Mobile App Installation: the Role of Precautions and Desensitization

The purpose of this research is to investigate precautions that consumers take before installing mobile apps and consumer’s potential desensitization to excessive app permission requests. Through a survey of 209 participants, a prediction model was created that attempts to predict whether respondents would download applications asking for excessive permissions. The model results indicate those that take more precautions are less likely to download apps requesting excessive permissions. However, the precautions taken by participants may be inadequate and may leave consumers with a false since of security. Another key finding with the support of Communication Theory and the C-HIP Model is that some consumers have become desensitized to excessive permission requests. These consumers knowingly install apps requesting excessive permissions for reasons such as nothing bad has happened to them before, they trust the market, or they really want the app. The security implications of permission desensitization and inadequate precautions are discussed

An Exploration of Mobile Device Security Artifacts At Institutions Of Higher Education

The explosive growth and rapid proliferation of smartphones and other mobile devices that access data over communication networks has necessitated advocating and implementing security constraints for the purpose of abetting safe computing. Remote data access using mobile devices is particularly popular among students at institutions of higher education. To ensure safe harbor for constituents, it is imperative for colleges and universities to establish, disseminate, and enforce mobile device security artifacts, where artifacts is defined as policies, procedures, guidelines or other documented or undocumented protocols. The purpose of this study is to explore the existence of, specific content of, and the general current state of published mobile device artifacts at higher education institutions. Results show that such artifacts are only sparsely available through public university websites, and even when available, rarely address mobile device security specifically

Whistles Against Street Harassment (WASH)

As an urban university nestled in a bustling city, VCU is committed to having all members of the community feel safe in public spaces. The Whistles Against Street Harassment (WASH) initiative aims to improve the safety of our VCU community by (1) providing a whistle, a practical and easyto- use tool that the target or bystanders can use to disrupt street harassment, and (2) raising awareness and dialogue related to street harassment and public safety. RAINN defines street harassment as “unwanted comments, gestures, or acts directed at someone in a public space without their consent.”1 Street harassment is not limited to gender- or race-based intimidation; however, it negatively affects the entire community. In a recent web-based survey, VCU students, faculty, and staff identified the top safety interventions on the Monroe Park and MCV campuses to be pedestrian safety (33%), increased lighting (26%), addressing street harassment (25%), more police visibility in the evenings (25%) and additional patrols in VCU parking lots (20%).2 The WASH initiative aims to reduce, and ultimately eliminate, street harassment on our urban campuses

Discovering Telemedicine Usage Motivation Using a Trust-based Valence Framework

The purpose of this research is to investigate patient motivation for adopting telemedicine services. A theoretical research model is utilized based on the Extended Valence Framework (EVF), which includes perceived trust, perceived risk, perceived benefit, and the intent to use telemedicine services. Additionally, three antecedents of trust and risk are included -- perceived privacy, perceived security, and familiarity. Partial least squares (PLS) is used to test the research model. The results indicate a clear pathway to intent through perceived trust and perceived benefit. In addition, the antecedents perceived security and familiarity have significant relationships with perceived trust, but not with perceived risk. Perceived privacy has no significance. Overall, this research suggests that to increase telemedicine services usage, we should focus on security, familiarity, trust, and benefit