice, target hardening
Received: 25 Jan 2024; Accepted: 09 Sep 2024.
Copyright: © 2024 Howell, Maimon, Muniz, Kamar and Berenblum. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Christian Howell, University of South Florida, Tampa, 33620, Florida, United States
Eden Kamar, Georgia State University, Atlanta, 30303, Georgia, United States
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