Masters Theses

Kavya Sharma

Keywords and Phrases

Cybersecurity; Framing; Perceived Severity; Perceived Susceptibility; Priming; Users' Behavior

Abstract

"This research examines the impact of framing and priming on users' behavior (i.e., action) in a cybersecurity setting. It also examines perceptual outcomes (i.e., confidence, perceived severity, perceived susceptibility, trust, and fear) associated with the users' cybersecurity action. The research draws on prospect theory in the behavioral economics literature and instance-based learning theory in the education literature to generate the hypotheses for the research. A between-subject experimental design (N=129) was used. The results suggest that priming users to cybersecurity risks reduces their risk-taking behavior associated with cybersecurity whereas negative framing of messages associated with cybersecurity has no significant effect on users' behavior. The results also suggest that users who had taken a risk adverse cybersecurity action exhibited greater confidence associated with their action, perceived greater severity associated with cybersecurity risks, perceived lower susceptibility of their computer to cybersecurity risks, and perceived lower trust in the download link they had encountered in the experiment. This research suggests that priming is an effective way to reduce cybersecurity risks faced by users"--Abstract, page iii.

Advisor(s)

Nah, Fiona Fui-Hoon, 1966-

Committee Member(s)

Siau, Keng, 1964-
Hall, Richard H.

Department(s)

Business and Information Technology

Degree Name

M.S. in Information Science and Technology

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publication Date

Spring 2017

Pagination

ix, 56 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 52-55).

Rights

© 2017 Kavya Sharma

Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Thesis Number

T 11118

Electronic OCLC #

992440959

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