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Old risks, new challenges: Exploring differences in security between home computer and mobile device use
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Old risks, new challenges: Exploring differences in security between home computer and mobile device use

T. McGill and N. Thompson
Behaviour & Information Technology, Vol.36(11), pp.1111-1124
2017
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Abstract

Home users are particularly vulnerable to information security threats as they must make decisions about how to protect themselves, often with little knowledge of the technology. Furthermore, information for home users tends to focus on the traditional PC and may downplay threats faced on mobile devices, transforming well-known and old risks into new challenges for information security. To address the need for more behavioural information security research that focusses on mobile devices, this paper reports on the first large-scale study comparing security perceptions and behaviours on home computer and mobile devices. Data from 629 users revealed that in addition to differences in information security behaviour, the following security-related perceptions all differ significantly between home computer and mobile device use: perceived severity, security self-efficacy, response efficacy, response cost, descriptive norm, psychological ownership and intention to perform security behaviours. In each case, the direction of the difference was such that mobile devices were more likely to be at risk than a home computer. The practical implications of these differences are discussed.

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InCites Highlights

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Citation topics
4 Electrical Engineering, Electronics & Computer Science
4.187 Security Systems
4.187.1592 Cyber Defense
Web Of Science research areas
Computer Science, Cybernetics
Ergonomics
ESI research areas
Psychiatry/Psychology
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