Exploring factors that affect adoption of computer security practices among college students

Cyber-attacks threaten the security of computer users’ information, networks, machines, and privacy. Studies of computer security education, awareness, and training among ordinary computer users, college students, non-IT-oriented user groups, and non-technically trained citizens are limited. Most research has focused on computer security standards and guidelines in organizational contexts. Few studies have analyzed the predictors of college students’ adoption of computer security practices. Based on a comprehensive literature review, researchers have relied heavily on well-established behavioral theories, such as the technology acceptance model (TAM), theory of planned behavior (TPB), and protection motivation theory (PMT) to explain the variation in adoption of computer security practices among college students. This dissertation builds on this growing body of scholarship by blending those three into a single conceptual framework with the objective of finding the factors influencing the adoption of computer security practices among college students. This research tested the empirical fit of a model based on the technology acceptance model, theory of planned behavior, and protection motivation theory in explaining the variation in college students’ responses to a set of questions on their likelihood of adopting computer security practices. The model included the following independent variables: perceived vulnerability, perceived severity, response efficacy, computer self-efficacy, attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and awareness. The demographic variables (age, gender, education level, major, college, and IT experience) were used as control variables moderating the relationship between the cited independent variables and dependent variable. The dependent variable was computer security practices based on a composed scale of four items asking students to what extent they check, verify, or exercise caution in opening emails and attachments. Based on a 301 convenience sample collected at a Midwestern University, the analysis resulted in the significance of perceived vulnerability, perceived ease of use, and perceived usefulness. This finding suggests that the TAM enjoys empirical support in the study of computer security practices unlike the TPB or PMT. Results of this study should encourage university administrators to create workshops on teaching students the usefulness and ease of adopting computer security practices. Experimental research is highly encouraged because survey research suffers from several weaknesses such as social desirability

Cyber Security Awareness Among College Students

This study reports the early results of a study aimed to investigate student awareness and attitudes toward cyber security and the resulting risks in the most advanced technology environment: the Silicon Valley in California, USA. The composition of students in Silicon Valley is very ethnically diverse. The objective was to see how much the students in such a tech-savvy environment are aware of cyber-attacks and how they protect themselves against them. The early statistical analysis suggested that college students, despite their belief that they are observed when using the Internet and that their data is not secure even on university systems, are not very aware of how to protect their data. Also, it appears that educational institutions do not have an active approach to improve awareness among college students to increase their knowledge on these issues and how to protect themselves from potential cyber-attacks, such as identity theft or ransomware

Media Downloading, Uploading, and Sharing Among College Students

On many occasions over recent years the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has made national headlines with its large-scale effort to launch civil suits against individuals alleged to be involved in illegal downloading of copyrighted material over the Internet including many college students. By reputation, college students are among the most active users of digital media obtained through peer-to-peer downloading and similar techniques. We conducted a three-phase study to understand student beliefs and behavior in the areas of media downloading, copyright, intellectual property ownership, and computing security. The research included a small cohort of personal interviews, an anonymous paper and pencil survey of 164 students, and a Web-based survey with 402 respondents

Ready for Tomorrow: Demand-Side Emerging Skills for the 21st Century

As part of the Ready for the Job demand-side skill assessment, the Heldrich Center explored emerging work skills that will affect New Jersey's workforce in the next three to five years. The Heldrich Center identified five specific areas likely to generate new skill demands: biotechnology, security, e-learning, e-commerce, and food/agribusiness. This report explores the study's findings and offers recommendations for improving education and training in New Jersey

People Are the Answer to Security: Establishing a Sustainable Information Security Awareness Training (ISAT) Program in Organization

Educating the users on the essential of information security is very vital and important to the mission of establishing a sustainable information security in any organization and institute. At the University Technology Malaysia (UTM), we have recognized the fact that, it is about time information security should no longer be a lacking factor in productivity, both information security and productivity must work together in closed proximity. We have recently implemented a broad campus information security awareness program to educate faculty member, staff, students and non-academic staff on this essential topic of information security. The program consists of training based on web, personal or individual training with a specific monthly topic, campus campaigns, guest speakers and direct presentations to specialized groups. The goal and the objective are to educate the users on the challenges that are specific to information security and to create total awareness that will change the perceptions of people thinking and ultimately their reactions when it comes to information security. In this paper, we explain how we created and implemented our information security awareness training (ISAT) program and discuss the impediment we encountered along the process. We explore different methods of deliveries such as target audiences, and probably the contents as we believe might be vital to a successful information security program. Finally, we discuss the importance and the flexibility of establishing a sustainable information security training program that could be adopted to meet current and future needs and demands while still relevant to our current users

Creating An Information Technology Security Program for Educators

Information Technology (IT) Security education has become a critical component to college curriculum within the past few years. Along with developing security courses and degrees, there is a need to train college educators and disseminate the security curriculum and best-practices to other colleges. St. Petersburg College implemented a project entitled Information Technology Security and Education for Educators (ITSCEE) designed to address Priority III of the “National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace”, establishment of a “national cyberspace training program.” The project was designed to produce three nationally relevant IT Security degree and certificate programs at the associate, advanced technical certificate, and baccalaureate levels. Also, the project was designed to provide training and an opportunity for the Florida Community College Faculty to obtain certification in the IT Security arena to assist their institutions in deploying relevant IT Security degree programs. This paper will describe the evolution of this project, the success in meeting goals, lessons learned and techniques and best practices other colleges may use to enhance their programs

Greater Washington Works: IT and Health Careers with Promise

The Greater Washington Workforce Development Collaborative, an initiative of The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region, has partnered with JPMorgan Chase & Co. to develop new a research report, Greater Washington Works: IT and Health Careers with Promise, released today. The report focuses on how our region can address the skills gap and lift more of our neighbors out of poverty through careers in IT and Healthcare.With over 70% of net new jobs requiring post-secondary education and training, the Washington regional economy continues to be highly knowledge-based. Local employers, however, face challenges in finding skilled workers. Nearly 800,000 individuals in our region have no education past high school, highlighting a skills gap that has the potential to undermine our region's global economic competitiveness.Further, while it is encouraging that our regional unemployment rate has improved to pre-Great Recession levels, many of our neighbors are still struggling to make ends meet. Our region can count 100,000 additional residents living below the Federal poverty level since 2009. African American or Latino workers in the region are three times more likely to earn an income below the poverty level. Addressing our region's race, ethnicity, and gender-based income inequality is a critical challenge for our region to tackle if we want to ensure that all in our region have a fair shot for prosperity