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

The intention to use mobile digital library technology: A focus group study in the United Arab Emirates

IGI Global (“IGI”) granted Brunel University London the permission to archive this article in BURA (http://bura.brunel.ac.uk).This paper presents a qualitative study on student adoption of mobile library technology in a developing world context. The findings support the applicability of a number of existing constructs from the technology acceptance literature, such as perceived ease of use, social influence and trust. However, they also suggest the need to modify some adoption factors previously found in the literature to fit the specific context of mobile library adoption. Perceived value was found to be a more relevant overarching adoption factor than perceived usefulness for this context. Facilitating conditions were identified as important but these differed somewhat from those covered in earlier literature. The research also uncovered the importance of trialability for this type of application. The findings provide a basis for improving theory in the area of mobile library adoption and suggest a number of practical design recommendations to help designers of mobile library technology to create applications that meet user needs

Moving Target: Academic Library Design and Services in Response to Evolving Technologies and Student Expectations

This article provides a brief overview of several current trends in academic library design, a description of several paradigms for library services, and a discussion of the impact on library design of evolving technologies and changing student expectations for library resources and services. The article explores opportunities and challenges that new technologies provide and the impact of the digital environment on academic libraries and the learning experience of students. Observations from a focus group and site visits to six academic libraries constructed, renovated or planned within the past five years provide examples of factors influencing library design and address both positive and negative outcomes of various designs

Why Do People Adopt, or Reject, Smartphone Password Managers?

People use weak passwords for a variety of reasons, the most prescient of these being memory load and inconvenience. The motivation to choose weak passwords is even more compelling on Smartphones because entering complex passwords is particularly time consuming and arduous on small devices. Many of the memory- and inconvenience-related issues can be ameliorated by using a password manager app. Such an app can generate, remember and automatically supply passwords to websites and other apps on the phone. Given this potential, it is unfortunate that these applications have not enjoyed widespread adoption. We carried out a study to find out why this was so, to investigate factors that impeded or encouraged password manager adoption. We found that a number of factors mediated during all three phases of adoption: searching, deciding and trialling. The study’s findings will help us to market these tools more effectively in order to encourage future adoption of password managers

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

Why do People Adopt, or Reject, Smartphone Security Tools?

A large variety of security tools exist for Smartphones, to help their owners to secure the phones and prevent unauthorised others from accessing their data and services. These range from screen locks to antivirus software to password managers. Yet many Smartphone owners do not use these tools despite their being free and easy to use. We were interested in exploring this apparent anomaly. A number of researchers have applied existing models of behaviour from other disciplines to try to understand these kinds of behaviours in a security context, and a great deal of research has examined adoption of screen locking mechanisms. We review the proposed models and consider how they might fail to describe adoption behaviours. We then present the Integrated Model of Behaviour Prediction (IMBP), a richer model than the ones tested thus far. We consider the kinds of factors that could be incorporated into this model in order to understand Smartphone owner adoption, or rejection, of security tools. The model seems promising, based on existing literature, and we plan to test its efficacy in future studies

Factors Influencing People’s Intention to Adopt E-Banking: An Empirical Study of Consumers in Shandong Province, China

E-Banking is growing at an unprecedented rate and has become a truly worldwide phenomenon, offering convenience, flexibility and interactivity for those that can, and know how to access it. This is clearly evidence in China. However, despite such growth and popularity, some users still have reservations about using Information and communication technology (ICT) in their daily banking activities, perhaps due to deep routed cultural factors that cause consumers to question the efficacy of such changes. Through the application of a technology acceptance framework, and empirical evidence from 52 E-Banking user questionnaires and four key market segment interviews, the research explores the factors that influence consumers’ intention to adopt E-Banking in Shandong Province of China. The findings highlight that perceived usefulness and perceived credibility are significant factors which have a positive influence on consumers’ intention to utilise E-Banking, while perceived ease of use and perceived cost are less significant. Unpacking the reasons for resistance to the use of E-Banking highlighted that “difficult to operate”, “unnecessary to use it” and “worry about the security” are key drivers and therefore challenges for the service providers. Based on the results, recommendations are drawn for banks, involving focusing on the significant factors, avoiding weaknesses and optimising strengths of E-Banking and ultimately developing more accurate market positioning strategies to align and manage consumer expectations and maximise potential acceptance

Couldn't or Wouldn't? the Influence of Privacy Concerns and Self-Efficacy in Privacy Management on Privacy Protection

Sampling 515 college students, this study investigates how privacy protection, including profile visibility, self-disclosure, and friending, are influenced by privacy concerns and efficacy regarding one's own ability to manage privacy settings, a factor that researchers have yet to give a great deal of attention to in the context of social networking sites (SNSs). The results of this study indicate an inconsistency in adopting strategies to protect privacy, a disconnect from limiting profile visibility and friending to self-disclosure. More specifically, privacy concerns lead SNS users to limit their profile visibility and discourage them from expanding their network. However, they do not constrain self-disclosure. Similarly, while self-efficacy in privacy management encourages SNS users to limit their profile visibility, it facilitates self-disclosure. This suggests that if users are limiting their profile visibility and constraining their friending behaviors, it does not necessarily mean they will reduce self-disclosure on SNSs because these behaviors are predicted by different factors. In addition, the study finds an interaction effect between privacy concerns and self-efficacy in privacy management on friending. It points to the potential problem of increased risk-taking behaviors resulting from high self-efficacy in privacy management and low privacy concerns.Radio-Television-Fil

Careers advisors’ opinion of the College of Occupational Therapists Careers Video

Using a mixed methodology, this study investigated the effectiveness of the College of Occupational Therapists’ careers video in increasing the knowledge of six careers advisers about the profession and obtained their views of the video as a promotional tool. To quantify the advisers’ knowledge, a pre-test post-test questionnaire was used before and after viewing the video. A short qualitative interview then ascertained their impressions of the video. Despite a high baseline knowledge, viewing the video was effective in increasing it. The advisers had mixed opinions about the video, suggesting that it could be improved and clarified